kernel-2.4.18-pre6 and pre7 not booting (update)

While trying to upgrade to this kernel it fails to boot on my PII 440bx system:
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kernel panic: can't allocate root vfsmount
<1> unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000002c

<0> kernel panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handling! In interrupt handling - not syncing
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It spat out a stack trace, if anyone wants it.

I'm back to running my old kernel 2.4.18-pre1.

--Louis