Stops booting after auto config

[SwirlingVenom]

Alrighty, so I downloaded knoppix, to letyou know off hand. I have never used linux in my life before. So a freind guided me through it. When I first tryed it I would just get a black screen after the boot prompt. Then I was given some cheats, and the only one that would get me past the first thing that shows up which would be

"uncompressing linux, ok, booting kernel"

would be the cheat "failsafe" and that would bring me right up to all the funky coloured text. Once I got there there was a thing called auto configuration, it had a green loading bar, the bar would load, the blinking cursor would go the the next line. Then taht would be it. It would stop. Im not sure what I can do. Any help would be much appreciated.

[Harry Kuhman]

Try the cheat code knoppix expert which will boot asking a serise of questions. Answer them to the best of your ability and take notes. If you hit a point where you get a hang, try again and change the answer to your last question. Post back here with your answers and the point at which the process fails. Letting people know what computer make and model you have might help us help you also.

[SwirlingVenom]

Thanks kind stranger, I have 3.7 downlaoding now, but once thats finishes, ill give that a try. Thank you

[rwcitek]

would be the cheat "failsafe" and that would bring me right up to all the funky coloured text. Once I got there there was a thing called auto configuration, it had a green loading bar, the bar would load, the blinking cursor would go the the next line. Then taht would be it. It would stop. Im not sure what I can do. Any help would be much appreciated.
What version of Knoppix? What type of system? Have a look at the cheatcodes page, especially the Tips&Tricks (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes#Tips.26Tricks) section. It sounds like your machine is failing on some kind of hardware detection. If 'failsafe' almost works, try boot: failsafe nohwsetup 1. This should drop you into a text prompt. If you get that far, simply type 'reboot' to reboot your machine. Are you able to get that far?

Do you have another system on which to try Knoppix?

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

[The Saint]

Hi,
I too am a newbie to Linux. I am facing the same problem with Knoppix v3.9 even after using the "expert" cheat. Somebody please help me.

[rwcitek]

Somebody please help me.
No problem. What's the question? What are you having problems with? What have you tried?

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

[The Saint]

Hi,
I would like to know how to start my Live CD of Knoppix v3.9 which hangs after the auto configuration. I have tried the same with "expert" cheat but in vain.

[rwcitek]

I would like to know how to start my Live CD of Knoppix v3.9 which hangs after the auto configuration. I have tried the same with "expert" cheat but in vain.
Have a look at the CheatCodes docs, especially the Tips&Tricks (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes#Tips.26Tricks). Of those boot commands listed, which ones have you tried and how far did you get with each?

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

[docbill]

I have the same problem, on an old PII I've tried to run Knoppix on. I noticed even failsafe and -b have no effect. The CDROM is never locked, and I can eject it when the black screen appears. So at first I suspected the CD drive, but I get the same error even if I boot from an ISO file with bootfrom.


My best guess is that 3.9 is not compiled with generic 386 support, and requires at least a PIII support. But this is just a guess. I do know the boot options make no difference.

I used Gnoppix on the same machine, without problems. Unfortunately, Gnoppix is much less feature complete than Knoppix and the install option doesn't work with Gnoppix. The ubuntu version Gnoppix is based on is even less feature complete. So I would really prefere to get Knoppix working on the old computer.

Bill

[A. Jorge Garcia]

OK, now I'm baffled. This is the first time I could not boot KNOPPIX ever! I've been using KNOPPIX since version 2.2....

Anyway, I think it has to do with some new hardware in these new PIV boxes I just got installed at school. The liveCD is booting off an internal usb cdrom. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Anyway, it boots up to the point where "KNOPPIX version 2.78" or somesuch shows up, right after autodetect. Is there a problem with usb cdroms for booting live?

TIA,
AJG

[Harry Kuhman]

... Is there a problem with usb cdroms for booting live?
What versions have you tried? There are some strange USB problems with 3.9, I don't know if they are impacting you or not. I would try both a 3.7 and a 3.8.x version if you have them available.

[A. Jorge Garcia]

I'll have to double check, but I think I did try 3.7 and 3.8.1 already with the same result!

Thanx,
AJG

[The Saint]

Hi all,
The cheat codes do not help. As docbill had mentioned the CD ROM is not locked. Once the auto detect progress bar ( the green one ) reaches 100%, the system sort of hangs and the installation stalls. At this point of time the system is trying to read from the floppy drive. The LED for the floppy drive turns green and stays that way. The CD ROM at this point is not in use. Any help would be great :roll:

[Harry Kuhman]

.... Once the auto detect progress bar ( the green one ) reaches 100%, the system sort of hangs and the installation stalls..
The installation? What installation? Are you trying to "install" Knoppix or just boot it?

[The Saint]

I meant the booting. Will someone help me with the problem rather...

[docbill]

... Is there a problem with usb cdroms for booting live?
What versions have you tried? There are some strange USB problems with 3.9, I don't know if they are impacting you or not. I would try both a 3.7 and a 3.8.x version if you have them available.

I don't have version 3.7. Version 3.8.1 and version 3.9 both fail in the same manner. Versions 3.4 and 3.6 both boot normally.

Bill

[rwcitek]

The cheat codes do not help.
What cheatcodes (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes) have you tried?
What version of Knoppix are you using?
Describe your system:
- CPU speed
- amount of RAM
- size of hard disk
- type of CD-ROM (ATA, SATA, USB, etc.)
- any existing OS

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

[The Saint]

So mnay question but cant see even a single useful answer. Anyways
>>What cheatcodes have you tried?
I tried all the cheat codes mentioned in this thread & forums.

>>What version of Knoppix are you using?
As mentioned above I am using 3.9

Describe your system:
- CPU speed: P4 2.4 Ghz
- amount of RAM: 512 MB
- size of hard disk: 80 GB
- type of CD-ROM (ATA, SATA, USB, etc.): SATA
- any existing OS: Windows XP SP 2

[rwcitek]

>>What cheatcodes have you tried?
I tried all the cheat codes mentioned in this thread & forums.
OK. Then what happenend when you tried each of the boot options mentioned in the Tips&Trick (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes#Tips.26Tricks) section of the cheatcodes page? In addition what happenend when you booted with boot: failsafe nohwsetup 1? Did Knoppix drop you into a text prompt?

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

[docbill]

[quote=The Saint]The cheat codes do not help.
What cheatcodes (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes) have you tried? : -b, expert, bootfrom
What version of Knoppix are you using? 3.8.1, 3.9 have the problem. 3.4 and 3.6 don't
Describe your system:
- CPU speed: 450 MHz PII
- amount of RAM: 128 MB
- size of hard disk: 13.6 GB
- type of CD-ROM (ATA, SATA, USB, etc.): IDE CDROM. Note in the case where I tried the expert, the ISO image was on an ext3 filesytem. I want to try it on an extended 2 filesystem, but ubuntu does not provide any tools for resizing partitions without erasing data. I will see if I can download a program to try that today...
- any existing OS: First time I tried with Windows XP already installed. Second time with no OS installed. Everytime after with ubuntu linux installed.

[rwcitek]

What cheatcodes (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes) have you tried? : -b, expert, bootfrom
What version of Knoppix are you using? 3.8.1, 3.9 have the problem. 3.4 and 3.6 don't
Describe your system: ...
Nothing seems out of the ordinary.
You mentioned that you tried the "-b" option. Do you not step through various stages with boot: failsafe debug -b 1? What happens if you boot with boot: failsafe nohwsetup 1? Are you able to get to a root prompt?

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

[docbill]

OK. Then what happenend when you tried each of the boot options mentioned in the Tips&Trick (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes#Tips.26Tricks) section of the cheatcodes page?


Thanks Robert, I don't know how I missed the Tips & Tricks section of the cheat code. I didn't think of trying vga=0 because older versions of Knoppix, detected the correct value to use. When I use this option, I don't get the usual penguin at the top of the screen, but the boot continues longer before going to a blank screen.

After closer examination I found that the cheat codes:

knoppix vga=0 screen=1024x768

successfully start Knoppix. As with gnoppix, I have to manually load the eepro module with the command:

modprobe eepro irq=10 io=0x220

I haven't figured out how to get the sound to work, but then I'm beginning the think sound doesn't work with version 3.9. Three different machines, and no sound on any of them from the live CD. However, on one I installed knoppix on one of the machines and then did all the package updates. After that I was able to get sound to work. Perhaps sound will work on the 4.0 CD.

Bill



Bill

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Yup, it was 3.7 and 3.8.1 and no joy. BTW, let me correct something. I don't even get to the auto-detect. I only get up to

INIT Knoppix version 2.78

and everything hangs!

Help,
AJG

[rwcitek]

I only get up to

INIT Knoppix version 2.78

and everything hangs!
Have a look at the CheatCodes docs, especially the Tips&Tricks (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes#Tips.26Tricks). Of those boot commands listed, which ones have you tried and how far did you get with each?

If you get to INIT that means that /etc/init is running and then halting. While this may sound bad it also means that the CD can be read by isolinux, that the kernel is loaded, that the kernel can read the CD, that the initial ram disk was mounted, and that the compressed iso was found and mounted. In short, Linux runs. The question is, where does it stop running and why? Running the boot commands listed in the Tips&Tricks section will shed light on that.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

[A. Jorge Garcia]

OK, that's a new cheat code on me! What does vga=0 do, text mode a la KNOPPIX 2?

TIA,
AJG

[rwcitek]

OK, that's a new cheat code on me! What does vga=0 do, text mode a la KNOPPIX 2?
Almost. vga=0 is the same as vga=normal. So, boot: knoppix vga=0 is identical to boot: knoppix-txt. In fact, if you look at the boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg on the CD file you'll see that the two boot stanzas only differ in their vga= settings, with the default vga setting being 791. The vga= cheatcode sets the vga "mode", with common values in the range 0-8 and 784-795 (among others). In contrast, boot: knoppix 2 sets the init runlevel to 2, which happens to be a text-mode runlevel. Common runlevels are 0-6 (among others.)

For more information on the vga= setting, have a look in the kernel documentation (/usr/share/linux*/Documentation/svga.txt). For more information on runlevels, 'man init'.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org