I've juste had this problem on 2.6.18-1 kernel (from Debian Sid), just after upgrading my WiFi drivers (rt61pci obtained from rt2x00-source)...
-- CPU soft lockup during bootup https://launchpad.net/bugs/63418 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
