Knoppix Boot Stalls

[jimbo62]

I downloaded an iso file and burned a CD with Knoppix 3.4. I booted on PC-1 with no problems. I was surfing the Internet via my router and cable modem in less than 5 minutes. It doesn't get any better than that!!!

This morning I tried to boot the CD on PC-2. Everything appeared to be going OK, but then when the boot process got to a line that reads: "Scanning for Harddisk partitions and creating /etc/fstab...", the boot stalled and I had to power down.

PC-1 has Win98, FAT32 on hard drive "C" and WinXP, FAT32 on hard drive "D". PC-2 has Win98, FAT32 on hard drive "C" and WinXP, NTFS on hard drive "D". Both computers are set up for dual boot using the WinXP bootloader.

Any help in solving this problem will be appreciated.

jimbo

[pulsar]

Try to boot in failsave modus ("knoppix failsave").

[tweetyhack]

try disabling acpi using "noacpi". hit F2 for all the options. maybe dma too. hope that helps.

[Donna R]

can't really help you except to say that's what happened to me tonight. tried to load knoppix on an older computer but after it got to something about XII the screen went black, the cdrom kept reading for maybe a minute or two then that was it. finally gave up and put it on my PIII 933 mhz computer and like you said--bingo up and running and on the net with my dsl modem and router. sure put windows to SHAME!

so it must be something in the computers, the one that wouldn't work is a PII 400 mhz, and has less ram.

[Cuddles]

Donna R,

As I said, in another post you had contributed to, cheatcodes will be your saviour...

The black screen, especially when the last thing you see is something about X11 starting, is usually something that X11 is trying to setup your monitor / video card and it isn't getting it "just right" -=- either the refresh or resolution... What has always worked for me is two cheatcodes on the boot prompt, with a "sprinkling" of a third added to ensure nothing is "getting in the way"...

try the following, for the default kernel in v3.4:

boot: knoppix screen=1024x768 vrefresh=60 noscsi

or for the experimental, v3.4 2.6.6 kernel:

boot: linux26 screen=1024x768 vrefresh=60 noscsi

This "might" get you by the black screen...

Hope this helps,
Ms. Cuddles

[jimbo62]

Well, I tried "noacpi' and "nodma'", but Knoppix boot from CD still stalled at fstab. But Knoppix booted all the way with "safemode". But it seems like a lot of hardware detect was bypassed. But the log in screens pass so fast that I don't have a clue as to what hardware doesn't get installed. There must be a log somewhere that gives the details. But where?

I found some log files but many gave me a "no permission" message and most were not very helpful.

Any help will be appreciated.

jimbo

[Donna R]

thanks for the info. I have learned how to press F2 and type in instructions, like in DOS. as knoppix works great on my better computer but I had to change the resolution from that tiny text! and I learned to save the config so that I don't have to change it the next time.

I don't know how to type two commands, though. after typing one I press enter and knoppix loads.

[CrashedAgain]

Well, I tried "noacpi' and "nodma'", but Knoppix boot from CD still stalled at fstab. But Knoppix booted all the way with "safemode". But it seems like a lot of hardware detect was bypassed. But the log in screens pass so fast that I don't have a clue as to what hardware doesn't get installed. There must be a log somewhere that gives the details. But where?

I found some log files but many gave me a "no permission" message and most were not very helpful.

Any help will be appreciated.

jimbo

There is a 'nofstab' option as well, just in case Knoppix is having problems writing your partitions into /etc/fstab file. but probably it is having problems with detecting a filetype or something. Try booting failsafe then run cfdisk (from a terminal mode just type 'cfdisk'. Cfidisk should list all the partitions it can find. Do they look correct? If not, the problem is in not detecting the partitons correctly. If looks OK, the problem is probably in making up the fstab file.

Donna R: to use more than one bootcode command just separate them with spaces eg:
"knoppix lang=us vga=normal noapci"

[Donna R]

I got Knoppix to load on the older computer! (as I said, it loaded on the newer one which is 3 years old.) because of what Ms Cuddles wrote about the video card and monitor (below) I tried doing what I'd learned to set the screen resolution--

when the first Knoppix screen comes up instead of pressing enter, you press F2 to put in cheat codes. where it says boot: I typed--
knoppix screen=800x600
then pressed enter. it continued to load. got the black screen at the same place as before but just for a few seconds. got grey screens and strange stuff but then it fully loaded.

Donna

>>The black screen, especially when the last thing you see is something about X11 starting, is usually something that X11 is trying to setup your monitor / video card and it isn't getting it "just right" -=- either the refresh or resolution... What has always worked for me is two cheatcodes on the boot prompt, with a "sprinkling" of a third added to ensure nothing is "getting in the way"...

try the following, for the default kernel in v3.4:

boot: knoppix screen=1024x768 vrefresh=60 noscsi

or for the experimental, v3.4 2.6.6 kernel:

boot: linux26 screen=1024x768 vrefresh=60 noscsi

This "might" get you by the black screen...

Hope this helps,
Ms. Cuddles

[Cuddles]

Cool...

Good going...

Happy Knoppix'ing :D

Ms. Cuddles

[gregtoffer]

Jimbo I've got your problem too. I've 2 hd, the first running with win2000 Professional, the second just formatted with ntfs file system.
I run Knoppix the first time with this option:

>>knoppix26 lang=it screen=800x600 splash

everything was ok, i changed some option like desktop themes and finally reboot system. When i tried to load knoppix again with the same option I used before, system stalled at this line

Scanning for Harddisk partitions and creating /etc/fstab...

There's nothing i can do expcept reboot my pc.
I've a Pentium 3 processor, 533 Mhz, Ram mem 192 Mb, integrated Intel Video card 810e, creative sound blaster pci 64.

[Cuddles]

Well, I tried "noacpi' and "nodma'", but Knoppix boot from CD still stalled at fstab. But Knoppix booted all the way with "safemode". But it seems like a lot of hardware detect was bypassed.

Hmmmm,

First of all, safemode is used to determine that you can boot, and not much is loaded with it... If you ever ran Windows OS's with "safe mode", you know that the mode is only used for trouble-shooting, and possibly, to get into a system that may not be able to get into through the "regular" modes... You should not look at the "safemode" "mode" as a "normal" boot for your system...

Second, you might try the cheatcode noapm, and if you don't have pcmcia cards, mostly found on laptios, you might also add the cheatcode nopcmcia, as well... ( these are "guesses" on this one )

If you are stalling on fstab, my only thinking ( rational, that is ), is that "something" is getting knoppix "lost" or "stuck" that would be being added to the fstab file, during this auto-detection... Hard drive, Compact Flash, or it may even be something that isn't a drive, but knoppix could be trying to set it up, and may think it is a drive device, like a USB Camera...

Let's look at this "logically" -=- what "devices" do you have connected to the system? Hard drives, cd-rom drives, USB devices, keyboard, mice, etc... Possibly "something" is connected that is messing up knoppix during the figuring out of the fstab file... How are these devices connected to your system, as well...

Here is an example, from my system:
Hard drive, 41 GB, connected internal on the IDE cable, primary master.
DVD-ROM, connected on the IDE cable, primary slave.
Hard drive, 81 GB, connected on the IDE cable, secondary master.
CD-RW, connected on the IDE cable, secondary slave.
Compact Flash, connected on the USB, external, with media inserted. 8 MB, or 16 MB.
Keyboard, connected on the "keyboard" baby-din connector, not the USB.
Optical Mouse, connected on the PS/2 connector, not the USB.
NVidia Video Card, on the Advanced Video card slot.
Motherboard mounted video - VIA, not used, no monitor connected.
Motherboard mounted Audio - VIA, used, detected, working - both in OSS or ALSA.
Printer - connected on the paralell port, not USB.

Try to think of any device you have connected, and possibly, how it is connected... Something is "stalling" knoppix in "normal" mode, that is not being detected / activated during "safemode" -=- If you don't feel "safe" stating what you have installed, you might try, say, in my case, unplugging the "Campact Flash" from the USB, and see what happens... If your mouse is connected on the USB connection, you might try moving it to a PS/2 connection... If you have any device connected on the USB, you might try testing to see if your boot goes farther, by removing the device... Like, if you have a printer connected on the USB, or a scanner on the USB...

I wouldn't go after anything "internally" connected on your system yet, and don't think that by disconnecting, say your printer, would mean you have to live without your printer - this is only a test, a way to trouble-shoot, where your boot is stalling at - once we can get you booted, and know the culprit, then resolves can be found on getting the "culprit" device working, without stalling your boot.

Hopefully, this helps, and we can get you running, working, and happy,
Ms. Cuddles

[CrashedAgain]

I got Knoppix to load on the older computer! (as I said, it loaded on the newer one which is 3 years old.) because of what Ms Cuddles wrote about the video card and monitor (below) I tried doing what I'd learned to set the screen resolution--

when the first Knoppix screen comes up instead of pressing enter, you press F2 to put in cheat codes. where it says boot: I typed--
knoppix screen=800x600
then pressed enter. it continued to load. got the black screen at the same place as before but just for a few seconds. got grey screens and strange stuff but then it fully loaded.


the strange screens are probably that X tries a video driver, finds it doesn't work, then retries with VESA driver which it uses as a generic driver. You might notce when you shutdown there is a flash of the console screen just before it goes into it's shutdown procedure which says 'retrying with vesa' but the way to check for sure is to have a look at the file /etc/X11/XF86Config-4. About 3/4 of the way though the file there is a 'Display' section which has a line 'using (xxxxx) driver.

[jimbo62]

I am temporarily away from the computer that stalls at "fstab", so I can't try anything right now. There are two devices that may be causing the problem. I have an HP T1000e tape drive connected to the parallel port with a printer on a "pass through" connection. And I have a Smart Media card reader attached to a USB port. Everything else is vanilla, a PS2 mouse and keyboard. A plain old CRT monitor. Two IDE hard drives. A floppy and two CD drives, one a CD-R and the other just a CD.

Thanks for the help, jimbo

[jimbo62]

Well, I tried booting from LiveCd with nofstab but I got an error message (I don't remember the message now.) So I booted again with the failsafe mode. Cfdisk showed only one partition, hda1, which is my Win98 "C" disk. Not much help, but someone had suggested that the stall was being caused by a problem reading some device. And as I mentioned in a prior message, I have a Smart Card reader and an HP T1000e tape drive that are a little unusual.

Anyway, I put a card in the Smart Media reader and the LiveCD booted without a stall at fstab! So, for some reason, the boot process was stalling because there was no media in the reader. Cfdisk still shows only hda1, but the desktop shows both cdroms, my floppy, hda1, hdb1 and sda1. Hdb1 is my WinXP "D" drive with NTFS file system. Sda1 is my Smart Card reader which Knoppix is apparently "seeing" as a SCSI drive.

Thanks for all of the help on this problem.

jimbo

[Markus]

Try with cfdisk hdb or cfdisk /dev/hdb