first post on this website so please be gentle :P

computer information:
brand = Gateway 2000
Bios = PhoenixBios 4.0 Release 6.0 4j4nb0x1.15a.0006.p03
CPU = Pentium 2 300mhz (icky and old but its what i have)
RAM = 160mb (again icky and old but what am i to do :P)
HDD = 20g

Floppy and generic CD-ROM are installed.

also theres a soundcard (no idea what brand so assume generic) and E-Net card present.

k so the issue...

While Attempting to upgrade my system from Redhat 8.0 to a newer version, ive encountered a number of issues. First tried Fedora 2, apparently got some bad discs burnt. Then tried Fedora 6, and kept getting a Kernel Panic that would halt install before it even fully loaded the os from the disc into ram. Finally attempted Fedora 7 which is where i am now.

Fedora 7 installed correctly using Net-Boot, although it took forever and a day. Now i get an error when i fire up my box that reads something like ...

=======================================================
ACPI: Bios Age (1998) fails cutoff (1999)
...
acpi=force is required to enable ACPI

ata2.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
ata2.00: cmd a0/01:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00:00 ..... didnt catch rest can try on request tho

ata2: port failed to respond (30 secs, status 0xd0)
ata2.00: revalidation failed (errno = -5)
=======================================================

So something like this comes up when i fire my machine and it gets past grub.

This error doesnt seem to be critical as the machine will continue to boot after like 2-5 minutes of sitting there.

I understand that acpi is probably not available for my machine and i have checked with phoenixbios and there are no bios update/upgrades available for this old machine.

So what id like to know if there is some way that i can completely disable ACPI from being attempted to be used by the kernel. Having to wait an additional 2-5 minutes for the machine is a nuisance id like to remove.

There is also another issue ive noticed when i boot.

After it tries to move into runlevel 3 to begin loading and starting the services on the machine (sshd, mysqld, httpd, and the like), the screen will flicker black (all text will disappear then reappear) as if something in the OS is attempting to switch screen modes.

while im fairly certain this is an unrelated issue figured id mention it in case anyone has any ideas.

Thank you for any Help that you might be able to provide.
Imalish

You might be running into problems with the minimum system requirements (if you're trying to run in graphical mode), it's the only thing I can think of off the top of my head as I've not yet installed FC7 myself on my older rig:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=558776

For some reason, the FC site is hanging for me but check this out later:
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/
You can also view their current bugs as you might find something in common there (also currently hanging for me atm).

Thnx ill check those links out.

i dont think its a compatibility issue with the Gui's in Fedora 7 as once i get it up and running i can startx and enter the graphical desktop ... tho with only 300mhz and 160m ram its dreadfully slow.
mostly im using box for server hosting and programming platform.

also i believe i may have found more information about the info i originally posted on ... it doesnt seem that the ACPI error is what is hanging my machine. instead im pretty sure its ata2.00 and need to find out what that is.