The following is just for the sake of information......... I just did an install of Debian testing from a snapshot done around 4 months ago. The new system consisted of an Gigabyte X79-UD5 MB, all new drives a combinataion of HD and SSD'S. System is a dual boot with WindowsXP. Partitioning was done with GParted live cd around 5 months old. This went OK. On the install of debian, install cd booted OK but on reboot on the finish of the install system failed to start. Console locking up not long after the drive subsystem is initailised. A mass of error messages asociated with APIC being printed. A search on the net showed this was a known issue as the Linux kernel does not currently support APCI 5.0 found on current MB's, which should _NOT_ have prevented the kernel starting. An attempt to turn off APCI support on the boot command line did not suceed. So I compiled and installed a new kernel via Debians rescue mode, using Linux 3.7.9 sources, with APIC disabled. Everything worked well after that. If the APIC disabling was the cure is unknown, the kernel config these days being __very__ complex (mind you it always was). The config I use being one of long standing with only the facilities I require. The config of course being modified as required using " make oldconfig" as new facilties come along with newer kernel versions. Using Linux for 20 years, Lindsay