I remember that some time ago, Miller met the problem with the use FILO and FILO in Etherboot to boot elf made by mkelfImage 2.5....from Kernel and Init.
The kernel said that can not find the init.
Yesterday I met the same problem under following configuration:
Kernel: 2.6.8.1 compiled under Suse 9.1 AMD64 ( gcc 3.3.3). Used mkelfImage under Redhat 9 to produce the final elf.
When I use 2.6.5, 2.6.6, 2.6.7 with Suse 9 compiler gcc 3.3.1, all work well.
Miller seems have problem with 2.6.6 and Suse 9.1.
So I guess there is some problem with gcc 3.3.3 in Suse 9. or there is some optimization for (EM86T) cause problem.
Miller, Can you try to compile your kernel under Suse 9.?
Regards
YH