problem occurs with booting new kernel.
dies with INIT: kernel panic no init found (try passing init= to kernel)

I think the real issue is this:
VFS: mounting root ( ext2 filesystem ) ro

this is wrong, root is a reiserfs filesystem '/boot' is ext2.
( the default kernel sees this correctly ( VFS: mounting root (resierfs filesystem) ro )


I can always select default kernel (2.4.20) at lilo prompt and boot ok.
So i know the filesystem, etc, is ok.


cat /etc/fstab
####
# I am including this so you know, but this is not in fstab,
# does not get mounted, I thought this was part of the problem,
# like if i add a new kernel, i'm putting in on '/boot' which is actually
# on dev/hda2 because the real '/boot' is not mounted, however
# the system seems to know where real boot is, if i do a make install
# with the kernel the image get's moved to /dev/hda1 '/boot' properly.
###/dev/hda1 /boot ext2 defaults 0 0

/dev/hda2 / reiserfs defaults 1 1
/dev/hda5 /usr reiserfs defaults 1 2
/dev/hda6 /var reiserfs defaults 1 2
/dev/hda7 /home reiserfs defaults 1 2
/dev/hda8 /tmp reiserfs defaults 1 2
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,user,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0


yes, kernel compiled with ext2 ext3 reiserfs ide, support (not as modules) etc.


I have made sure my core tools are up to date for 2.6.*, i believe
i got them all. gcc, make, binutils, etc.
gcc version 3.2.2
GNU Make 3.80
GNU ld version 2.13.90.0.18 20030121
etc,...

thank you for all you help.

-c.mustard