fedora experts?

[David Nicol]

I have been trying to get a recent, unpatched, kernel to work with a
fedora system.
I am able to get the kernel to boot but things seem to stop for want
of an /init program
in the root directory.  init=/sbin/init does not seem to help.

Who has a link to a current boot process explanation? not a howto, but
a lecture,
covering what is supposed to be happening at each point in a modern
complex linux boot?