total newb needs help

[tlo]

im trying to download and burn my own CD to boot from, but when i click on one of the mirrors it brings me to an ftp, and i dont know which of the files to download and which need to be burned, etc. could someone help me?

[tdjokic]

http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Downloading_FAQ everything explained :-)

[tlo]

ok i downloaded the ISO, burned it onto a CD, i booted from it, detections, yadda yadda...
then the knoppix "Linux in use" wallpaper comes up, a little while later some system initialization splash comes up, it goes away, and now nothing is happening. the wallpaper is still up, but there is no toolbar, nothing to signalize KDE is running. what's happening, and how do i make it work?

EDIT: after about 10-15 minutes, KDE finally started showing up. is this a normal load time? or is there something i need to do to fix it?

my machine is a 2 year old compaq presario 2500 with a P4 2.4, 512 ram, cdrw, floppy, and winXP pro. it has i believe either a 24 or 32 gig hard drive, and i think it was all partitioned for XP, whatever best buy or compaq does to their computers (i know, never buying a compaq again, or buying from best buy).

[tdjokic]

This is very strange. Knoppix is faster than you talk, much faster.

[Cuddles]

. . .after about 10-15 minutes, KDE finally started showing up. is this a normal load time? or is there something i need to do to fix it?

No, its not a "normal" boot time, even on "slow" machines, the boot time will not be "that" long...

Possible resolves...
What is your boot: prompt options? Does your computer have PCMCIA, or SCSI? Does your hard drives not support DMA?

My thinking is, you are starting services that you dont need, or will ever use, and they are taking time to "time out", during the boot process...

Try adding the following, to the end of your "already" entered boot: prompt options:
boot: ... nopcmcia noscsi nodma

( those are spaces between the three options, if you dont have a laptop or PCMCIA, the nopcmcia disables that service. If you dont have SCSI devices connected to a SCSI controller, the noscsi disables that service, and, lastly, the nodma disables using DMA on all your drives ( this one may not be the issue, but, I provided it as a test )

Something is "clogging" the boot, other options? How fast is your CDROM drive? I've booted with a 12 speed ( x ) DVD drive with the Knoppix CD in it, and it NEVER took as long as you are getting...

Hopefully, this helps,
Ms. Cuddles