I've really scoured the web for this... but no one has the answer... I've seen many threads hinting at this, but no one seems able to fix it:

A while ago someone posted:
linuxquestions org /questions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=88247
(I removed punctuation so I could post the link)

I also posted a similar thread. Basically the problem is that there's a kernel panic when there's a i845 integrated graphic card and a real graphic card (in this case PCI). Is there anyone to resolve this? How can I tell linux to ignore the integrated and just use the PCI? Please help! It's been driving me nuts!

usually an onboard graphics chip is AGP, so try to change the "preference" in your BIOS settings. There is a setting to boot AGP first, or PCI first. Switch it to PCI and cross your fingers. Hopefully that will fix it. i haven't heard too much about kernel panic being caused by something like that, though. Its usually either an initrd not found or a filesystem not recognized by the kernel (two more ideas if the vid card thing doesn't work). Post the answer. if not fixed, got another idea.

Thanks first of all...
I know in the BIOS that there's an option to set PCI over Integrated; however, that doensn't stop the problem from occuring. There's unfortunately no option to turn off integrated, only put PCI over that... but yea... point being that no the BIOS thing doesnt work.
Is there no way to just make linux totally ignore the integrated graphics card? What was the other tweak you had in mind?

Edit: BTW, the only two distros that have worked for me w/out using solely the integrated and taking out the PCI are Knoppix and Mepis... but of course I'm not thrilled about using either mainly beccause I would like something slightly more lean or more Gnome based .

What is your graphics card? Is it a newer one? Nvidia? ATI? Something else?

My graphic card is a Nvidia Geforce MX200 PCI. It is in a Dell Dimension 2350 w/ a i845G integrated extreme. I am currently running Ubuntu w/ dual boot windows... but Ubuntu can only use the integrated... it gets the same errors as the other poster had w/ kernel panic. However, the distros w/ really top hardware detect (mepis + knoppix) managed to make it work, though mepis would randomly break down after use....

So the kernel panic occurs when the NVidia card is installed? Can you boot with that card out?

The other "tweak" wasn't really a tweak, but rather looking at other factors, like whether or not your filesystem is supported by the kernel (I had this problem with the last two "upgrades" to the Con Kolivas source, as he's left out Reiser4 support - can you guess what filesystem I have for root?) or if there might be a small syntax error in your /etc/lilo.conf or /boot/grub/menu.lst that is preventing a boot (like not pointing to an initrd). Hmmm.

Hmm... every distro I have (prolly around 10) will work w/ only the integrated and the Nvidia card turned off in the BIOS or taken out completely. However, only Knoppix and Mepis have worked w/ the Nvidia as the primary graphic card. I attribute this to some form of hardware detection that they use... I noticed something interesting when booting w/ the nvidia turned off the bios (note that nvidia turned off works, but integrated off does not)- there is a pci_ignore called... and that works fine. Is there something that can "ignore" the integrated?

So I'm not sure if anyone knows how to deal w/ something like this... I'm going to just bump this one last time... please help if you know something that can be of use!

Most of what the Knoppix and Mepis installers use is in Debian Sarge and is on the Debian installer. Want to try installing a minimal Sarge and adding Gnome to it? I'm tapped out, sorry.