Found it... /etc/mkinitrd needed: libata sata_via sd_mod ext3
The boot procedure on initrd used modprobe, so the module dependencies should be handled automagically. Ext3 should have been detected by mkinitrd.
You could mount your initrd using
mount -o loop /boot/initrd.img-2.6.7 /loop
and check /loop/loadmodules, /loop/linuxrc.conf
And if you add BUSYBOX=yes and DELAY=5 to mkinitrd.conf, then you will be asked to enter a very restricted shell at boot time.
Regards
Harri
