Hi,
I had the same problem with my server! It took me nearly 3 hours to figure out what was wrong and to roll back to the standard kernel from CD. I found out, that the kernel hangs as soon as the harddrive is mounted with write support! I don't know why.. it makes no sens. I too have an other System where it works perfectly. So SuSE Team! Fix this Bug! Its really anoying!!!!! I wont install the next kernelpatch until its tested and veryfied! I've better things to waste my time on!
Your anger and dispair understood, but that kernel is tested, and we can't reproduce it here. Unfortunately, you don't even tell us which kernel package you're using, which filesystem types you are mounting, what type of hardware you have built in your box, ... This is a little more complicated than showing a broken "!" key. Thanks, Roman.