Trying out Knoppix

[dave932932]

After Windows XP ruined its own bootsector and registry, my friend recommended Knoppix for recovery and to get a taste of Linux. So I got it from bittorrent (Huggles cable modem - 700K baby!) and I burnt it to a CD with Sonic Record Now! Shut down windows and put the disc into my DVD drive. I pushed the power button and heard the DVD drive churn and its LED flashed but then the BIOS moved onto the hard disk and it loaded windows.

Pentium 4 "NorthWood" 2.66GHz
512MB of DDR333 Non-ECC RAM
120 GB 5400RPM IDE Drive
48x Read | 24x Write | 12x Rewrite | CD Drive
48x Read (CDs) | 16x (DVDs) | DVD Drive
NVIDIA Geforce MX 440 (at AGP 4x)

I burned the whole 698Mb file to the CD as an ISO image. Obviously the CD is not bootable. How can I create a bootable Knoppix CD? (Using Sonic RecordNow!)

[Harry Kuhman]

...So I got it from bittorrent ... 698Mb file to the CD as an ISO image. Obviously the CD is not bootable. ...(Using Sonic RecordNow!) You might want to review the downloading faq found by following the documentation link at the top of his page. Since you got the iso by Bittorrent is is very unlikely that is is corrupt. Still, if this is one of the Official downloads by Bittorrent then you got an MD5 file with it, it wouldn't hurt to confirm that the file is good. You say that you burnt the ISO as an image, which is what you need to do. I don't know anything about Sonic Record Now! so I can only assume that it has that feature and it works correctly. Just as a check you might want to insert the CD into a Windows system and confirm that you can see the Knoppix file structure on the CD (not just one ISO file). If Windows autostart is turned on then it should open an information page in a browser too. The vintage of motherboard that you are using should certainly boot a CD, so I don't see that as an issue. The only other thing I can think of is that we have seen problems booting CDs that were burnt at high speed. See these threads for just a sample of the discussion on this: http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17788 and http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=78925#78925
My suggestion would be to burn again at a slow speed like 4x (or even burn to a 700 meg CDRW), and if you have other burning software available try that (or download the 30 day free trial of Nero).

P.S. - Also try booting in the other drive if you have not already.

[dave932932]

Surprisingly, my computer will not boot from the CD drive. But the DVD drive will boot probaly because I set it up as the master. Sonic RecordNow is OEM crippleware that comes with HP PCs but it suffices for me. It choose the "Create a Data Disc" button so I just pulled the ISO files over without special options or anything. So what should I check for in the MD5 file? I confess that I burned this CD at 24x. :oops:

P.S. I see that there are 6 files in the folder:
MD5 which I cannot open........
the main files of knoppix
a text file which list version numbers
2 ASC files
and a SHA1 file

Should I burn it to the CD outside of an folder?

[Harry Kuhman]

....It choose the "Create a Data Disc" button so I just pulled the ISO files over without special options or anything. ..... I confess that I burned this CD at 24x. ...
it sounds to me like you just have a copy of the ISO file on the CD. That is not the same as burning the iso as an image. Think of it this way: When you biuld your own disk compilations, in addition to just burning them, you usually have ways to save your compilation to hard disk. One way just saves pointers to all of the other files (small and handy, but not what we're talking about here). The other way builds a large file (around 700 meg in the case of a full CD) in one of several different formats. These are "image files" and can later be used to burn copies of the CD without the need for all of the smaller files (they are included in the image). ISO is a common form of such a file and is "cross platform", it is supported by many burning programs.

Look at the CD you burnt under windows. If it just has one ISO file on it then you did not burn the iso as an image.

As to what to do: Either look through your documentation for information on how to use your current application to burn ISO files (if it supports it at all) or download something that does. There have been many suggestions in these forums for thinsg that do, make your own choice. If I had to pick one I would say use Nero, but version 6 makes it hard to find the right option too. If you end up with one of the crippleware Nero for Dummies interfaces then look for an option on the front screen to laod an image, if you get the "regular: nero interface then under the file meny just select open and open the ISO. Do not take any option to make the CD bootable, and do not just drag the ISO into a file area.

And burn at a slow speed just to be safe (at least until you get past the other issues) and use a 700 meg CDRW if you have one.

[Harry Kuhman]

It choose the "Create a Data Disc" button so I just pulled the ISO files over without special options or anything. ...
I just caught the word files here. What do you mean by files? There should be one ISO file. There should not be files. You do not extract anything from the iso. You use the ISO to burn the cd as an image. If you have extracted anything from the iso you didn't say how you did that, but it was a mistake to do so. But the words files here implies you may have yet another problem.

[dave932932]

Well, I tried pulling the files one-by-one and it prompted if I wanted to recored the contents of the ISO image! Yes!

but I only dragged the biggest ISO image as it immediately started burning a disc. Do I need the MD5 file or the other checksums to boot the disc? I think a medium speed should work and I do not have any rewritable media :(

Ok, i'll try booting from it! :D

Edit : Sucess! I'm using firefox from inside Knoppix! I'll be save my settings, browse the web a little and try out some of the games lol. :D

[Harry Kuhman]

Well, I tried pulling the files one-by-one and it prompted if I wanted to recored the contents of the ISO image! Yes! NO! Go back and re-read all of the above.

but I only dragged the biggest ISO image as it immediately started burning a disc. You never drag the ISO into burning software. You must open it. I have no idea what you are using that "immediately started burning a disc", I've never seen Nero start burning a disk before being told to. But something very wrong is happening here.

Do I need the MD5 file or the other checksums to boot the disc? The md5 file is only used to confirm the ISO is good before burning (many downloads from the mirrors are not good). It is not burnt to the CD and can be deleted after you confirm the md5 sum matches what you calculate.

I think a medium speed should work and I do not have any rewritable media( At least until you get a working disc, it should be burnt as slow as your software and drive will support, 4x is ideal, 8x only if your burner and software will go no lower. Do not burn faster. See http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=17788 and http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=78925#78925 if you want examples of why. And if you haven't burnt yet then don't, go back and reread everything here, from what you say in this post you likely are either doing something wrong or are playing an April Fools joke.

[dave932932]

Okay, well the folder that came from BitTorrent had several files in it, all of them having an .iso extension. I saw that one was a filename.iso.md5 and that was the checksum. So there really was only one .iso file the main image with 200 bytes - 1KB checksums and the text file with the read-me.

I downloaded some nero crippleware and there were no menus for burning images............
So I went back to RecordNow and pulled the 698MB file into the window. A promp showed up saying it was an image (obviously) and if I wasnted to create a CD containing what was in the image. I believe it opened it for me. I clicked yes and it started up instantly. So it had burned the real files to the CD, not just some ISO file. I checked it from windows explorer afterwards.

I put the disc into my DVD drive and shut down windows XP. After the POST, knoppix started detecting my hardware, drives and I enabled hardware acceleration for my NVIDIA Geforce4 MX card. Took about 2 or 3 mintes for it to detect everything.

So far everything is okay and nothing seems missing even though I set the recording speed to 24x. I probally won't be using konqueror as i'll be searching for a Linux version of Opera. So i'll keep this handy in case Windows XP corrupts itself again. I checked if it could read NTFS partitions and sure enough, my files showed up on partition two. And yes, I really have gotten it up and running.

Thanks, I probaly would have been futilly trying to boot off an .ISO file without your help. :lol:

[tdjokic]

I probally won't be using konqueror
Which Knoppix do you have, 3.8 or? There is Mozilla or Firefox in Knoppix, you don't need to use Konqueror for surfing, but it is OK as File manager.

[Harry Kuhman]

Okay, well the folder that came from BitTorrent had several files in it, all of them having an .iso extension. I saw that one was a filename.iso.md5 and that was the checksum. .... The tendency to put .iso. in some files is an unfortunate consequence of the newer MS files systems that let multiple dots, spaces, and other things that don't belong in file name into them. But the extension is always the last part of the name, after the last dot. There should have been only one file with an ISO extension in what you downloaded.

... So there really was only one .iso file the main image with 200 bytes - 1KB checksums and the text file with the read-me. ... Sorry, the way this is worded I can't quite understand it.

...downloaded some nero crippleware and there were no menus for burning images............ All Nero software I've seen has had an option to burn an ISO. But as I indicated you do have to look around the page for it if you use the Nero for Dummies version, it's there but easy to miss. But it sounds like you found a good way to make the burn.

...So far everything is okay and nothing seems missing even though I set the recording speed to 24x. .... I never said that all burns at such a speed would always be bad, but we see more booting problems the higher the burn speed is. High speed burns often boot fine on some system but slowly or not at all on others. My best advice is still to burn your ISO slowly, but I'm most concerned in giving such advice to those trying to get their first burns working; they hardly need additional problems from a high speed burn. If you think high speed burns are working for you then go ahead and keep burning that way, at least you should be able to spot if it becomes a problem (beware of slow booting that still seems to work). I would still urge a slow speed burn if you give away a Knoppix CD to someone.


Which Knoppix do you have, 3.8 or? There is Mozilla or Firefox in Knoppix, you don't need to use Konqueror for surfing, but it is OK as File manager. He indicated he downloade from a torrent and got multiple files including an md5 sum. This likely means he used the official torrent and got 3.7. I haven't downloaded all the unofficial torrents of 3.8 but I have downloaded the English one and it does not include an md5 sum. So my guess would be 3.7. He seems to be happy with his browser though.