This is now running on a server with a shiny new Linux 2.6.20 UML kernel through bytemark hosting. They had surreptitiously ugraded by root filesystem by adding a static /dev directory and updating the /etc/fstab. Hey, that's not what I expected. I don't mind, seeing as was not looking forward to having to pull it off myself, but was quite surprised to discover that my virtual machine had been prepared to accept a newer kernel.

It does seem to work. Magic scares me though.