Not at all.
> ... At any rate,
> the same disk boots fine on the alphaPC164 and a NoName..
Ok, I misunderstood the problem then.
> setting affinity to the primary CPU
> jumping to bootstrap code
>
> halted CPU 0
Well, it looks like a panic before normal console initialization.
You might try using srm_printk to see if setup_arch is getting
the machine identified ok. If that's ok, then you can use that
CONFIG_EARLY_SERIAL_CONSOLE patch I sent earlier to track how
far things get before crapping out.
r~