The general mode statement is specific to the 62xx switch.  You would not have to use general mode according to the documentation.  That being said it may work best to have general mode on the 5548 also.
can the default vlan 1 not forward through a port set to trunk on this switch?  I setup some lags to connect to my other switches and once i choose trunk for those lags vlan 1 shows up as F in the assign screen. Can i not use vlan 1?
6224f default vlan 1