Ouch.. I guess the flash driver doesn't appreciate the beauty of recursion.

Okay, try this one instead.

Slightly different procedure required:

1. flash the new kernel.
2. boot with it.
3. suspend the player (push top button until it goes to sleep).
4. wake it up again after a few seconds.
5. wait until the disk stops spinning.
6. power it off.
7. flash a normal kernel again.

Any luck?

-ml