I think there is a problem with the menu selections. Is there a command line way to select the right options? Or can someone share a working config file for both the kernel and busybox?
Idea: create a hello world program in c, configure your make script to statically link it, make sure it is compiled for the same arch as the distro you are booting (amd64 vs x86), place that as /sbin/init, ensure execute bit is set, create a new image, boot, and see if you get output.
- you compiled some parts in 64 bits and try to run the QEMU 32 bit system. Try qemu-system-x86_64
- you do not enabled starting #! scripts in the kernel