Thanks for the suggestions for solving my booting problem, which admittedly is not particularly Gentoo related at this stage in the installation process.
I’ve tried usb sticks with both Sysrescue and Ubuntu server to boot this thing. It appears to attempt to boot each one, but then the screen goes blank after 1-2 seconds, at which point I can’t tell what’s going on. Each usb stick boots my other machines normally, and the screen works normally when used as a display for my other Gentoo machines. Your suggestions imply that there’s nothing especially magical about putting Linux on Asus mobos and that I’m setting up the bios correctly. So I’m coming to the conclusion that this mobo may not be working as intended. Back it goes! John
