failed to mount file system on boot

Okay, you seem to be trying to use a hard driver for the root filesystem, so what I'd check is:

• Is it the right drive (sdb1 rather than sda1 etc)
• Are the appropriate drivers for the drive built in to the kernel (I'd check with make menuconfig even if you copied the .config from a working older kernel as the names occasionally change).
• Do you have support for the root filesystem type built into the kernel (ie ReiserFS/ext3/etc...).

Cheers, John McCallum

is

Post the last few lines on the default console. Usually that gives a good indication to what the problem is.