Do you make an initrd with your kernel? If you are using resierfile, then you probably need one. Use mkinitrd so make it as yaird (newer stuff) will often not work right. Otherwize, try to compile in everything you need for your root file system. Yaird has options that will give you a good starting list (even if it seemingly ignores this list when it makes the initrd :-) ) I compiled in for my ext3. Look ma, no initrd, no fuss, no muss.