Quote Originally Posted by Yakumo
knoppix@ttyp0[knoppix]$ sudo lspci -v
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82850 850 (Tehama) Chipset Host Bridge (MCH) (rev 02)
Subsystem: Asustek Computer, Inc.: Unknown device 8030
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0
Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 2.0

I have now tried turning off plug and play OS in the bios, and changing APIC to PIC (only options)

ide-scsi : hdd : unsupported command in request que (0)
ldm_validate_partition_table() : Disk read failed.
Ok, now, I tried to f*ck with my BIOS settings (AmiBIOS on ECS K7S5A, I'm poor you know until I was getting the same problem that you got there with knoppix 3.3 (latest version); it actually boots fine with acpi enabled on my system and some research of mine brought up that acpi is more commonly known to cause trouble on laptops. BUT, theres an option called "I/O APIC" and when I enable that one, I am getting the same exact problem that you have there; there kernel fails to initialize IDE devices on the second controller and just hangs there with that cute little penguin in the upper corner... So I disabled that one again for obvious reasons

I was looking through the changelogs but couldn't find anything that might have caused this, besides kernel upgrades that is, and I am quite sure that APIC is causing trouble here!

A little background info; "ibm-compatible" have had programmable interrupt controllers (PIC) for ages but those are limited to 14 interrupts (IRQs) assigned by the BIOS. Nowadays, with modern operating systems and a huge variety of hardware available (just like your mobo; all kinds of stuff on one circuit board) you'd be running out of IRQs very quickly (sure, multiple devices can share one IRQ but you don't want that, for performance reasons.) so APICs were invented; unlike PICs they allow more than 14 IRQs to be used but require the OS to do low level IRQ assignment. Logically, "stupid" or rather OSes with incomplete APIC code like DOS and Linux don't work very well then. Anyway, your lspci output does not show an IRQ assigned on your IDE controller, thats probably why you're having problems accessing hdc (harddisk) and hdd (cd burner I assume) and of course the partition table cannot be read then.

So please look at your BIOS again and see if you can find something like "I/O APIC" or whatever option neccessary! And in case you need to free up IRQs then, just rip out the SATA controller (only if removable pci, its not supported by linux 2.4.x anyway!

Besides I'm wondering what [size=64M] stands for; if ram is meant with that try to specify with the "mem=512M" (with capital M!!!) bootoption!