In order to run esx 3.0.1 on a test whitebox I have had to add the noapic kernel boot option otherwise the boot hangs when loading the kernel.
In a previous whitebox I was able to correct this by switching to MPS 1.1 in the motherboard BIOS, this isn't an option on this box. Are there any other kernel boot option to specifiy that may help here without resorting to turning off APIC ?