cant boot with kernel 2.6.8

[Ian Lipsky <merk@merk.caltech.edu>]

I've been trying to get the 2.6.8 kernel installed. But it keeps failing to 
boot.

nforce2 ide controller at pci slot 0000:00:09.0
nforce2 chipset revision 162
nforce2 not 100% native mode, will probe irqs later
nforce2 bios didnt set cable bits correctly, enabling workaround

<few more lines of text with nothing that looked like an error>

/dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: unknown partition table
NTFS driver 2.1.15 flags R/O MODULE
pivot_root: no such file or directory
/sbin/init: 426: cannot open dev/console: no such file
kernel panic: attempted to kill init!

I've been using google to try and find a solution but so far no luck. My 
lilo.conf file looks like this:

image=/vmlinuz
	label=Linux
	read-only
	initrd=/initrd.img

I can boot with the older 2.14.18 kernel with no problem. I tried 
downloading and installing the nforce drivers from nvidia (even though they 
just seem to be audio and network drivers, no ide drivers) but i couldnt 
get that to install either. Tells me gcc version check failed, or if i try 
to compile it manually tells me make command not found (gcc is installed).

Any suggestions?

Ian