Hi, I'm trying to install a Linux distro (Red Hat or Slack) and FreeBSD on a laptop; my problem is simple, I insert the CD, the boot prompt appears and then the kernel freezes. I've tried both Linux kernel 2.4.18 and 2.4.20 and FreeBSD release 5.0's kernel. Here's the laptop specifications. At the end of this, you will find the latest things the kernels said before freezing. I appreciate your help. Thanks! n0dez ===Gericom Masterpiece 2540 XL DVD/CDRW=== 15" TFT (XGA 1024x768) Pentium 4 @ 2.5 GHz cache 512 KD OD, 400MHz FSB RAM: 512 MB SDRAM ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 (64 MB DDR) HD: 40 GB Interfaces: 4x USB, VGA-out, Mic-in, Line-out, SPDIF, parallel, IrDA, TV-out, Firewire PCMCIA 1x Typ II Slackware 9.0 Uniform Multi-platform E-IDE driver Revision: 6.31 de:assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx ICH2 IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev f9 ICH2 chipset revision 5 ICH2 no native mode: will prove irqs later ide0: BM-DMA at 0x1440-0x1447, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio ide0: BM-DMA at 0x1448-0x144f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio Red Hat 9 PCI: Enabling device 00:1f.6 (0000 -> 0001) PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:1f.6 PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:1f3 PCI: Sharing IRQ 10 with 00:1f.5 FreeBSD 5.0 rl0: Realtek 8139B detected. Warning, this may be unstable in autoselect mode.

Look at linux-laptop.net - there are at least 2 pages dealing with Gericom Masterpieces.

Have you solved it yet? I have buyed the same laptop and I have the same problems. I have tested that it works with kernel 2.2 and 2.5 series, but I cannot make it work in 2.4 series. Any idea? Thank you in advance! Regards.