Many people wisely contributed that booting with the "linux noapic" option was a possible work around for the kernel stalling at boot, but upon further testing I found that this option does not seem to disable ALL the APIC functionality (more specifically, that which is inherent in Multi-processors). I tested a variety of kernel parameters during the boot sequence of the Toshiba 2435-s255 notebook, and each failed until I stumbled upon the APIC settings in the various kernel config files. >From my cursory inspection, the kernel build config file for kernel-BOOT includes the following settings and parameters: CONFIG_X86_UP_APIC=y CONFIG_X86_UP_IOAPIC=y CONFIG_HAVE_DEC_LOCK=y CONFIG_X86_IO_APIC=y CONFIG_X86_LOCAL_APIC=y The first two parameters are problematic for some newer laptop hardware (Toshiba and Compaq from what I have seen so far). What seems to be even more interesting to me is that in looking at the kernel config files for the single processor, those two parameters are set to "n" or no by default. Since it appears that APIC / IOAPIC is used in the accessing and allocating of traffic to SMP systems, I was not surprised to find that in the kernel-smp config, the values were enabled. After finding no references to a Anaconda / kernel parameter that disabled the functionality, I created separate installation media with a recompiled kernel-BOOT package allowing for the installation of psyche without getting hung at the APIC stage. At this point, I have a couple of issues that I would like to bring up on the list: 1) Is there something that I am missing for disabling the SMP APIC flags at installation? Besides the noapic and nosmp? 2) If not, is there some place on the Internet where I can store these ISO images so that others can also access them? 3) Is this a bugzilla item that could work towards a better solution for handling the single proc / APIC / multiple proc problem? The installation that I created is not without its problems at this point. Although it installs flawlessly in text install mode, the GUI installer refuses to display text. Anyone have an idea on this? Thank you for your time and consideration, -Matt Howell mhowell@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
