Any suggestions as to how to handle this? Should I upgrade to Lenny but keep the old Etch 2.6.18 kernel? If so, how can I keep up with security patches?
Perhaps you could install the etch-and-a-half kernel (2.4.24) and get your HW working there before performing the dist-upgrade to lenny? Not sure about the security implications though (I suppose you could pin the linux-image package and keep etch in your sources.list but the details are beyond me, sorry)