new kernel

[Martin Patrick]

I downloaded a kernel from the bitkeeper website, its version number is
2.4.23.  The YDL installed kernel was 2.4.20-8d.  I followed the
instructions exactly as the How To on the Yellow Dog Support site
describes the process.  And now, whenever I try to boot linux, it goes
for a bit and then I get an error, which reads:

mount: error 19 mounting ext3
pivotroot: pivot_root(/sysroot,/sysroot/initrd) failed: 2
unmount /initrd/proc failed: 2
Freeing unused Kernel memory 168k init 4k chrp 36k prep
Kernel panic: No init found.  Try passing init= option to kernel
(0) Rebooting in 180 seconds

I downloaded a MacOSX System Preferance Pane that allows my linux
partition to be mounted in OSX and I looked in the /boot folder on that
partition and there is a file called initrd-2.4.20-8d.img.  I'm very new
to the Linux scene, but I think that file is the problem.  And looking
in the yaboot.conf file I can see it lists this file with the line
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.4.20-8d.img.  But there is also a file called
yaboot.conf.old that is overall different from the yaboot.conf.  

Anyway, like I said I'm a newbie to all this.  It's not vitaly important
that Linux work, it's just a hobby right now.  I think I can fix it so
it boots using the old kernel, which is still installed properly, but I
would like to know why this isn't booting.  Does anything I just said
make sense to anyone?

Thank you for your time and help,
Martin Patrick