Commands not found at startup

[David List <david@davidlist.dk>]

On a newly installed Debian Woody, I have made a new kernel with
pristine 2.4.22 kernel sources and make-kpkg.
When I boot the new kernel I get messages, such as:
"getent: command not found"
"head: command not found"
"awk: command not found"
and the system does not boot up fully, seemingly because many other
binaries cannot be found either. I do get a prompt, but no programs are
available, only the bash builtins.
When I boot the original 2.4.18 kernel there are no problems - except
that I only utilize one of the systems' two processors.

Those are all commands from /usr/bin. I have a separate /usr partition.
Could that cause it?

What could I do about it?

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,
David List