Here are some more data-points for the VT6102 network controller not
working with a local IOAPIC.

I have an Epox 8K9A3+ motherboard, with VIA KT400 chipset and a VT6102
network chip on-board.

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400 AGP] Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 PCI Bridge
00:0a.0 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic 53c860 (rev 13)
00:0d.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
00:0d.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 07)
00:0e.0 RAID bus controller: Triones Technologies, Inc. HPT374 (rev 07)
00:0e.1 RAID bus controller: Triones Technologies, Inc. HPT374 (rev 07)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586/B/686A/B PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 74)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G400 AGP (rev 82)

In the following table, 'works' means the system works allright, and the
VT6102 functions fine.

(1) 2.5.68 + apm + local ioapic: boots & works
(2) 2.5.68 + acpi + local ioapic: boots, doesn't work
(3) 2.5.68 + acpi + no local ioapic: doesn't boot, hangs just after

ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
^^^^^^^^^^^^^ it hangs just after this line.
it would continue like this (with the working kernels):
hde: host protected area => 1
hde: 156301488 sectors (80026 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=155061/16/63, UDMA(100)

I'll attach the 2 dmesg outputs, one of (1) as dmesg_2568_apm_apic.txt
and of on (2) as dmesg_2568_acpi_apic.txt.

I've cc'ed Jeff and Alan because they seemed to be interested in this
VT6102 problem.

If there's any information anybody wants, lspci -xxxxx or whatever,
just let me know.

Kind regards,
Jurriaan
-- 
When you become used to never being alone, you may consider
yourself Americanized.
Debian (Unstable) GNU/Linux 2.5.68 3940 bogomips load av: 1.51 1.02 0.46