>Specifying the console allows aurora to get farther, even starting X.
>Mouse doesn't seem to work though. ;0)

Mouse should work with Igor Kovalenko's patch, which I resent some days ago.

But I can't get to X with aurora-2.0, it just hangs much earlier.

It must be hanging while probing for sound modules, try adding 'blacklist snd-sun-cs4231' to /etc/modules.d/blacklist

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Kind Regards,
Igor V. Kovalenko