Yesterday I also built and installed a 2.6.14-5 kernel from kernel.org and I don't have the initramfs-tools installed.
What I did (as root user) was this: make xconfig ..then edited the Makefile, adding to the EXTRAVERSION string make-kpkg kernel_image dpkg --install <kernel-image package> However, I always use hard-disk device drivers built into the kernel (instead of as loadable modules). So I guess the kernel doesn't require an initial RAM disk - maybe that's why I got away with it. Only hiccup: X-server failed to start: no mouse (because the evdev module - required for the laptop touch pad - didn't get auto-loaded). Fixed by adding it to /etc/modules. Wilbert. PS: the make-kpkg program is a laugh-a-minute: "You are violating Debian Policy" (for using upper case in EXTRAVERSION) and a sarcastic "Building from scratch, eh?" :-) -- > I managed to fix it by installing initramfs-tools, though I don't > pretend to understand why it happened. <snip> > > When I did this though, I got the following error: > > > > You are attempting to install an initrd kernel image (version > > 2.6.14.5-bor01) while running a kernel of version 2.6.14.3-ver01, but > > you have no suitable ramdisk generation tool installed among > > /usr/sbin/mkinitrd /usr/sbin/mkinitrd.yaird /usr/sbin/mkinitramfs. > > This will break the installation
