IBM xSeries 225 with single processor - can't boot 5.x?

[jcaldwell at ymcastlouis.org]

I've got a number of IBM xSeries x225 servers, which are dual-capable but 
right now have only one Xeon processor each. Attempting to boot from the 
install CD for both 5.2.1 and 5.3-BETA3 yields the same problem - endless 
streams of what look like register states, seperated by single characters 
of the '/|\-' sequence. Doesn't even get past the boot loader. 

Any thoughts on this? I'm in the process of switching all of my i386 
NetBSD and Novell servers over to FreeBSD (faster release cycle, so better 
new hardware support), so I'm not familair with the subtle nuances of 
FreeBSD yet, but I do have it working on about 4 other machines - 3 
single-processor machines and one dual-processor with both CPUs in place. 
I'm wondering if the problem might have something to do with that empty 
processor socket, or the fact that it's a Xeon.

-Jim