Kernel 2.6.7 will not boot on Averatec 3120V

[Carl Fink <carlf@fink.to>]

I've got Debian Sarge running on my laptop, using the stock 2.4.23
kernel.  However, any attempt to boot 2.6.7-1 results in successful
detection of hard disks and some other hardware (rockets by too fast
to read), then many repetitions of:

modprobe: FATAL: Could not load /lib/modules/2.6.7/modules.dep:  No
such file or directory

(I do have a modules.dep and even ran depmod manually to be sure it
was there.)

Then after multiple modprobe errors, I get:

pivot_root: No such file or directory
/sbin/init:  424:  cannot open /dev/console: No such file
Kernel panix: Attempted to kill init!

... and a permanent stop, as you might expect.  I get this with both
the stock Debian 2.6.7-686 kernel (this box uses a Mobile Celeron)
and with a custom-compiled one.

Any suggestions?

I'm not sure what information would be helpful to kernel experts --
if requested I'd be glad to post my lilo.conf, partition table, etc.

The inability to find a device makes me wonder if this is about the
new system for naming devices, but I don't know enough about it to
even speak intelligently.

Thanks for any help.
-- 
Carl Fink             carl@fink.to        
Jabootu's Minister of Proofreading
http://www.jabootu.com