# Dev kernels and nForce2 boards

## Wedge_

I've been trying to get the development-sources and mm-sources kernels to work on my A7N8X, but the USB options seem to be causing problems. I've selected the OHCI option like I do in ac-sources, but on bootup, it gets to the point where it checks for USB devices and just stops there, with no error message. Has anyone got this working on their nForce2?

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## RagManX

Same here.  I've tried everything I can think of.  I even compiled a kernel with the filesystems I needed to boot (reiserfs, ext2, /dev), and nothing else except what is required to boot.  I think the problem is not the USB options, but whatever loads next.  I disabled SCSI, CD-ROM, Power Management, PlugNPlay, USB, Sound, Networking, and everything else I could think of.  But I still consistently lock after IDE detection and USB (when it is enabled).  I'd love to get this working, as full operation of Gentoo on my new A7N8X board is all that keeps me from retiring my old system and turning parts over for upgrading my wife's system.

RagManX

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## zarq

Strange. 2.5.66 worked perfectly here, although I ran into stability issues with X hard locking everything whenever it started for the second time after boot and had to revert to 2.4.x. Might be related to me having a GeForce4 card and an AMD CPU, from what I understand. I'll be trying it again with the latest NVidia driver and minion.de-patch soon, probably tonight.

Anyway, you can grab a config that worked for me here:

http://opaque.org/stable-2.5.66-config

I think a lot of stuff was compiled into the kernel instead of as modules there, though. I know I changed it later on with no problems, but that was the only config I saved.

Note that no onboard network or audio devices are enabled -- I don't use those. USB keyboard, mouse and camera worked perfectly, though.

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## Wedge_

I'll try that config just now. I'm not using onboard audio or network either at the moment. I'll post back once I've tried it.

Edit: Several kernel compiles later.... The first thing I tried was zarqs config, which did boot properly  :Smile:  I tried turning on some of the stuff that wasn't enabled but which I usually have, and found that adding ACPI support made it freeze in the same way as before. I've got all the other options I usually use enabled, and although my modem won't work with it for some reason, everything else seems fine.

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## zarq

Good to hear that.  :Smile: 

And that would make sense. Stay away from ACPI for now.

I read somewhere that enabling IO-APIC wasn't too healthy either, but I haven't tried that. To be honest, I'm not even quite sure what it does, but from what little I've read about people trying to get it to work, it seems like it might give some kind of performance gain, even on 1-CPU machines. Not sure. (If anyone knows, please tell me!)

And searching for information, I also quickly discovered that I'm not the only one who gets ACPI and APIC confused...  :Smile: 

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## nigelhannam

Hhhmmm.....

I've got an A7N8X Deluxe, and had a few problems initially - they all seemed to come down to IRQ issues.

After a bit of messing around, my BIOS settings are pretty much back to default settings, and I pass the kernel parameter "pci=noacpi" which fixed my problems.  The Nforce network card doesnt work now - doesn't compile under the dev kernel, but (alsa) sound, usb and the other NIC all work ok.

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## RagManX

Just an update.  I can now boot with the latest dev kernel (2.5.68, I believe), but my keyboard doesn't work.  I've got a USB keyboard, and have enabled HID support in the kernel config, but for some reason my keyboard doesn't work.  It works at the grub boot screen, but by the time the system is fully booted, I no longer have use of my keyboard.  Tonight or tomorrow when I have a little time, I'll hook up a PS/2 keyboard and see if I can figure out why it isn't working.

RagManX

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## Wedge_

The 2.5.68-mm1 kernel works fine for me. I haven't tried ACPI support again to see if it works yet. I don't have USB keyboard, but my USB mouse works.

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