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jsteveg
09-17-2007, 08:02 PM
Not a technical person at all, 5.1 DL and burned to CD.

Knoppix CD will open to first screen, then when [Enter] pressed, screen goes blank, dark grey?

I have XP Media Center 2005 in a HP Pavilion a164On. Processor Intel Viiv with a Core 2 Duo Processor (E6300)??

Help!

Harry Kuhman
09-17-2007, 08:41 PM
You might need to find the proper cheat code to make it boot, but I'm guessing that if it goes blank right after you hit enter, without even showing a penguin, that you either didn't check the md5 sum of the ISO and have a bad download, or you burnt it at high speed, or both.

jsteveg
09-17-2007, 09:12 PM
Hope this is how to reply on the site, but I read your post and attempted booting several more times.

1st time I entered [2] to get a level 2 test mode and nothing happened

2nd time I entered [testcd] and the response was {cannot find kernal image} so I guess I have a bad burn? I don't know how fast it was recorded but I have the DL and can try again if you might give a pointer.

My DL file shows 696M and (730,177,536 bytes) My system speed is 1.86 gig (I believe that's how you say it)

Harry Kuhman
09-17-2007, 10:19 PM
Hope this is how to reply on the site, but I read your post and attempted booting several more times.

1st time I entered [2] to get a level 2 test mode and nothing happened

2nd time I entered [testcd] and the response was {cannot find kernal image} so I guess I have a bad burn? I don't know how fast it was recorded but I have the DL and can try again if you might give a pointer.

My DL file shows 696M and (730,177,536 bytes) My system speed is 1.86 gig (I believe that's how you say it)
Sounds from testcd that you may have a bad download. But there is no reason to speculate about this or check file size (I don't remember the file size to the byte for every ISO). Use the md5 test to be 100% sure if the download was good or not. An md5 file comes down with every BitTorrent download, and is on the mirrors if you downloaded the ISO from them. If you used BitTorrent then your download is likely good, barring user error. My experience with the mirrors before torrents for Knoppix were available was only about 50% good downloads. BitTorrent is much faster too. If you do have a bad ISO then I urge you to use BitTorrent for the next download. See the Downloading FAQ (Answer #1 (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/User:Harry_Kuhman)) for more info on checking the md5 sum and on using BitTorrent. And when you know that you have a good ISO, burn it slowly, 4x recommended, or as slow as your burning software will go.

jsteveg
09-18-2007, 06:58 PM
I have DL and installed the Bit Torrent application and I am going to ftp://csociety-ftp.ecn.purdue.edu/pub/knoppix to download Knoppix. Is the big difference w/Bit Torrent that the accuracy and speed are better? After the DL, do I just burn an ISO CD, whatever ISO means? Excuse the ignorance!

Harry Kuhman
09-18-2007, 10:53 PM
I have DL and installed the Bit Torrent application and I am going to ftp://csociety-ftp.ecn.purdue.edu/pub/knoppix to download Knoppix.
Well, that ain't gonna work. Once again, read the downloading FAQ. It will tell you to go to the GET KNOPPIX link near the top of this page and download the small torrent file for the version you want (selecting between the English (EN) and German (DL) versions and CD or DVD versions as well a which release version). Then you use the torrent file to download from many sites offering the files to you.

jsteveg
09-19-2007, 04:25 PM
Roger that! I read further and discovered that after I sent this last note. I will burn this morning at some slower rate than the preset.

jsteveg
09-22-2007, 04:52 AM
Well.... good evening Harry!

I did DL the Bit Torrent link and copied the files successfully, etc.

I have since burned 2 CDs using the file and also tried to boot them and a 3.6 version (purchased) that I have used successfully in years past with no positive result!

I am flustered. My tech knowledge is about exhausted I think. Please advise?

Steve

Harry Kuhman
09-22-2007, 12:47 PM
Well.... good evening Harry!

I did DL the Bit Torrent link and copied the files successfully, etc.

I have since burned 2 CDs using the file and also tried to boot them and a 3.6 version (purchased) that I have used successfully in years past with no positive result!

I am flustered. My tech knowledge is about exhausted I think. Please advise?

Steve
This is extremely strange. I certainly don't know what the problem is, but I'll throw out some thoughts and see if anything catches your eye.

I don't put much stock in purchased CDs, as they tend to be burnt at high speed and may well boot on some systems and not others. It's interesting the disc doesn't boot either, and I'm assuming hangs in the same spot, after the prompt but before you get a penguin (or 2 in your case of a dual core system), which seems to imply it is not a problem limited to 5.x Knoppix, but I just don't put too much faith in what a purchased CD can tell me. You mentioned that it did work before. Did it work on this computer before? If it was on a different computer, does it still work on that computer? Do the new discs that you made work on that computer? Or any other computer?

I'm assuming that you also confirmed the md5 checksum of the iso that you downloaded. Not that it should be needed with a BitTorrent download, but it would be foolish no to in light of the problems that you are seeing. Have you tried testcd at the boot prompt, and did it pass the test this time, or did it give another error like before? Did you have Nero or other ISO burning software verify the disc after the burn? Have you tried a different brand of media, or better yet a CD-RW? Are you booting the CD on the same system that you burnt it on, or are these different systems?

Have you confirmed that the computer's memory is good? You should be able to boot the CD, type memtest at the boot prompt, and run memtest86.

Is this a desktop system or a notebook. If desktop. you're not using it with a very old monitor are you? Even with an old monitor I wouldn't expect problems until the system tries to switch to graphic mode (when it can sometimes choose scan rates that are outside of what the monitor will accept and this often causes a blank screen), but I guess there is a very slim chance that you might have issues even in text mode. And for that matter, confirm that you really see nothing at all except a blank screen immediately after hitting enter.

Does this system have only one optical drive? If it has more than one, have you tried the other drive?

I'm not really sure why you bothered to download the entire ISO file again when the md5 test that I pointed out to you would have let you know if your first one was good (if it was then nothing could be gained by downloading another duplicate copy). This would have just taken seconds and been much faster than downloading again.