Re: [gentoo-user] x86 boot failure

[Roger Mason <rmason@mun.ca>]

Hello Andrea,

Andrea Conti <alyf@alyf.net> writes:

> I would check the processor type setting (A 3GHz Celeron should be
> P4-based) and/or muck around with ACPI. Also try disabling framebuffer
> drivers and using a plain VGA console.
>
> Leave all advanced settings in your bios to their defaults.
>
> And no, EM64T just means it *can* run amd64 -- i686 is fine and IMO a
> lot better for that kind of hardware if you do not absolutely need to
> run 64-bit code for some reason.

That is what I thought.

I looked into the BIOS: no AHCI support.  I edited the genkernel .config
and set the various SATA drivers as built-in.  There seemed to be
nothing wrong with grub or its configuration (I rebuilt it anyway, just
in case).  In the end I gave up and installed the machine as an amd64.
I may know today how that turned out: my install script shuts the
machine down at the end and I'll need to get someone to re-boot it for
me as I'm not in the office.

I'll let you know what happened.

Thanks Andrea and everyone else for your help.

Roger