Knoppix Hacks from O'Reilly won't boot

[rgavel]

I purchased the book Knoppix Hacks awhile ago, and the free CD boots fine on my kids computer, but not on mine.

Whenever I try to boot it on mine I get this:


'You passed an undefined mode number'
'Return' for video modes 'space' to continue

So I hit 'space' to continue and it checks my hard drive, then says:


Looking for CDROM in /dev/scd0

Pauses for a bit...then...


Can't find Knoppix filesystem
Dropping you to a (very limited) shell

commands available:
cat mount umount
insmod rmmod lsmod
knoppix#

And that folks, is as far as it goes.

As a newbie to Linux, I'm a little more than tentative about messing around with a CLI. The same Knoppix CD works fine in my kids computer, I'm able to surf the net, etc. However, I'd like to be able to boot the CD on my own system.

Any ideas, hints, or suggestions to help point me in the right direction? (I'm guessing it's either something to do with the way Dell has set the boot security, or my CDROM is not connected properly. In the BIOS, the CDROM shows as primary slave 0 CD-ROM Reader, but in the boot sequence it shows as IDE CD-ROM.)

Thanks.

[edit to add: running WinXP Dell Optiplex GX110 with 1 Ghz processor, 256megs RAM. Kids system is a WinXP clone, Athelon 1.7Ghz, 512megs RAM]

RayG

[UnderScore]

try booting with the boot cheat codes:
knoppix nodma

I have used Knoppix 3.3 to 3.8.1 of Dell optiplex gl133, gxa, gx1, 110, 150, 160. Using cheat codes is the key.

[rgavel]

try booting with the boot cheat codes:
knoppix nodma

I have used Knoppix 3.3 to 3.8.1 of Dell optiplex gl133, gxa, gx1, 110, 150, 160. Using cheat codes is the key.

That did the trick. I'm posting this after booting with the Knoppix CD on my own system. I'm using Konqueror though, as Mozilla caused my screen to trash.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, I'm now a happy camper.

RayG