Cannot boot from KNOPPIX CD

[tolstoy]

I downloaded a file KNOPPIX_V.39-2005-05-27-EN.iso and copied the image to a CD (using Sonic Record Now, burn image option). I changed the BOOT order in the BIOS setting to boot from CD, but it keeps loading WIN XP. When I check the CD-ROM drive from my Windows Explorer to see if the image was burned properly, it reads that the drive is not accessible. I tried burning the image 3 times to a CD, but none of them seem to work. What am I doing wrong?

[Harry Kuhman]

What am I doing wrong?
More things than I can even guess. You certainly do not copy the image to a CD, so that's an obvious problem. But if you do, I have no idea why you wouldn't be able to see it on the CD, so you likely have other problems too. A place to start will be by reading the downloading faq (follow the documentation link near the top of this page). But you'll need to be able to produce a CD that you can actually see the files on with Windows if you expect it to boot, and I have no insight why, if you rally burnt the CD media (even improperly) that you can't see anything on it.

[tolstoy]

OK. I redownloaded the iso file using Bittorrent, following the instructions on the documentation link. I checked the md5 checksum using MD5Summer and got a green light for good. I burned the iso as an image file using Nero 6, exactly following the steps in the documentation link (i.e. burned at 4X, Disc at once, finalize after burning, etc)

Now, when I boot off the CD, it appears that everything is going well, and that I get a bunch of I/O error that looks like this:

hda: media errir (bad sector): status=
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
end_request: I/O error, dev hda, sector 1384212
Buffer I/O error

After a few minutes of this, it goes to a black screen and it just hangs there. The CD-rom drives keeps spinning with the green activity light.

What's my next step???

[Harry Kuhman]

What's my next step???
It sounds like you are getting past the Knoppix boot prompt. This is a good sign.

The downloading faq (which also covers booting) should touch on this, so you may want to refer to it as well as the cheat code article in the wiki.

I would start by trying the knoppix dma cheat code, as many CD/DVD drives are showing up that seem to need DMA to read or boot properly.

If that didn't work I would try the testcd code to see if the disc was indeed good. It certainly sounds like you did the right steps, and this test should report no read errors and no md5 errors. If there are errors you'll need to think about why (maybe a dirty CD lense, for example, or really awful media).

If the dma cheat code doesn't help and the testcd shows a good disc, then I might look over the ceeat codes to see if anything else looks like it might help, but I expect the next thing that would be useful would be to boot with the expert code and see how far you can get and exactly at what point the boot process is failing. (this should not need to be said, but take notes.)