Your brand new kernel isn’t booting? Try to changes sda1 to hda1 at menu of grub. I’ve never saw this before and looked strange to me as I know that is a sata disc for sure. It works but I still trying to figure out why. Tanks a lot to João Paulo that help me to explore and fix that issue for while. Note that default kernel of debian boot with sda1 instead.
Your intel’s ethernet card isn’t working? You must go to Intel support website and take the e1000 or e1000e drivers. I’ve tested the e1000e-0.2.9.5 with kernel 2.6.22.19 for the lenovo m57 and worked pretty nice. Tanks a lot to Victor to ask for continuing steadfastly trying each of the drivers found even when they didn’t look to fit there.
I have had issues with debian too, mainly with laptops and wifi cards. But this isn’t a issue for debian, is a old issue for linux in general. That’s why I admire Ubuntu, great job about hardware support those guys are doing right now.