Kernel building 2.6.18-5-686 -> 2.6.25.2 on VMWare

[Mike Ely <mikeely@amyskitchen.net>]

Hi there,

I'm trying to update from the Debian-supplied stock kernel to 2.6.25.2 on
Etch (for GFS2 purposes), and, on my VMWare instance, the new kernel seems
always to hang at "Waiting for root filesystem."

I've tried passing different options to make-kpkg, but the result is always
the same.  Kernel, modules, initrd all build successfully, but no joy.  Boot
times out waiting for the root filesystem, and eventually dumps me into an
emergency shell.  Here's the relevant dmesg output from a successful boot
into 2.6.18-5-686:

SCSI subsystem initialized
Fusion MPT base driver 3.04.01
Copyright (c) 1999-2005 LSI Logic Corporation
Fusion MPT SPI Host driver 3.04.01
mptbase: Initiating ioc0 bringup
ioc0: 53C1030: Capabilities={Initiator}
scsi0 : ioc0: LSI53C1030, FwRev=00000000h, Ports=1, MaxQ=128, IRQ=169
  Vendor: VMware,   Model: VMware Virtual S  Rev: 1.0
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
 target0:0:0: Beginning Domain Validation
 target0:0:0: Domain Validation skipping write tests
 target0:0:0: Ending Domain Validation
 target0:0:0: FAST-160 WIDE SCSI 320.0 MB/s DT IU RDSTRM RTI WRFLOW PCOMP
(6.25 ns, offset 127)

Obviously, I can't paste the failed dmesg here, but basically what it does
is start the Fusion driver, and load ioc0 but not scsi0.

Anyone seen similar?  What am I missing on my kernel build?

Thanks,
Mike Ely