[plug] Debian 2.20 and kernel mode NFS

[Alan Graham]

A few days ago, after successfully (eventually) converting my firewall
to debian, I decided to convert my file server to Debian.  For some
reason, my file server wouldn't boot from cd 5 (containing the
2.4.18-bf2.4 kernel), but would boot from cd 1 which contains kernel 
2.2.20-idepci.  I've tonight decided to get NFS working (Samba works
fine, which keeps my wife happy) so that I can get the home directories
shared out and access everything from my laptop again.  Problem, my
laptop kept reporting 'permission denied'.  The meesages log on the
server contains the following.
  rpc.mountd: getfh failed: Function not implemented

Googling for this didn't give much, but it did give a link to a couple
of messages on a debian forum which suggested that I needed to enable
kernel mode NFS.  I have installed the kernel mode NFS package, so I'm
assuming that enabling KNFS means recompiling the kernel.

Am I on the right track here?  Could this be because I used the 2.2.20
kernel?  If so, is there an easy way to swap to the 2.4.18 kernel?

Can anyone point me to a good guide to compiling a kernel the "Debian
Way"?  I remember finding one and think "must keep that", and promptly
losing all reference to it.  

Oh, and if there's a nice tool to do anything, please tell me about it. 
The pleasures of editing config files by hand paled years ago.

Thanks 

Alan