I'm just reading this thread in more detail. Sorry for this latecomer message.<br><br>A few tips for that very first time you boot linux on a linuxbios machine:<br>1) when booting linuxbios on a new machine, ALWAYS configure the
<br> kernel as an i386. It's just safer that way. Turn off everything you can.<br> make sure what you're doing would work on a 1990-era PC.<br>2) always enable serial and, before you try linuxbios, run <br> minicom on the machine and make sure serial REALLY works.
<br> This is also a good cable test. Take nothing for granted.<br>3) If it's legal where you live, <br> always burn a copy of the fuctory bios and boot with that, <br> to ensure your burn path is totally working.
<br> Again, if it is legal where you live, keep a spare<br> copy of fuctory bios around for that inevitable time when you<br> screw up and flash over it.<br>4) never try VGA on the first time around. It adds too much
<br> variation<br>5) use earlyprintk! earlyprintk=ttyS0,115200,keep<br>6) learn to use initramfs, and have it boot a simple shell<br> (I'm just getting the hang of this, but it's very useful)<br> (you can write a shell in surprisingly small space)
<br>7) spontaneous reboots almost always mean that <br> you have the wrong cpu type. See note (1) above. <br> very quick reboots are a good hint that memory is <br> getting errors. Lockups are a sign of bad memory <br>
programming (you wouldn't believe some of the failures<br> I've seen) or you've got an old VIA chipset with a bug :-)<br> For any but the worst reboots, earlyprintk is a big help.<br><br>thanks<br><br>ron<br>