first, i'm a total noob when it comes to linux, so let me know if i'm telling you guys things that don't make any sense and i'll try to do better...



my setup:

mandrake 10, which installed fine on an 80GB Maxtor drive in an external usb2 enclosure
all on a dell inspiron 1100 with a 20GB internal drive that i'm devoting to windows
upgraded bios to allow for booting from external usb devices



question(s):

here's the problem: mandrake installed fine, or appeared to have done so from all i could tell, but i can't boot. i first tried going through the bootloader, but when i choose linux it gives me a kernel panic:

Kernel Panic: no init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.

any thoughts?

You may need to create an initrd.img that actually
has usb2 drivers built-in.


Cheers,
Tink

heh... when i said noob, i meant it. that may as well be french to me...

http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/book/node34.html.gz

An excellent book overall, btw :}

Oh, and I forgot in the first post:

Welcome to LQ! :)


Cheers,
Tink