I've had that happen when I compiled a kernel once too. I didn't configure it right, that was the problem even though I have thought I configured everything right. It's likely that the kernel probably doesn't make it to the login prompt. It's hard to know what's needed or isn't as even using a default config and doing oldconfig asks questions I don't know the answer to. Defaults seem to make things unbootable, don't know how the applied kernels configure, but they work for me. It was probably the lack of an ethernet card in the machine and compiling support for it by mistake that made it unbootable some of the times. At least I have a .config file that seems to work. My config file though is for a debian kernel version 2.2.15, as that's the latest one out distributed for it. I like it now though because dynamic dns allocation is a snap, kind of a coincidence as that wasn't the major reason I chose that distribution. I find packages easy to install, and it picks the right programs when you don't have what it needs to install. But the thing that sold me was the upgrading features and the ability to get started by downloading files, but that took awhile to download what I have, as it installs more minimally than zipspeak as a base install. I hear that it has one of the best configuration tools for setting up pcmcia on laptops, something I've yet to do.
