When you compile in the ESP driver in 2.4.7+ the kernel will hang right before it spawns init. The last line if output I see is the "Freeing unused kernel memory: " message. Using the Magic SysReq keys, I see that the kernel seems to be spinning on c011b47f. I also see c01c6a9d every once in a while. Here's the appropriate System.map lines: c011ae20 T do_sys_settimeofday c011aee0 T sys_settimeofday c011afe0 T do_adjtimex c011b3e0 T sys_adjtimex c011b490 T do_softirq c011b560 T raise_softirq c011b5b0 T open_softirq c011b5d0 T tasklet_schedule c011b650 T tasklet_hi_schedule c011b6c0 t tasklet_action c011b7b0 t tasklet_hi_action c011b8a0 T tasklet_init c011b8d0 T tasklet_kill c011b960 t bh_action .... c01c6740 t alloc_tty_struct c01c6770 t _tty_make_name c01c67c0 T tty_name c01c67e0 t check_tty_count c01c6880 T tty_register_ldisc c01c68e0 t tty_set_ldisc c01c6a80 T get_tty_driver c01c6ad0 T tty_check_change c01c6b40 t hung_up_tty_read c01c6b60 t hung_up_tty_write c01c6b80 t hung_up_tty_poll c01c6b90 t hung_up_tty_ioctl c01c6bb0 t tty_lseek v2.4.6 works fine with the same config. v2.4.7 works fine too if I don't include the ESP driver. Note: The hang occurs whether you have an ESP card or not. Since there hasn't been any ESP changes, I assume it's a bug in the ESP driver triggered by the softirq changes. I would try to do binary searches for the specific section of code that makes it break, but there are softirq changes all over the place in 2.4.7 and I didn't feel I was up to the task. Attached is the config for the broken v2.4.7. -kf