npx: can't get interrupt

Hi current,

I'm in the middle of upgrading from 4.8 to Current. I build a new kernel
following the instructions in UPDATING (bottom of file). The new kernel
panics in the npx probe with:

panic: npx: can't get interrupt

(not sure about each char, typing this out of my memory)
I also noticed that the message like "can't find parallel port" (less
sure than above) is printed three or more times.
The machine is a Toshiba Libretto 110. It has been running Current from
about three months ago successfully.
I was aware of the current acpi module issues, so the kernel that
panic'd had

device   acpi
option   ACPI_DEBUG

in its config file.

Can anyone tell me why I seem to be running out of interrupts, or
otherwise help me to fix this problem?
If the exact kernel probe messages are needed for this, please someone
tell me if it's possible to get these without setting up a serial
console connection, it would quite some trouble with my little
machine...

Thanks in advance,
Thomas