Running a mainline linux kernel on Galileo Gen1

Question

So I've been gifted 2x gen 1 Galileos that I want to try to do something with before I throw them in the garbage.

It's my understanding that they wont run most i386 kernels from most distros as they need to be Pentium II compile flags.

So this guy shared his kernel configs https://twitter.com/kerneldave/status/1359178557570732032 and I have compiled the kernels using a standard GCC stack on ubuntu.

I cannot get the resulting kernel to boot. After Grub loads the kernel there is no activity on the console (via the serial cable)

1. Will mainline kernels work on Gen 1?
2. Does it need to be compiled with some special toolchain or will gcc be fine?
3. Any special boot params need to be used, APIC/ACPI, console options?

Thanks