FC2t2 prob w/Gigabyte GA-7VT600

[Paul W. Frields]

The hardware:
  Gigabyte GA-7VT600, VIA KT600 chipset
  AthlonXP 3000+

FC1 has been installed on this machine without any problems with
installation or configuration; everything works fine including onboard
IEEE1394 and USB. There is onboard SATA which I am not currently using;
I only have drives on the onboard legacy IDE/UDMA133 controller.

However, I can't install FC2 test2:

(1) Can't boot off CD #1. It appears from the archives that this isn't
unheard of. I can boot using either Smart Boot Manager
(http://btmgr.sourceforge.net) or the boot.iso image from CD #1. The CD
checks out OK. Not the problem I'm most concerned with.

(2) Once I boot, I can't use any source method. Trying to use an install
source from any of the via-rhine NIC, hda (hard disk), or hdd (CD-ROM)
causes a prompt for a driver disk. Manually inserting the appropriate
module produces no effect. 

Kernel reports at installation boot:

VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:0f.0
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
VP_IDE: VIA vt8237 (rev. 00) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci 0000:00:0f.0
    ide0: BM-DMA at 0xd400-0xd407, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
    ide1: BM-DMA at 0xd408-0xdf0f, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:DMA
hda: WDC WD800JB-00DUA3, ATA DISK drive
Using anticipatory io scheduler
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
hdd: LITE-ON COMBO LTC-48161H, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: max request size: 1024KiB
===
Choosing CD-ROM installation source produces this message on vt3:

* devices[0] is LITE-ON COMBO LTC-48161H - hdd using ignore (not loaded)
===
Choosing hard disk installation source produces on vt3:

* devices[0] is WDC WD800JB-00DUA3 - hda using ignore (not loaded)
===
Choosing NFS, FTP, or HTTP installation equally ineffective, even though
on vt4 (MAC address deleted by me):

<6>via-rhine.c:v1.10-LK1.1.19-2.5  July-12-2003  Written by Donald
Becker
<6>  http://www.scyld.com/network/via-rhine.html
<7>divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
<6>eth0: VIA VT6102 Rhine-II at 0xea002000, xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx, IRQ 11.
<6>eth0: MII PHY found at address 1, status 0x786d advertising 05e1 Link
40a1.
===
I've tried booting with "acpi=off", "selinux=0", and numerous other
kernel parameters setting ioports, irq, etc. manually, which I performed
in as scientific a manner of permutation as possible, with no effect.
Disabled on-board controllers other than IDE (i.e. SATA, USB, 1394, LAN,
sound), with no effect.

I am late to the FC2 testing game for a variety of reasons and have not
had (and likely will not have) a chance to try FC2t1. I have other VIA
boards in the office that work fine, but I believe they're all KT400
based. My next move is to use one of them to install, then swap drives
to see the resulting boot behavior.

I haven't filed in BZ yet, but I will if I don't receive a reply here
whacking me with a clue. Thanks to all for any assistance.

-- 
Paul W. Frields, RHCE