"noapic" didn't work, nor did "noacpi", etc.
Going to 2.6.13-rc6.2 solved the problem (once I integrated udev, etc.).

The chipset is an Intel 8x0 something.  Unfortunately, there is a 
heatsink semi-permanently installed over everything.  Is there a /proc 
pseudofile that will give me good identifying chipset info to report here?

If there is a FAQ for this, we should post a message about it once in a 
while.
Nothing here indicates chipset:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/lkml/reporting-bugs.html

The CPU is an Intel Celeron CPU 2.00GHz running at 1495.772 MHz, 128MB 
cache.

sdw

Matti Aarnio wrote:

>On Wed, Aug 10, 2005 at 08:32:45PM -0400, Stephen D. Williams wrote:
>  
>
>>I just noticed that the Ubuntu setup says "GSI 20(level,low) -> IRQ 20" 
>>whereas I remember my built kernels saying "No GSI......  IRQ 11".  I'll 
>>investigate what that means and how to enable it.  Pointers appreciated.
>>    
>>
>
>That is most likely unrelated, but I had similar experiences
>at times.  It turned out that something done recently in APIC
>management code did break things, but lattest version is again
>working.   For a while to have network card working I had to boot
>with  "noapic"  option in my home SMP box.
>
>In an UP box it is about same to boot as "noapic", but in SMP it
>does result in "one CPU does all interrupts" thingie.  (In some
>rare cases it could be desirable, even.)
>
>   /Matti Aarnio
>
>
>  
>
>>sdw
>>
>>Stephen D. Williams wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>I have been working for days to get a recent kernel to work with these 
>>>small-format UP Celeron 2Ghz (running at 1.33Ghz) motherboards that I 
>>>am planning to use as thin clients.  I'm doing a PXE boot, loading 
>>>kernels, and trying to get networking to come up.
>>>
>>>I eventually realized that the problem is that the e100 driver loads 
>>>but does not allow any packet traffic.  The system isn't crashed, but 
>>>I do get transmit timeouts.
>>>
>>>I've used kernels: 2.6.10, 2.6.11, and 2.6.12.4, stock with only the 
>>>"squashfs" patch applied and compiled as 586/....
>>>
>>>The interesting thing is that Ubuntu 5.04, booted "Live" on the box, 
>>>works just fine with the e100 driver with a kernel shown as: 
>>>"2.6.10-5-386".  I'm going to work on pulling this kernel and its 
>>>modules off to use.
>>>
>>>Any help urgently appreciated.
>>>
>>>sdw
>>>      
>>>
>
>  
>