x86_64 Live-CD recommendations? /sbin/loader?

[Michael ODonnell]

I'm working on a product that's currently based on RHEL3 and
whose installer is based on the venerable Timo's Rescue CD kit.
We've ported our product to a more current version of Linux and
when I went to port the installer I discovered that development
on Timo's kit stopped after 2004 and it still offers only a
2.4.18-ish kernel.  It looks like we therefore can't base our
installer on the Timo's kit because we need to be executing
(more or less) the same 2.6 x86_64 kernel we're delivering.

So I've been looking for something that'll allow me to create a
new bootable/live/rescue DVD that I can base the new installer
on, and I'd love to find something as simple and flexible as
the Timo's kit; something that just starts a kernel and boots
up to a console login prompt with a minimum of fuss and no
user intervention required; no menus, no dialogs, no GUI, etc.
Recommendations?  I'm pretty sure we need it to be running an
x86_64 kernel though I suppose an i686 one could work...

The CentOS5.2 LiveCD-creator kit looked promising until we found
bugs that prevent it from running on our bleeding-edge hardware.
Now I'm trying to reverse-engineer the CentOS5.2 installation
DVD with the hope that I can maybe use that, which leads me to
this question:

   WTF is /sbin/loader ?

It executes early during startup when booting from an ISO.  The
only stuff I can find online about this apparently pivotal item
is lots of other people also asking questions, but no answers.