The relevant hardware and configuration:
chaintech 7NIF2
Barton 2500
1- 512mb pc2700 memory
FSB set to 166 Mhz shows the CPU at 1833 on boot
Using the on board video (thus the 166 and pc2700)
2 - Hauppauge 250 Audigy sound card

I have stripped out everything else (capture card, sound card, etc)I have tried shoving another AGP video card in there just for good measure.I can boot from CD and run setup of FC1 up to the disk partition. After this step it hangs up indefinitely.I started testing various configurations using the KnoppMyth install andI get the same result - it hangs at the INIT screen.

(Hopefully all )Relevant BIOS settings:
APIC Mode disabled
Onboard sound disabled
Onboard Modem disabled
Onboard video first priorityP
np Manual
FSB 166 (I have tried 100 and 200 with same result)

bios updated to rev 09/05/2003 (latest on Chaintech website) from the out of the box 06/30/2003 that didn't allow me to change the date to anything but 2/2/2002 and a time of 2 2 2. The bios update fixed the time problem.Any advice would be welcome. I really don't want to put the AopenMK79G-N back in but I could at least get the OS installed on that board using the same parts including my hacked together video out adapter.

Sadly no joy with MythTV thus far.

Thanks,Owen

what are you using for disks? do you just have one on the primary ide controler? do you have a raid card? if FC1 hangs on disk partition then I would suspect something with the disks. I have basically the same setup but slower processor and have no problems at all. Never even had to do any bios updates. Oh and I guess I am running two memory modules in agressive mode for the dual channel.

oh and just curious why bother with the autigy? The onboard sound works just fine, although I admit I haven't tried getting the spdif connector and doing the 5.1 digital output.

Hard drive is a Samsung 120 gb SP1203N.

I picked up the Audigy since the onboard AC'97 Codec appeared to be going out to analog. I didn't see the connector on the board for a digital out adapter until I got the mobo and new Audiigy home.

and that hard drive is connected to the primary ide interface?

oh and by the way the apic disabled basically does nothing. LOL I've used mine enabled and disabled and can't tell any difference, since the knoppmyth kernel does not have the no lapic option.

if you happen to have an old hard drive laying around even if it's way too small to use it might be worthwhile to plug it in just to see if the install will complete. I really sounds like some sort of drive problem, or posibly controler problem.

Yes the drive is master on the primary interface. I will try another hard drive. When I reboot I will take better notes of how BIOS is handling the drive. For now it the ide settings are all auto.

Thanks for the tiips. I am loading XP on it now just to see that all the hardware works as expected then I will attempt yet one more install. I don't think I can use more standard hardware.

Just one quick not about loading XP I could not get XP to load on my system, but knoppmyth as of R3 would. I tracked the problem down by using some other linux installs, and it didn't seem to like the RTC, but 2.4.22 added some nforce stuff in the kernel that made it play nice. I don't know if XP required a driver disk, but if it did that disk did not come with my motherboard. I don't really know, but everything just started working as of R3 so I never looked back at windows as I bought the hardware for linux anyways.

Thanks Xsecrets. I too bought the hardware for linux and specifically for MythTV. At this point I have a pretty expensive pile of nothing. I am punting to XP for now so my wife can record her shows for the week. When I can get back to it next weekend I will try another disk or perhaps chunking it all across the room . In all fairness I chose the wrong motherboard to begin with Aopen MK79G-N which didn't have the TV out connector. After finally making one myself (3 weeks later thank you Aopen and Axiontech) I got most of the system to load and I could update the guide but only get static. Prior to the TV out and bios update on the MK79G-N I got as close as getting one channel to record on the old mobo with no TV Out functional. Add TV Out and I could get nothing to display. All static. I tried rearranging the pci slotsThat channel required changing it via the DirecTV box until I hacked together the cable for the slow data port. I still don't know if that works since I have just been concentrating on getting it to just record a chosen channel.

On a whim I picked up the Chaintech board when getting part's for a friend's pc. I thought this might simplify matters since there has been much luck with it. It hasn't gotten past this error after two evenings this weekend banging on it. I have tried KnoppMyth and FC 1 (Jarod's install guide. It must be something in the bios since it is the same hard drive. If it is then I would have to say the Chaintech board at this point is worse than the Aopen which will install it without any exceptional hard drive setting.

Thanks for indulging the rant.

Well did XP install on it ok? I'm just curious because I never could get XP to install on my chaintek motherboard. It would lock up during setup every time, but any newer linux kernel 2.4.22 or newer had no problems with it.

Without a hitch. I slapped some stuff on it last night to make it function as a compromise PVR and it was all up and working in about 45 minutes. My only guess is that the Nvidia chipset is luck of the draw and this particular board and it's Nvidia PCI bus just will not play nice with Fedora and Debian. It may be the last nVidia based board I buy due to the inconsistencies with the chipsets that I have researched thus far.

Windohz just can't stay around - only one capture card is used etc making it lame compared to Myth. I am going to try one more stab wiith a different hd then yank the chaintech and put the Aopen back in. This is a pain since I have already put the Aopen in another micro atx case (read TIGHT fit). The TV out adaptor I hacked together for the Aopen isn't pretty but it all worked and then I can return to figuring out the right settings for signal from DirecTV.

At some point the Linux kernel will try to read the BIOS map. Since most BIOSes are solely tested under Windows, the Linux kernel may not be able to read it properly.
We have had issues with Chaintec motherboards where Linux would freeze right after expanding and loading the kernel if there was no mouse present in the PS/2 port. If we attached a mouse (we left it out initially because we wouldn't use X) it would boot just fine because the BIOS map was changed and presented properly for the kernel.

This may have nothing to do with your problem, but could be related. Do you see a memory map (amount of RAM; available and used) scrolling by at some point during kernel initialisation? How much memory is available according to that map? In our case without a mouse attached Linux only got 1 MByte RAM reported through the BIOS and with the mouse the full 512 MB RAM.

Just my $0.02

I did have a mouse attached to the PS/2 port. Linux always got the memory as 490 vs the 512 on board.
I pulled the Chaintech board and put the Aopen back in. The install went off without a hitch. For what KnoppMyth echos to the screen it appears the processor detection is what it might hang up on with the chaintech board. I guess I will keep the Aopen board in.