[ 4.735415] [<numbers&letters>] ? i386_start_kernel+0xa9/0xaf
This is the last one I get, others have different information after the ?, some don't have that. I assume I have a serious hardware problem, but don't know where to begin looking. The machine begins booting, gets to checking udev, then things scroll by so fast I can't tell where the error begins.
Got a knoppix CD and tried that; ended up with a similar result.
I'm down to the video card, memory and drives; all other pulled.
I tried a live bsd disk; mfsbsd, a freebsd variant. I can get that to boot to a command line.
[edit]
Caught something this morning that looked like device descriptor error; couldn't read it fast enough to get more.
Tried booting a Slackware 10.2 - 2.4 kernel, got to a command line with that. Restored default bios settings. Still can't get Arch to come up.
[edit]
Found another thread regarding a related issue; based on that I unplugged all of my usb devices except the keyboard. Arch now boots, although there are lots of error messages that I will have to check later.
[edit]
New symptoms at lunch; now the machine turns on, then turns off, then turns back on and runs, but I have no video and the DVD drive is not operational. Nothing changed between the time I turned it off this morning and turned it back on. All fans are running, but am beginning to wonder about my power supply.