Cecil:
Need to upgrade/recompile the kernel for R5E50, how did you build the initrd? I can rebuild the kernel ok, but the standard initramfs format for the initrd seems incompatible with R5E50 (udev doesn't start). Seems R5E50 uses the old initrd format.

I couldn't get initrd working right with a new kernel (2.16.19.2). I compiled a fresh kernel with the right disk chipset built in and dropped the initrd.

One less thing to worry about.

I can do that on my backend, but on the frontend I want the bootsplash, alas I can't avoid the initrd issue

Working with Ubuntu now, but having a lot of trouble with the bootsplash so would like to get Knoppmyth working again.

The bootsplash used with KnoppMyth utilizes the image appended to the end of the initrd.gz Google is your friend here as a search will show up the exact command line needed to do that.