[ILUG] Redhat 7.1 install freezing while "Initializing PC Card devices"

[McAuley, Tim]

Hiya,

I burnt the CDs last week and got around to trying to install 7.1 last
night. However it freezes on me, just after bringing up the first windows
and while displaying the message "Initializing PC Card devices". I'm not
sure how to work around it. Mind you, I was a bit tired last night and only
spent an hour or so at it. For some reason I am having trouble booting from
the CD, so I'm using "autoboot" from DOS. Unfortunately, this means I can't
choose advanced (but will it make any difference?). There are no other
consoles up and running, so that's a pain too.

Current Set-up:
ABit be6 (1st edition)
Intel Celeron 400 (running at 500)
Viper 550 graphics card
10GB Fujitsu (UDMA 66) drive
TV Tuner card
N/W card

I detached a modem and serial infrared port just in case.

I wiped the machine fully last week, and installed Windows 98 on it, after
partitioning it (using Partition Magic from a CD, usual - /boot, Windows,
Linux Swap, / 

The hard disk and CD-Roms are both running off the standard IDE UDMA33
interface. Nothing is attached to the HTP366/UDMA66 interface. The interface
is still detected in boot-up though, because I see messages about it fly
past during the kernel initialisation.

****************
Slightly Aside:

When I first got the machine, I put the hard drive on the UDMA 66 slot.
However I found it unstable as anything and took it off, and ran the
CD-writer from it, no problems.

After the reinstall I decided to give the HPT366 another go, and failed. It
just doesn't work for me. Windows would crash about half the time during, or
shortly after reboot. I have the latest BIOS for the M/B and latest drivers
for HPT366. I guess it is either the motherboard is slightly dodgy or the
hard disk is not fully UDMA66 compliant (which I suspect because I have a
friend with the same board but an IBM disk).

Has anyone else had issues with the same (or similar) set-up?
****************

Any ideas? Can you add boot params to loadlin from DOS? 
i.e. ide2=c400, e800, 11 (I can't remember memory addresses)
I tried adding some last night just in case the HTP366 was causing problem,
but it didn't seem to make any difference.

Thanks, it might save me some time this evening if anyone has any ideas!
It's been a while since I've actually used Linux at home properly and I want
to get stuck back into it. I've been looking after the Linux servers here in
work for a while so I really want to start using Linux for home use, and
playing with games, and non-work items in general!

Cya,
 
Tim McAuley