Upgrading to 2.6.7 kernel - Debian Woody to Sarge

Well, I've learned quite a few things over the last few weeks and I 
think I'm getting closer to having a working 2.6 kernel. I have run into 
a problem that doesn't make sense (I know, that's true of all problems 
at first!)

I have a 2.6.7 kernel compiled and I have lilo configured to the point 
where I get a menu when I boot. If I select the 2.2.20 kernel the system 
boots just fine. If I select the 2.6.7 kernel, I get the following message:

VFS: Cannot open root device "301" or unknown-block(3,1)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option.

In lilo.conf I have:

boot=/dev/hda
root=/dev/hda1

Here's the output of mount:

/dev/hda1 on / type unknown (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/hda6 on /usr type ext2 (rw)
/dev/hda7 on /home type ext2 (rw)
/dev/hda8 on /tmp type ext2 (rw)
/dev/hda9 on /var type ext2 (rw)

And, here's fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system>	<mount point> <type>  <options>      <dump>  <pass>
/dev/hda1	/	       ext2   errors=remount-ro	0	1
/dev/hda5	none	       swap	sw		0	0
proc		/proc	       proc	defaults	0	0
/dev/fd0	/floppy	       auto	user,noauto	0	0
/dev/cdrom	/cdrom	       iso9660	ro,user,noauto	0	0
/dev/hda6	/usr	       ext2	defaults	0	2
/dev/hda7	/home	       ext2     defaults	0	2
/dev/hda8	/tmp	       ext2     defaults	0	2
/dev/hda9	/var	       ext2     defaults	0	2

I assume that the file system is whatever the default is for Woody. I 
don't remember making any decision on it. I was pretty sure I had ext2.

Is the simplest solution to recompile the 2.6.7 kernel with support for 
all the possible standard file systems (I think I just selected ext2)? 
Or is there some way to rebuild /dev/hda1 to ext2.

But, if hda1 is where root is located, and if it is of an unknown type, 
how is it possible for Woody to get started? (That's why it doesn't make 
sense.) Is there some other reason the 2.6.7 kernel doesn't recognize 
hda1 as ext2?

Any ideas?

-- 
Regards,

Dick Steffens
http://home.comcast.net/~rsteff/