losetup in busybox
 

I need to create an initrd.gz for a 2.6 kernel which will pivot_root to a loop (a.k.a. loopback) root filesystem. This requires the losetup command. I've tried the mkinitrd script in both Debian 5 and Slackware 12. They both create an initrd.gz which can mount drives and install modules but cannot mount a loopdevice. The errors at bootup are 1) losetup: applet not found and 2)bio too big device loop0 (2 > 0). I've tried installing the losetup binary in the initrd.gz, but apparently its init calls all commands through busybox. Is there any way, short of recompiling busybox with the losetup applet, to link /dev/loop0 (which I've mknoded into /dev and chgmoded to 666 and chggrped to disk) to my root system image file so that I can mount on /mnt?