Before the root device message, in verbrosse it also says

error: firewire unable to determine security mode; defaulting to full secure.

Would disabling FW lead to a possible success story.

EDIT: I disabled FW from bios, ran verbrosse (also with -f), I don't have the FW error message but another one popped up:
"RTL8139::fixEnetFlowControl - Flow Control is disabled"

I'm guessing it can't read from the HD? Possible fix anyone.

EDIT2: After extensive lurking; I've discovered that the chipset; prescott (aka 915P) uses ICH 5.0; let's try installing ideneb for the 12th time. Wow this post is turning more into a diary.