LinuxQuestions.org - Kernel 2.6.1 VFS Panic

hey guys,
i recently install debian sid on my machine...however i have kernel 2.2.20(too old) and so i decided to give 2.6.1 a shot(BTW i have successfully compiled 2.4.23 before).
i went through the steps described here
which basically says to do a make xconfig,make bzImage,make modules and make modules_install.
i went through all these steps just fine but after editing my lilo.conf file and rebooting i get the following error(Well this is only an extract since i cannot copy down that error statement):

Code:

VFS:Cannot open root device "342" or unknown-block(3,66)

Please append a corect "root=" boot option

Kernel Panic:VFS:Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(3,66)

my lilo.conf file is:

Code:

# lilo.conf

              #

              #  global options:

              boot=/dev/hda

              prompt

              timeout=150

              lba32

              install=/boot/boot-menu.b

              vga=normal

              root=/dev/hdb2

              map=/boot/map

              read-only

              #menu-title=" John's Computer "

              #

              #  bootable kernel images:

              image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.1

                  label=new

              image=/vmlinuz

                  label=old

              other=/dev/hda1

                  label=WinXP

this is a file i created...the file that came with the debian install is too long so i will put it up on my website if neone is interested
plz let me know what i can do about this.
thanks