kernel 2.4 -> 2.6 upgrading procedure

[David Niemi <drn_temp2@rogers.com>]

Yub, another Debian noobie here.  I am also running Fedora 4 i386_64 and
this is my first install of Debian a couple days ago using a DVD from
the magazine Linux Format.  When I installed the 2.4.27 XX kernel was
installed but I'd like to go up to the 2.6.8-11-emt64t-p4-smp kernel as
I've got a dual Xeon emt64 3.2Ghz system.

Reading the messages from the past month others are trying similar and
initially getting similar results: cannot open /dev/console, Kernel
Panic. 

One suggestion was for the SATA drives to be listed as sdxx in grub for
the 2.6 kernels and another user suggested recreating the initrd image
and also possibly using rdev.  Lastly another user said that there was
quite a few differences between the installations with the 2.4 vs 2.6
kernels and had installed with linux26 ??

Should I download a current CD image (eg
debian-testing-ia64-netinst.iso) and try it or use the i386 install
version?

Thanks
  Dave