You could try gentoo.  There's a couple 2.6.18s in portage.  They 
haven't been flagged as stable yet, but I wouldn't think there would be 
a problem with running the vanilla kernel.

$ eix sources (edited)

* sys-kernel/vanilla-sources
      Available versions:  ~2.6.18:2.6.18 ~2.6.19_rc1:2.6.19_rc1
      Homepage:            http://www.kernel.org
      Description:         Full sources for the Linux kernel

* sys-kernel/gentoo-sources
      Available versions:  ~2.6.18:2.6.18
      Homepage:            http://dev.gentoo.org/~dsd/genpatches
      Description:         Full sources including the gentoo patchset 
for the 2.6 kernel tree

If all you need is the kernel, shouldn't you be able to load any distro 
that supports a generic x86 processor and build 2.6.18 yourself?  I know 
some distros add in their own patches, but they're usually not too critical.

Just my $0.02,
Chris Frederick

Sam Martin wrote:
> I had the good fortune of getting a new Core 2 Duo desktop machine at
> work, but I've had no luck so far getting Linux installed on the
> beast.  Has anyone figured out a relatively painless way to get a
> stable desktop Linux distro (i.e., release candidate or better)
> installed on one of these systems?
> 
> From the posted specs for this system (I know pretty much nothing
> about the current crop of desktops...  all my home Linux boxes are
> Pentium I - III machines):
> <quote>
> Intel(r) Core™2 Duo E6400
> Intel(r) Q965 Chipset with DDR2 and Intel(r) Core™ Duo support
> </quote>
> 
> I didn't have any luck installing Ubuntu 6.06.1, and from what I've
> found via Google, it seems that I'm pretty much outta luck until
> kernel 2.6.18 makes its way into a mainstream distro.  I'd really
> rather not be stuck with windoze for the next couple months until that
> happens.  Any ideas?  At any rate, I can't spend too much time trying
> to get my OS of choice up and running, since I kinda sorta have work
> to do.
> 
> It's a bit off-topic, but if I *do* end up having to live with windows
> for a while, does anyone have any good tips for coping with a Windows
> desktop?  I found a decent virtual desktop pager, but I still miss my
> middle-click-to-paste, changing window stacking via the mouse (e.g.,
> middle-click the title bar of a window in pretty much any window
> manager to move it below other windows), etc.
> 
> 
> sm
> 
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