Some 64 bit kernel / bios combinations have problems with >= 4 Gb of memory. If you have that, try it with only 2 Gb of memory installed. If this is your problem, try playing with memory mapping bios settings. In my case, I ran into it with an Intel DQ965GFE motherboard after a bios upgrade. Roelof Maccy wrote: > I'm having some problems trying to get SL4.5 to run properly on an > Intel Core 2 Duo system with Intel DQ965GF mobo and 2 x SATA II disks. > The O/S installs fine but takes forever to boot up and run. > > I've tried adding a number of kernel parameters including > all-generic-ide, irqpoll, pci=nommconf, acpi-off and > selinux_compat_net=1. The Intel Quick Start Kit available for that > board reports that all necessary drivers are already installed. The > BIOS drive configuration is set to ATA/IDE=Native and SATA=AHCI. I've > experimented with other BIOS drive settings to no effect, and also > built a newer kernel (2.6.21) from source. > > Of course Scientific Linux 5.0 installs and runs without issue but as > all our other machines are 4.5 I'd like to get it going on this! > > Any advice appreciated, > > Mark