"'pcspkr' is already registered" aborting, breaking console video mode setup

["Dan B." <danb@kempt.net>]

I'm getting some inconsistent behavior.

When I boot one installation of Squeeze on my machine, the kernel
sets a high-resolution console video mode (240x67).

However, when I boot either of two other installations of Squeeze on
the same machine, I get just the initial low console resolution (80x25).

On those installations, dmesg shows an error:

   Error: 'pcspkr' is already registered, aborting

and only about 3 lines mentioning "drm" or "radeon" (vs. the couple
dozen lines mentioning "drm" or "radeon" for installation 1's dmesg
output).


My question is not (yet) what to do about the pcspkr error itself (I
have found some pages addressing it), but is this:

Why are installations 2 and 3 breaking while installation 1 works?
(And why did installation 2 work fine for a while and then start
breaking?)


As far as boot-time things (e.g., kernel settings), they're pretty
much identical.  (I followed similar steps in the installer each time.)

Because the pcspkr message has appeared in a slightly different
position, I wonder if the difference between the systems could be
because of timing--installation 1 is on a PATA disk, and both
installations 2 and 3 are on SATA disks.



Thanks,
Daniel