initramfs -- boot args?

[Ashlesha Shintre <ashlesha@kenati.com>]

hi,
i m working on porting the 2.6.14.6 linux kernel to the encore m3 board
with the au1500 processor --

nfs is giving me errors (Kernel not syncing -- Attempted to kill init)
so i m trying to build an initrd image -- 

according to this document:
http://www.timesys.com/timesource/initramfs.htm

I built my own initramfs_data.cpio.gz file that contains the object file
for the hello world code below-

printkf("Hello World\n");
sleep(99999999);
return(0)

As part of make menuconfig, I pointed the CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE to the
loaction of this cpio.gz archive (which was abt 24MB) -- however, this
resulted in a Huge kernel image (174MB! -- i only have 64MB available on
this board) making it impossible to load the image onto the board.

then, I copied this initramfs_data.cpio.gz file into the linux/usr/
directory and build the kernel, leaving the CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE path
blank -- the size of the kernel build was back to normal 

what boot args should I now supply to the board? i tried giving
root=/dev/ram0 rw ip=the usual and init=hello, but this does not
work..(as expected) 

as i understand it, when the kernel is built with a non empty
initramfs_data.cpio.gz archive, it extracts the filesystem (in this case
init/hello) and mounts it as part of the rootfs...

Also, I m not sure how to enable support for initrd into my kernel, cus
there doesnt seem to be an option in the make menuconfig to that
effect?! -- but i m guessing it must be configured as i see the
CONFIG_INITRAMFS_SOURCE --

Could someone please point me to the right direction and also tell me if
what I m thinking is on the right/wrong track?

Thank you!
Ashlesha.