lilo failing to boot initrd, boot process drops to init prompt

From: Bernd (bernd.worsch_at_pawisda.de)
Date: 08/22/03 

Date: 22 Aug 2003 02:19:06 -0700

Hi there!

I'm messing around creating bootable ElTorito CDROMs and having
trouble
to start the initial ramdisk.

short story:
lilo installs fine into the boot image we create
booting the generated cd gives the following:
      + lilo works fine
      + kernel loads fine
      - /linuxrc file isn't started at all
      - boot process drops to # prompt, that doesn't provide any shell
      - ctrl-d (exit) triggers "Kernel panic: Attempted to kill init"

question:
any insights on what realy fails appreciated. i'm not sure if lilo
fails to initiate the ramdisk correctly or if there is trouble
mounting the ramdisk or anything else.

thanks
bernd

boot msg snippet:
...
TCP: Hashtables configured (established 32768 bind 32768)
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMB for Linux NET 4.0
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
Freeing initrd memory: 1639k freed
VFS: Mounted root (ext3 filesystem) readonly
Freeing unused kernel memory: 68k freed
init-2.05b#

lilo.conf used to make El Torito boot image:

disktab=/home/lingnau/Pawisda/cds/build/lilo.loopfix

 boot=/dev/loop3
 message=/tmp/loop3/boot/boot.msg
 install=/tmp/loop3/boot/boot-text.b
 map=/tmp/loop3/boot/map
 prompt
 compact

 image=/tmp/loop3/vmlinuz
   label=linux
   root=/dev/ram
   initrd=/tmp/loop3/initrd.img
   ramdisk=28492