knoppix v3.9 screen gets fuzzy

[jwb15]

First timer here, i downloaded version:
KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN.ISO

After All the devices are loaded and so on, right after it says starting X11.....
My screen starts switch on and off, then it goes fuzzy, almost like a television on a bad channel. I took a look the known bugs list, however i'm not certain what to do after that.

[UnderScore]

Welcome to Knoppix.net
First, did you follow the download & verification & burning instructions at http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Downloading_FAQ ?
It has some real must reads tips & suggestions that will help you make sure you have downloaded and burned a good working Knoppix CD.

On the video problems:
It sounds like knoppix is doing the best it can at autodetecting the video hardware (perhaps getting it wrong) & then setting a resolution & refresh rate that is beyond the capabilities of the hardware. Try booting knoppix with some Cheat Codes (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes), such as:
knoppix screen=800x600 xvrefresh=60
knoppix screen=640x480 xvrefresh=60

I hope this helps.
James

[jwb15]

Thanks for the response...
I tried the cheat codes you listed,...unfortunately it didn't work. I thought it would have, because this monitor i'm using is an older micron monitor, and it can't display high resolution, max is 800x600.
I downloaded the md5 checksum and also quickpar, which i installed on my laptop in order to check the knoppix cd. I read that the md5 is just a text file, now how do i go about checking this CD. Quickpar is just a little confusing to me.

Also, i read the following:

"When running under Linux you can verify that your download was perfect and that the ISO's contents are unchanged by typing "md5sum -c filename.md5" under Linux/Unix"

my question is in order to do this (on my desktop) the would the md5 need to be on the knoppix CD?

[UnderScore]

I've never used QuickPar and I tend to use HashCalc http://www.slavasoft.com/hashcalc/
HashCalc is easy to figure out. You give it a file to check and then it will create a alphanumeric string. See the screenshot http://www.slavasoft.com/hashcalc/screenshots.htm
You will then visually look/compare the MD5 string you generated to the string of characters in the .MD5 file you have downloaded. If they match, then it is perfect.

[Harry Kuhman]

I read that the md5 is just a text file, now how do i go about checking this CD. Quickpar is just a little confusing to me.
You don't need to use quickpar. There are any number of good md5 check programs (I tend to like and advocate md5summer). But here are 4 ways to check your md5 sum with Quickpar:

If a recent version of Quickpar is installed and you have no other md5 check program installed, then the md5 extension will be associated with Quickpar (this is how I first realized that Quixkpar did the tests). In this case you just double clisk the md5 file and Quickpar starts and runs the test.

If the md5 extension is assigned to some other program, you should still be able to use "open with" to use Quickpar. In Win98 I do this by holding down the shift key when I click on the md5 file and an open with ... shows up in the menu. You can do this as a one-time thing or use the checkbox to change the default relation. This may be slightly different for some versions of Windows but should be there for all of them.

You can add Quickpar to your "send to" list by putting a link to Quickpar in your send to directory. Then Quickpar will show up in the send to sub-menu when you right click on the md5 file. Adding stuff to your send-to list is a very powerful tool for customizing windows. With this technique you just right click on an md5 file, select send to ..., select Quickpar.

Doing none of the above, just start Quickpar. You'll seee it's normal screen to compute par2 files. Press the open botton near the bottom left of the window. Use the drop down file type selection to pick checksum files, then navigate to to the md5 file and open it.

"When running under Linux you can verify that your download was perfect and that the ISO's contents are unchanged by typing "md5sum -c filename.md5" under Linux/Unix"

my question is in order to do this (on my desktop) the would the md5 need to be on the knoppix CD?
The location of the md5 file is very important for most default testing. Most programs assume that the md5 is in the same directory as the file being tested (although you can create md5 files that the entire contents of subdirectories). For testing the Knoppix ISO file you need to put the md5 file in the directory with the ISO. There are md5 files within the ISO for the Knoppix CD that are used for the testcd boot feature, but theses only do you any good at all after the CD has been burnt, and even then they don't test everything (they can't test the boot code, for example).

[jwb15]

I downloaded HashCalc, and you're right it's easy. After going through the steps, and comparing the results with MD5 i downloaded, it is way, way off. Not even close. Now i am 99% percent sure i downloaded the MD5 from the same location i downloaded the ISO. Ahhhh! i hope...

I'm going to try this again, when i get some quiet time, probably late at night. Thanks for all the help!

[Harry Kuhman]

I downloaded HashCalc, and you're right it's easy. After going through the steps, and comparing the results with MD5 i downloaded, it is way, way off. Not even close. Now i am 99% percent sure i downloaded the MD5 from the same location i downloaded the ISO. Ahhhh! i hope...

I'm going to try this again, when i get some quiet time, probably late at night. Thanks for all the help!
Because of the way it is calculated, even a single byte or bit difference in a file should cause the md5 checksum to be "way off". The important thing is that it doesn't match. Close does not count.

Manually comparing the checksums is completely valid, but the quickpar techniques that I gave above, md5summer, or most other programs will give you a yes/no type result.

.... Now i am 99% percent sure i downloaded the MD5 from the same location i downloaded the ISO.....
Well, right away that tells me you didn't use BitTorrent. I had about 50% bad downloads from the mirrors before BitTorrent became available. It really shouldn't matter where you got the md5 file from, all mirrors should have the same file, as long as you got the md5 for the same version number and same language (EN or DE) as the ISO. But I expect that you have a bad download. Consider using BitTorrent in the future (see the Downloading FAQ for more details).

[jwb15]

i'm going to take your advice and use BitTorrent...

Thanks again

[dpolizzi]

I'm a newbie but i had the same problem you did and I was hoping to find someone with this problem so I can share what I did.
before pressing enter i put: knoppix screen = 800 x 600
then i pressed enter and then after it says starting x11 it will turn off and then you press
ctrl + alt + f1 and then the screen will come back on and just press enter and it should work.
now that's where i'm stuck b/c i can't get to the desktop i'm just stuck in the black screen. well hope this works..

[rwcitek]

now that's where i'm stuck b/c i can't get to the desktop i'm just stuck in the black screen. well hope this works..
Welcome to Knoppix. I suspect it is an issue with your video card. Boot with boot: knoppix 3 and then type the following:

( set -x
cat /etc/knoppix-version
lspci
cat /etc/sysconfig/xserver
) >& post.txt

Please post the output of post.txt

Do you know what video card you are using? If you know it is using agp, then you may have luck by booting with boot: knoppix 3 and then running this code:

for i in /lib/modules/"$KVER"/kernel/drivers/char/agp/*; do
module="${i##*/}"; module="${module%%.*}"; modprobe ${module} >/dev/null 2>&1
done
init 5

Let us know how it goes.

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