rtc module hangs system - prevents new installation of Etch from fully booting

["Nigel Tamplin" <nigeltamplin@f2s.com>]

I have an old x86 system that fails to boot a clean installation of Etch.

The cause is udevd (started from /etc/rcS.d/S03udev) attempting to load the rtc module, which hangs this particular system.

To allow my system to fully boot and be usable it is necessary to blacklisted the rtc module.

Once booted if I attempt to manually load the rtc module, the system hangs.

My system comprises a Gigabyte GA-5AX motherboard with a AMD-K6 CPU.  The kernel and modules are from package linux-image-2.6.8-4-486 as installed by the Etch installer.

I expect someone new to Linux / Debian, trying Etch for the first time, would be stuck if they experienced the same problem and their newly installed system failed to boot.

If anyone is interested in finding out why loading the rtc module hangs this particular system, and would like me to try something or provide more information, then let me know.

Regards,

Nigel