initrd on debian-40 cannot boot new 2.6 kernel

["lovecreatesbea...@gmail.com" <lovecreatesbeauty@gmail.com>]

I install debian-40r4a in VMware on one machine and upgrade the kernel
from 2.6.18-6-686 to 2.6.26.3. I don't make an initrd image and
comment the initrd line in grub's menu.lst file. I can boot the new
2.6.26 kernel and the "uname r" reports 2.6.26.3. I make an initrd
image with 2.6.18-6-686 and un-comment the lines in menu.lst as:
initrd  /boot/initrd.img-2.6.26.3. This works also.

But on another machine with the same debian-40, 2.6.26.3 kernel
package and VMware. The system cannot boot the new 2.6.26 kernel with
an initrd image or without it. It presents error messages like:
"...root file system...", "...insert root floppy and press enter...",
"blah, blah..."

I hear that people don't care about these kind of things on redhat
fedora dist.

So what's the matter with the debian dist?