I am trying to install a new kernel on my PC but I am receiving the following errors:

unmount /initrd/sys failed: 2
unmount /initrd/proc failed: 2
initrd finished
Freeing unused kernel memory: 212k freed
Kernel public - not syncing: No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel

Can anyone figure out what is wrong. I did try passing "init=" to the kernel but got the same error.

Within my grub file, I have:

title newlinux
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinux-2.6.10 root=/dev/hda5
devfs=nomount acpi=on splash=silent vga=788

init, I really do not know what this is supposed to lead to for the new installation because the old goes to /boot/initrd.img ( initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img ) and when I tried this for the new kernel, I received my reported errors.

the old initrd will NOT work on the new kernel,what distro?

Mandrake 10.0
Kernel 2.6.10

The best way to upgrade your kernel in mandrake is with urpmi.The mandrake kernel is a custom kernel with alot of patches.Why did you want a new kernel and what guide did you use?

It was an assignment.

Had to install a new kernel with modules, then do it again but then without modules.

You need a ramdisk file (initrd.gz or initrd.img) to boot to Linux. The ramdisk file is used to pivot from the ramdisk file to the hard drive. Also make sure you selected the filesystem that you are using for your root partitions and other partitions before compiling the kernel. If you do not, your system will not boot.

Add
initrd (hd0,4)/initrd-2.6.10.img
below of the kernel line in /boot/grub/menu.lst

For the above to work with your kernel with out modules, you need to run mkinitrd. Look up mkinitrd in the man pages. It does make it easier if you include some words in the file so you can tell the three apart from them.

BTW, if you are going to use VMware or just want the messages look clearer in the console, remove vga=788 in the boot config.