please lower the barrier for novice users, up-to-date instructions with screenshots

Hi L4

I played last weekend with the Pistachio.
I managed to compile the code from mercurial for AMD64 (k8 and
pentium). I compiled in the rolling characters in the upper right
corner.

I runned the kernel on  hardware and in qemu on debian/etch-amd64 and
debian/etch-ia32
qemu-system-x86_64   /dev/sda    (and then I select pistachio)

I don't know what is the expected outcome of the properly running
kernel. How do I know if that operates correctly? I need screenshots.
I use this grub setting
title=L4Ka::Pistachio 32
root  (hd0,0)
kernel /l4/32/kickstart
module /l4/32/x86-kernel
module /l4/32/sigma0
module /l4/32/l4test

title=L4Ka::Pistachio 64
root  (hd0,0)
kernel /l4/64/kickstart
module /l4/64/x86-kernel
module /l4/64/sigma0
module /l4/64/l4test


I get rolling characters and at the bottom
Launching kernel...
L4Ka::Pistachio - built ........
......

And nothing behind it. Is it patological or that is what I am supposed to get?

The same nothing for pingpong instead of l4test.

the packed code
http://l4ka.org/download/pistachio/pistachio-0.4.tar.bz2
is not even compilable. (please remove that or put into archive not to
confuse the users.)

Please lower the entry barrier for novice users to get even wider
acceptance of your project.
I need the up-to-date instructions with screenshots.

The first impression counts.
To start study and experimenting with the unknown code I need
something compilable and working smoothly at the start.
I cannot dig into the unknown source code  to find out what is going
on  and what possibly does not work if I don't know the proper
behaviour.
I will be able to do it later.
What can I expect with the existing stage of the software.

Please  help me.

Why did you remove support for the opteron CPUs  and few others in the
head version in mercurial?


Marian.