This is a quick/simple patch of the kernel 2.4.20 for machines with just one processor,
like AMD Duron 1.2ghz, on wich the kernel is crashing at boot, and as far as I know
are a lot of machines in this situation where you see at instalation for some linux
version or after recompiling the kernel at boot ESR value before enabling vector: 0000002
and after this you can reset/power off the machine.
So for the people wich have the ocasion to recompile the kernel modify the source file
/arch/i386/kernel/apic.c and probably you will be lucky. At line 405 you must see
something like:

	if (maxlvt > 3)
                apic_write(APIC_ESR, 0);
                value = apic_read(APIC_ESR);
                printk("ESR value after enabling vector: %08lx\n", value);

This is the code where your kernel is taking the vacation. So the next quick patch will be
to comment the apic_write() function and the code can look like:

                printk("Hacked APIC crap...\n");
	if (maxlvt > 3)
        //      apic_write(APIC_ESR, 0);
                value = apic_read(APIC_ESR);
                printk("ESR value after enabling vector: %08lx\n", value);

And try to recompile and reboot with the new patched kernel. Of course probably this patch is
working with other kernel versions too, probably is not the same line in apic.c, so you can
search for the line in the file and modify and test.
I saw a lot of requests of people wich are looking for this problem. So if you can put in your
web page a link to this page to be visible/ranked in search engines will be good for human-kind :)

Gushterul - admin[at]securityorg.net