custom initrd on stock kernel installation (cdrom problems)

[kristian kvilekval <kris@cs.ucsb.edu>]

Background:
Having discovered that my cdrom disappeared a while ago,
I tracked down that the loading order of modules
determines whether I have a Cdrom device or not.
Specifically I need to force 

ide-core
cdrom
ide-cd
ide-disk
ide-generic

to load before any scsi drivers load specifically by
placing them in the initial ramdisk used during the kernel load.
I accomplished this by placing the above list in 
  /etc/mkinitrd/modules

Question:

   I would like to run debian stock kernels from unstable.
However I would like a custom initrd instance to be installed
while installing the standard kernel. Is this possible?

It appear that kernel-img.conf allows set a ramdisk command,
but this fails even with mkinitrd (documentation says it must
be compatible with mkinitrd?)

Thanks for any suggestions.


-- 
Kristian Kvilekval
kris@cs.ucsb.edu  http://www.cs.ucsb.edu/~kris w:805-893-2526 h:504-9756