Many attempts made to install newer slackware versions and/or newer kernels on this 2007 machine, but everything bombs out in one (or several) of a number of nasty ways. Is this standard, and will flashing the BIOS with the latest non-beta (#3001) be likely to help?

I think you need to be a bit less vague than "unable to communicate with BIOS" or "everything bombs out" before anybody could give you an intelligent answer

Besides specific error messages and details about where in the install process the error(s) occurred, you should also specify:

* Slackware version
* Whether you're trying to install the 32- or 64 bit versions
* Whether you've run "memtest" (or any other h/w diagnostics)
* Whether you've Googled for similar problems (or looked at the LQ HCL)

It's not Slackware, but here's an example of a successful install with an Asus P5WDH:

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Asus_P5W_DH_Deluxe
http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Sky2

this happens on some of my old machines. you have to use the nosmp kernel witch you will find /extra you should have a option when booting the cdrom.
put the cd in and type huge.s enter because the default kernel is huge.smp and seems your old machine like a few of mine will not boot the huge.smp.
let me know

Thanks, guys.

[QUOTE=paulsm4;4190529]I think you need to be a bit less vague than "unable to communicate with BIOS" or "everything bombs out" before anybody could give you an intelligent answer

You're absolutely right, Paul. What I said was based on my misunderstanding of a statement made by my live-in consultant, otherwise known as my beloved husband.

Besides specific error messages and details about where in the install process the error(s) occurred, you should also specify:

* Slackware version
* Whether you're trying to install the 32- or 64 bit versions
* Whether you've run "memtest" (or any other h/w diagnostics)
* Whether you've Googled for similar problems (or looked at the LQ HCL)

I googled. Honest. Didn't see that post, though. Hubby had so much trouble with the JMicron stuff that he just disabled it. We have plenty of EIDE drives!

32-bit. Slack 13.0

Haven't run memtest because we've been doing these installations on (1) a different partition on my working EIDE drive (2) a separate drive on my machine.

Ultimately he got the new 13.0 installation to recognize both processors. He used my old kernel config file and ignored any new items. Crude but effective, with the following exception...

The problem has now devolved into getting X to run. I'll probably post this into some other group too, just in case...

He installed from the full DVD, with KDE selected as the WM. KDE opening screen came up, along with some application that checked something (I run KDE on a laptop and I've never seen that particular thing before), and then it hung with both kb and mouse locked out. Had to kill it from a remote machine. The kernel was NOT blown.

He removed (removepkg) X and reinstalled it from disk 2 of a 3-CD set. Same result.

Tried both with and without xorg.conf generated by xorgsetup. No joy.

Using the nv driver. Card=NVIDIA GPU GeForce 9500 GT. Used various window managers -- KDE, fvwm, fvwm95.

Hung with the out-of-the-box kernel (hugesmp.s) as well as a custom kernel trimmed down to fit the machine.

In all cases X was killed remotely, but the kernel was fine -- no reboot necessary.

I've been running fvwm95 ever since I started using linux in ~1995, and I forgot long ago whatever magic I used to get it running -- I've just been adding bells and whistles to my fvwm95rc since then. Transitions haven't been a problem until now.

Drake -- He used both hugesmp.s and a much smaller kernel. No good news :-(

Check /var/log/syslog and messages for info left behind after the crash.

Maybe post the output of 'lspci' and 'cat /proc/interrupts'.

It may actually be a good idea to keep JMicron disabled if it causes problems.

in slackware 13.0 with the same display card I had the same problem. I had to install the nvidia driver to get it to work why because the nvidiafb is blacklisted and so was the vesa driver. when booting xorg is supposed handle this problem but for some reason on slackware 13.0 it did not loaded them.
the fix was to go in and edit the xorg.conf and use the vesa driver. then I installed the proprietary driver and all was good.
this did not happen on my older nvidia cards.