So you might consider something like the "drain output" hunk below,
which allowed all the useful messages to get out.
Index: work-mm8/usr/kinit/kinit.c
===================================================================
--- work-mm8.orig/usr/kinit/kinit.c 2006-06-05 19:04:46.000000000 -0600
+++ work-mm8/usr/kinit/kinit.c 2006-06-06 14:19:59.000000000 -0600
@@ -317,5 +317,10 @@
if (mnt_sysfs)
umount2("/sys", 0);
+ /*
+ * Allow time for messages to drain before kernel panics
+ * because init is exiting.
+ * */
+ sleep(10);
exit(ret);
}