Kernel 2.6.18 (at least) has a bug which causes the kernel to wait for a long time while booting. It is the libata driver, this is the error: scsi3 : ata_piix ata4: port is slow to respond, please be patient ata4: port failed to respond (30 secs) ata4: SRST failed (status 0xFF) ata4: SRST failed (err_mask=0x100) ata4: softreset failed, retrying in 5 secs ata4: SRST failed (status 0xFF) ata4: SRST failed (err_mask=0x100) ata4: softreset failed, retrying in 5 secs ata4: SRST failed (status 0xFF) ata4: SRST failed (err_mask=0x100) ata4: reset failed, giving up More discussion on the forum, with references to the LKML: http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-3765278.html I have made the patch available for gentoo-sources-2.6.18-r1. This bug might be fixed in 2.6.19.
Created attachment 103451 [details, diff] libata patch for 2.6.18-r1
Please confirm whether it is needed in 2.6.19
Created attachment 103499 [details, diff] 2.6.19 patch I think you'll need this patch for 2.6.19. If you can confirm it works there with this patch I'll apply both.
Sorry, I have been asleep while 2.6.19 was released. Yes, the patch is requiered for 2.6.19, and the provided patch patches the gentoo-r1 kernel nicely (3 lines offset). Kernel boots as expected.
Fixed in: genpatches-2.6.19-3 gentoo-sources-2.6.19-r2 Also queued for next 2.6.18 release