I compiled my own kernel the other and tried to boot it. I had about zero luck getting it to boot, I was always getting the same error message:

Kernel Panic: No init found. Try passing init= to kernel. There is very little documentation on thie error, but I did figure out the problem. It appears that my choice to EXCLUDE isa support in the Kernel caused that problem. I guess the PS/2 ports still use the isa bus or something. Recompiling the Kernel with isa support works just fine. Pretty strange.