I am trying to do a dual boot with windows xp pro sp2 and gentoo linux on my alienware laptop. I have allocated 10gb of space on my drive for gentoo. I installed gentoo and finished the entire install and when i went to boot gentoo from the LILO boot menu, I saw the kernel boot and then after that i just get a cursor in the lower left corner of my screen and i hear a couple beeps and thats it. After that it just sits there. I don't really know what else to say...has anyone else had a similar problem like this before? here are my system specs in case they help out at all..

Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz 800Mhz FSB
60gb HDD
512 MB DDR RAM
CD-RW/DVD drive
ATi Mobility Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB
Windows XP Pro SP2

I had the blinking cursor problem too, but it would continue loading normally like after 15-45 secs.

I got rid of the problem by recompiling the kernel without Frame Buffer support. Well atleast that was only the major change I made, as far as I can remember.

Yeah i tried doing that...i still get LILO to boot, I select gentoo, i see the kernel boot and then thats it. Blank screen with a blinking cursor in the left corner of my screen..

Now, will gentoo run on an Alienware Area-51m system? Would the hardware be messing my install up? I heard that the ATi mobility radeon 9700 pro might not work..but i am not sure if this is true.

Did you emerge ati drivers???.Check your /var/log/Xorg.log if it has any errors.The Error lines start with (EE), and if you find any post them here. Did you use #xorgconfig to configure your Xserver, coz it's a must.


I'll try to look up your hardware specs, and I would suggest you to burn a Knoppix Cd[3.6] the latest one, boot with it..and see if it works,also it is very handy when it comes to system rescue..

Best of Luck!!