New problem with an hp CD5750

["storm66@club-internet.fr" <storm66@club-internet.fr>]

Hello,

I have always some problems with the HP dc5750. After installing
"wildly" the system (by copying a Knoppix 32 bits CD on the HD).
The system runs, slowly..., even X and KDE are OK, but I encounter a new
problem.
Ths disk is deadly slow :
hdparm -t gives 1.43 Mo/s !!!!
on an 23 years old Amiga 2000 running Linux I get 3.4 Mo/s
so 1.43 Mo/s is quite a pain.
I want to compile a new kernel with only the needed modules , eg a
better disk driver, and no unused modules. The problem is that I can't
get a working kernel on the machine, the kernel does not boot with a
panic "does not find the disk ... append a correct root=... ".
I try with a 2.6.20 kernel, take the 2.6.19 config found in the Knoppix
install and a make oldconfig. The kernel compile is OK but panics while
booting not finding the boot disk. 

There is something which does not work properly with the disk
driver  ... 
Any help will be appreciated.

Regards

Storm66