[gdth?] can't boot FC2 test kernel on FC1

[Matt Bernstein <mb/redhat dcs qmul ac uk>]

Hi,

I have a pretty normal dual-athlon box with a load of hard drives running 
off an ICP-Vortex GDT8543RZ card.

I can install shiny 2.6 kernel RPMs, but they won't boot. My hand-built 
2.6.6-rc3 is running just fine (as you can see from the silly IRQ :).

00:08.0 SCSI storage controller: ICP Vortex Computersysteme GmbH GDT 8x43RZ
        Subsystem: ICP Vortex Computersysteme GmbH GDT 8x43RZ
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66Mhz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=slow >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 64, cache line size 10
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 169
        Region 0: Memory at ea100000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=32K]
        Capabilities: [80] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-

[its ID is 1119:01fd if that helps]

When trying to boot the kernel RPM, it successfully loads the initrd which 
contains all the right drivers, but then after freeing some memory, 
nothing happens (at this point I'd hope /sbin/init might run!).

Has anyone else seen this? I don't know where the problem is, or where to 
bugzilla it.

Another thing I'm doing which might not be entirely regular is that I'm 
using external journals for all my volumes (it rather helps ext3 
performance..).

I'm a little concerned that FC2 might not boot.

Any light gratefully received..