Im out of luck with first time use of coda ...
I have followed the steps of the howto and 
at the point when I had to start venus, it said :

15:12:16 WorkerInit: Version Skew with kernel! Get a newer kernel!
15:12:16 WorkerInit: Kernel version is 3

# uname -a
Linux robin-hood 2.6.5 #4 SMP Thu Apr 15 11:56:41 CEST 2004 i686 GNU/Linux

Binaries installed from debian experimental packages backported
to unstable

dpkg -l | grep coda
ii  coda-backup    5.3.19-6       Backup client for the Coda distributed files
ii  coda-client    5.3.19-6       Client for the Coda distributed file system
ii  coda-common    5.3.19-6       Common files for the Coda distributed file s
ii  coda-doc       5.2.0-1        Documentation files for Coda distributed fil
ii  coda-server    5.3.19-6       Server for the Coda distributed file system
ii  coda-update    5.3.19-6       Server for the Coda distributed file system

I think its quiet new, though I have tried to compile from
linux-coda-6.0.0.tgz make configure gave :
ksyms: QM_MODULES: Function not implemented messages

Ok I have tried on FreeBSD as well also venus said
the same thing:

15:18:30 WorkerInit: Version Skew with kernel! Get a newer kernel!
15:18:30 WorkerInit: Kernel version is 3

# uname -a
FreeBSD nmi 5.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 5.2-RELEASE #0: Mon Feb  2 21:20:08 CET 2004     root_at_nmi:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/NMI.2  i386

Its not an outdated kernel either ...

Binaries installed from the ports tree, and cvsup was done
to synchronize the tree just before install

pkg_info | grep coda
coda-client-5.3.20_2 Client programs for a replicated high-performance network f
coda-server-5.3.20_2 Server programs for a replicated high-performance network f

Any help appreciated ...

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