Gentoo EPIA Install (part 1)

Note: These directions are works-in-progress... in fact, they might not even work at all until I find out why I'm ending up with non-bootable systems (looks like a bug in the 2.6 kernel).

So, I'm back to re-building my VIA EPIA linux box (it was scavanged for another project for a few months). Once again, I'm digging out my Gentoo CDs and I'm going to simply build a box where I can house my music MP3s and do some Apache / PostGreSQL work. Since this is an EPIA box, the EPIAWiki.org site comes in handy. I'll also be referring back to my April 2004 notes to speed up my setup process.

Hardware:

(1) VIA EPIA ME6000 (EPIA M series), 600Mhz fanless CPU
(2) 160GB 5400rpm hard drives (primary master, secondary master)
(1) DVD-ROM (secondary slave)
(1) Morex Venus 668 Black Case
(1) 512MB PC2100 DIMM

First up is BIOS settings:

Standard CMOS Features
- Halt On: All, But Keyboard
- all other settings are automatic

Advanced CMOS Features
- Virus Warning: Disabled
- CPU L2 Cache ECC Checking: Enabled
- Quick Power On Self Test: Disabled
- First Boot Device: Floppy
- Second Boot Device: CDROM
- Third Boot Device: HDD-0
- Boot Other Device: Disabled
- Swap Floppy Drive: Disabled
- Boot Up Floopy Seek: Enabled
- Boot Up NumLock Status: Enabled
- Typematic Rate Setting: 30
- Typematic Delay: 250
- Security Option: Setup (not configured)
- Dispaly Full Screen Logo: Disabled
- Show Summary Information: Enabled
- Display Small Logo: Enabled

Advanced Chipset Features
- AP Aperture Size: 32M
- CPU to PCI POST Write: Enabled
- Select Display Device: CRT
- Panel Type: 1024x768
- TV Type: NTSC
- CPU Direct Access FB: Enabled

Integrated Peripherals
- Super IO Devices: All disabled except FDC Controller
- Onboard IDE Channel 1: Enabled
- Onboard IDE Channel 2: Enabled
- IDE Prefetch Mode: Enabled
- Display Card Priority: AGP
- Frame Buffer Size: 32MB (amount of RAM to use for video card)
- AC97 Audio: Disabled
- MC97 Modem: Disabled
- VIA OnChip LAN: Enabled
- USB Keyboard Support: Disabled
- Onboard LAN Boot ROM: Disabled
- Onboard Fast IR: Disabled

Power Management Setup
- ACPI Suspend Type: S1&S3
- HDD Power Down: Disabled
- Power Management Timer: Disabled
- Video Off Option: Suspend -> Off
- Power Off by PWRBTN: Delay 4 Sec
- Run VGABIOS if S3 Resume: Auto
- AC Loss Auto Restart: On
- Peripherals Activities: (not important)
- IRQs Activities: (not important)

PnP/PCI Configurations
- PNP OS Installed: Yes
- (ignoring the rest of the options)

PC Health Status
- (information only)

Frequency/Voltage Control
- (left alone)