2.4.2x.x-k7 deb-kernel fails?

[gerhard.kroder@t-online.de (Gerhard Kroder)]

Hi,

booting with debians kernel-image-2.4.21-3-k7 (and before) my sarge 
system won't complete init correctly. Using homemade 2.4.20 works well. 
So i suggest it to be some kernel (package?) issue.  Need some help to 
trace more.

This are my boot-messages, partially, as i could catch it, and what is 
suspicious/important IMHO:

CPU
...
PCI
...
kswapd
...
devfs: boot option 0x0
...
pty
serial
NET
initrd  
warning: can't open /etc/mtab: no such file
...
NET4
E-IDE
hd`s...
NFORCE2:...
...
mount: devfs already mounted or busy
mount: according to mtab, devfs is already mounted
...
hda: host protected aerea =>1
Partiton check [PTBL]....
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode
umount: devfs: not mounted
INIT: version 28.5 booting
Activating/adding swap...
mount: no such partition  found
***ERROR: cannot fschk root fs because its not mounted read-only
....


I might not need mtab at beginning, but ERROR indicates there's 
something really wrong. As i noted above, booting my homemade 2.4.20 
image (no initrd) works well. 2.4.21-3-k7 is in lilo.conf as:
image=/vmlinuz
       label=Linux
       initrd=/initrd.img
       read-only
lilo doesn't complain about this.

So, any idea what to do about this?

Gerhard