make-kpkg doesn't generate a kpkg that installs an initrd and updates yaboot.conf

[beej]

i followed the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PowerPCFAQ#How%20can%20I%20configure%20and%20compile%20my%20own%20kernel%20under%20PowerPC%20Linux in order to try out an upstream kernel. the instructions end with:
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then start compiling:

 fakeroot make-kpkg --initrd --revision=ppc32 kernel_image kernel_headers modules_image
specifying whatever revision designation you wish (ppc32, ppc64, ps3, etc). This will take a long time to compile, probably at least an hour with a 1GHz processor. This is a good time to go make coffee.

8. When it has finished compiling, just install the debs:

 cd ..
 sudo dpkg -i <name of the kernel deb files such as linux-headers-2.6.x linux-image-2.6.x>
And now you are done! Reboot into your new kernel.

Installing the deb will automatically configure your machine to default to that new kernel. If desired, you can further edit the yaboot.conf file to specify default boot options.
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but i ended up without an initrd in /boot and yaboot.conf was not updated, as far as i can tell.

[beej (beej)]

is anybody out there?