diff --git a/src/arch/i386/lib/idt.c b/src/arch/i386/lib/idt.c
index a856708272..ada0e6597d 100644
--- a/src/arch/i386/lib/idt.c
+++ b/src/arch/i386/lib/idt.c
@@ -1,25 +1,108 @@
 #include <string.h>
+#include <printk.h>
 
 // we had hoped to avoid this. 
 // this is a stub IDT only. It's main purpose is to ignore calls 
 // to the BIOS. 
+// no longer. Dammit. We have to respond to these.
 struct realidt {
 	unsigned short offset, cs;
 }; 
 
-
+// handler. 
+// There are some assumptions we can make here. 
+// First, the Top Of Stack (TOS) is located on the top of page zero. 
+// we can share this stack between real and protected mode. 
+// that simplifies a lot of things ...
+// we'll just push all the registers on the stack as longwords, 
+// and pop to protected mode. 
+// second, since this only ever runs as part of linuxbios, 
+// we know all the segment register values -- so we don't save any.
 void handler(void) {
  __asm__ __volatile__ ( 
 	".code16\n"
 	"idthandle:\n"
 	"	movb $0x55, %al\n"
 	"	outb %al, $0x80\n"
+	"	pushl	%eax\n"
+	"	pushl	%ebx\n"
+	"	pushl	%ecx\n"
+	"	pushl	%edx\n"
+	"	pushl	%edi\n"
+	"	pushl	%esi\n"
+ 	"movl    %cr0, %eax\n"
+       "andl    $0x7FFAFFD1, %eax\n" /* PG,AM,WP,NE,TS,EM,MP = 0 */
+        "orl    $0x60000001, %eax\n" /* CD, NW, PE = 1 */
+       "movl    %eax, %cr0\n"
+        /* Now that we are in protected mode jump to a 32 bit code segment. */
+       "data32  ljmp    $0x10, $biosprotect\n"
+       "biosprotect:\n"
+       ".code32\n"
+       "    movw $0x18, %ax          \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %ds          \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %es          \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %fs          \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %gs          \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %ss          \n"
+	"	call	biosint	\n"
+	// back to real mode ...
+       "    ljmp $0x28, $__rms_16bit\n"
+       "__rms_16bit:                 \n"
+       ".code16                      \n" /* 16 bit code from here on... */
+
+       /* Load the segment registers w/ properly configured segment
+        * descriptors.  They will retain these configurations (limits,
+        * writability, etc.) once protected mode is turned off. */
+       "    mov  $0x30, %ax         \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %ds          \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %es          \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %fs          \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %gs          \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %ss          \n"
+
+       /* Turn off protection (bit 0 in CR0) */
+       "    movl %cr0, %eax        \n"
+       "    andl $0xFFFFFFFE, %eax  \n"
+       "    movl %eax, %cr0        \n"
+
+       /* Now really going into real mode */
+       "    ljmp $0,  $__rms_real \n"
+       "__rms_real:                  \n"
+
+       /* Setup a stack */
+       "    mov  $0x0, %ax       \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %ss          \n"
+        /* ebugging for RGM */
+       "    mov $0x11, %al      \n"
+        " outb  %al, $0x80\n"
+       "    xor  %ax, %ax          \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %ds          \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %es          \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %fs          \n"
+       "    mov  %ax, %gs          \n"
+	"	popl	%eax\n"
+	"	popl	%ebx\n"
+	"	popl	%ecx\n"
+	"	popl	%edx\n"
+	"	popl	%edi\n"
+	"	popl	%esi\n"
 	"	iret\n"
 	"end_idthandle:\n"
 	".code32\n"
 	);
 }
 
+int
+biosint(unsigned long eax, 
+	unsigned long ebx, 
+	unsigned long ecx, 
+	unsigned long edx, 
+	unsigned long edi, 
+	unsigned long esi) {
+	printk_debug("biosint: eax 0x%lx ebx 0x%lx ecx 0x%lx edx 0x%lx\n", 
+		eax, ebx, ecx, edx);
+	printk_debug("biosint: edi 0x%lx esi 0x%lx\n", edi, esi);
+} 
 void
 setup_realmode_idt(void) {
 	extern unsigned char idthandle, end_idthandle;
diff --git a/src/arch/i386/lib/vgabios.c b/src/arch/i386/lib/vgabios.c
index 9a77e3b68a..89570c86eb 100644
--- a/src/arch/i386/lib/vgabios.c
+++ b/src/arch/i386/lib/vgabios.c
@@ -102,10 +102,13 @@ static void real_mode_switch_call_vga(void)
        "    ljmp $0,  $__rms_real \n"
        "__rms_real:                  \n"
 
+	// put the stack at the end of page zero. 
+	// that way we can easily share it between real and protected, 
+	// since the 16-bit ESP at segment 0 will work for any case. 
        /* Setup a stack */
-       "    mov  $0x9000, %ax       \n"
+       "    mov  $0x0, %ax       \n"
        "    mov  %ax, %ss          \n"
-       "    mov  $0xAFFE, %ax       \n"
+       "    mov  $0x1000, %ax       \n"
        "    mov  %ax, %sp          \n"
  	/* ebugging for RGM */
        "    mov $0x11, %al	\n"
diff --git a/src/mainboard/asus/cua/Config b/src/mainboard/asus/cua/Config
index 5698b5128d..8524c1959c 100644
--- a/src/mainboard/asus/cua/Config
+++ b/src/mainboard/asus/cua/Config
@@ -14,9 +14,9 @@ southbridge acer/m1535
 superio acer/m1535
 mainboardinit cpu/p6/earlymtrr.inc
 
-option ENABLE_FIXED_AND_VARIABLE_MTRRS
-option FINAL_MAINBOARD_FIXUP
-option HAVE_PIRQ_TABLE
+option ENABLE_FIXED_AND_VARIABLE_MTRRS=1
+option FINAL_MAINBOARD_FIXUP=1
+option HAVE_PIRQ_TABLE=1
 object mainboard.o
 object irq_tables.o
 keyboard pc80