Boot Hangs at autoconfiguring devices

[WelshBluebird]

I'm quite new to linux and I'm trying to run the Knoppixb 4.0.2 Live CD on an old computer thats useless when running windows. It has a pentium mmx 200Mhz processor, 4GB hard drive and 32MB ram. because of the small memory i'm planning to make a 512mb swap file on the hard drive if I can actually get knoppix working.
I first had trouble setting it up to boot from a CD, for some reason the bios settings wouldn't save. I managed to sort that out. But now booting from the cd, it boots normally but when it gets to autoconfiguring devices it just keeps on trying to autoconfiguring the devices. The green line keeps on going. (that's the best I can descibe it).
I did leave it for an hour, but when I checker it, the screen had just gone fuzzy and blured. I could just about make out the penguin at the top!
I've checked the md5 checksum which was correct and burned the CD using a 1x speed. I've tried a few CD's to make sure it wasn't the actual disc, but no luck.
It works fine on my newer computer (1gb ram, 160gb hard drive, 2.16Ghz, hopefully soon to be ex-windows) so am I right in assuming it's either the acutal computer or a hardware conflict?

Thanks in advance

[UnderScore]

Knoppix boots with a splash screen. At that splash screen you can enter codes which will force Knoppix to do certan things. Theses codes are known as Cheat Codes (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes). Try something like:
knoppix 2 vga=normal nosmp noscsi noagp noapic acpi=off noapm nopcmcia nousb nofirewire

[rwcitek]

Hello WelshBluebird and welcome to Knoppix.net.

We hope that you enjoy your use of Knoppix and hope you become an active member of the community. There's no membership fee. We just ask that you help us and others by becoming familiar with Knoppix, posting questions, and letting the rest of us know how things go. Also, I noticed that you joined recently and so was wondering if you wouldn't mind answering a few questions.

1. - How did you hear about Knoppix?
2. - How did you discover Knoppix.net?
3. - What versions of Knoppix have you tried?
4. - What type of system are you running Knoppix on?
5. - What operating system is currently installed on that system?
6. - How long have you been using computers, or how familiar are you with computers?
7. - Have you used linux before? If so, how long?
8. - What do you hope to do with Knoppix or Linux?
9. - Are you familiar with a wiki? If so, have you used a wiki before, e.g wrote some content?


Try something like:
knoppix 2 vga=normal nosmp noscsi noagp noapic acpi=off noapm nopcmcia nousb nofirewire
In addition, you might also want to try this:

boot: failsafe nohwsetup 1

If that works, knoppix will boot into text-mode. That is, you'll see a prompt instead of the KDE desktop.

In any case let us know how it goes.

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

[WelshBluebird]

Thanks UnderScore & rwcitek, i'll try them when I have chance.

As for the questions:
1, Google (searched for Linux)
2, Google
3, 3.9 and 4.0.2
4, right now, It's installed as a virtual machine on VMWare (on a computer with 1gb RAM, 160GB hard drive and a 2.16Ghz processor) . But hopefully, soon it'll be on the computer in question.
5, Windows XP on the newer PC and Windows 95 on the older one
6, Since early 90's
7, No
8, Use it on my older computer, to add USB and WiFi support. And to add more apps.
9, not really, only looking though knoppix, Damn small linux and other Linux Disto's Wiki's.

edit - What I don't understand is that Damn small Linux boots perfectally, no problems, yet this uses the same hardware detection as knoppix and is based on knoppix.

[WelshBluebird]

update - What rwcitek suggested "boot: failsafe nohwsetup 1" works partly.
It gets past the bit where it hanged before, goes on to say about low memory and asks about using a swap file on a DOS partition. I agree, but then it says it cannot find a DOS partition.
Since i'm ruuning win 95 on there, not DOS, would I need to install DOS on a different partition?
Also, after saying it cannot find a DOS partition, it hangs again.

[rwcitek]

update - What rwcitek suggested "boot: failsafe nohwsetup 1" works partly.
It gets past the bit where it hanged before, goes on to say about low memory and asks about using a swap file on a DOS partition. I agree, but then it says it cannot find a DOS partition.
Since i'm ruuning win 95 on there, not DOS, would I need to install DOS on a different partition?
Also, after saying it cannot find a DOS partition, it hangs again.
The difference between DSL and Knoppix is that DSL is optimized to run in as little memory as possible. So, 32 MB for DSL is just fine. 32 MB for Knoppix is a bit of a stretch. However, I also have a 32 MB machine and can successfully boot Knoppix on it. Yes, it asks for a swapfile, which it cannot find, but then continues normally until I get root prompt like so:

root@tty1[/]#
Do you not get a root prompt? If not, something is wrong and try this:

boot: knoppix debug -b 3
Knoppix should go through a sequence of stages in the boot process. I've posted some screenshots of what those stages should look like here (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Boot_process_4.0.2CD#boot:_knoppix_debug_-b_3). At what stage does your Knoppix hang?

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

[WelshBluebird]

well after trying a few cheat codes, I've got it to boot. First into text mode, then I tried booting into the normal mode. While doing this it actually 'saw' my hard drive and let me make a swap file on it.
However, Knoppix boots, but doesn't get further than showing the background. So I see the default desktop background, but nothing else.
Also, the CD drive is constatly being accessed. But nothing's happened after an hour of me waiting.
I know the constatly accessing the CD drive bit could be caused by a bad burn, but since I burned it at 1x speed and onto a brand new cd-r, i doubt it this would be the problem.

[Harry Kuhman]

well after trying a few cheat codes, I've got it to boot. First into text mode, then I tried booting into the normal mode. While doing this it actually 'saw' my hard drive and let me make a swap file on it.
However, Knoppix boots, but doesn't get further than showing the background. So I see the default desktop background, but nothing else.
It might help if you told us which cheat codes that you used. I've run Knoppix on an old 166mhz 64 meg system and it is painfully slow (and I haven't even tried it with recent versions). Your 32 megs of ram is certainly a major issue here and may just be too little to hope to run the GUI in (yes, Linux has suffered much of the same bloat that other systems have; I managed a University system several years ago that ran sixty or more interactive users in far less memory, whithout a GUI, of course). There are other less memory intensive graphical interfaces than KDE; you might consider looking for a Live CD with one of those, or even install Debian or another Linux distro and use a small GUI (if you use one at all).

[rwcitek]

well after trying a few cheat codes, I've got it to boot. First into text mode, then I tried booting into the normal mode. While doing this it actually 'saw' my hard drive and let me make a swap file on it.
However, Knoppix boots, but doesn't get further than showing the background. So I see the default desktop background, but nothing else.
It might help if you told us which cheat codes that you used.
Might? No, it will, especially if one of those cheatcodes was a number, e.g. 1,2,3, or 4. So, please tell us what you did that worked.


I've run Knoppix on an old 166mhz 64 meg system and it is painfully slow (and I haven't even tried it with recent versions).
I've just tried 4.0.2 on a 32 MB system with no swap. Knoppix boots into text mode with "knoppix 3" just fine, but it will not boot into any GUI (tried xfce, fluxbox, and twm). Is there a GUI more light-weight than twm?

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

[rwcitek]

well after trying a few cheat codes, I've got it to boot. First into text mode, then I tried booting into the normal mode. While doing this it actually 'saw' my hard drive and let me make a swap file on it.
I created a 64MB swapfile called knoppix.swp on /dev/hda1, which is an ext3 partition. When I booted with this:

boot: knoppix desktop=twm

Knoppix booted up just fine into the GUI using twm. Other desktops that worked include fluxbox, icewm, and larswm. Desktops that did not work include kde, xfce, xfce4, openbox, and lg3d.

Personally, I like icewm as a minimalist desktop alternative to kde, but YMMV.

Let us know what you tried and how it goes.

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