Booting knoppix on my Thinkpad T20

[TheWhale]

I just downloaded the Knoppix ISO to run on my T20. The specs on my machine are Pentium III 800Mhz, 256 ram, and a 40gb hard drive. I used Knoppix version 5.1.1Cd-2007-01-04-En.ISO from Knoppix.org. The initial boot up went great with no errors at all and all hardware recognized. After that the screen just sat there blank. I have looked through the many posts in this forum but I have yet to find a solution specific for my circumstance. I do not want to play around unless I know that these commands would work for me as well. Any help anyone can offer would be great. Thank you all in advance for your time and efforts.

[Harry Kuhman]

Did you verify the md5 checksum? Did you burn the ISO at low speed? You might need one or more "cheat codes" to boot, but it would be a waste of time to pursue that if the answers to the above are not both yes.

[TheWhale]

I burned at 24x using nero. The cd seems to be working fine because the boot up goes well and then is says Starting windows x or something like that. I do not know what verifying the md5 checksum means or how do it. It seems this is all a little above my head. I did a few hours of reading on Linux and I was just looking for a simple way to experience it. Please let me know how to continue. Thank you.

[Harry Kuhman]

Answer #2 (http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/User:Harry_Kuhman).

[TheWhale]

OK now that I have done much more reading and research I request help with more knowledge of what I am trying to do. I did verify the md5 checksum and burned it at 4x using Nero. I still however end up with the same problem. After it loads and boots up the screen is just black. I did notice during boot up that at some point in the process there was something called an invalid argument. I would also like to state that I am just trying to run the live cd and not trying a hd install. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Harry Kuhman]

Now that you have a verified and properly burned disc, the next step is to try to find the right cheat code or cheat codes that will allow you to boot. One popular code that often helps with video devices and blank screens is xmodule=vesa . I know of no universal answers to the problem of finding the correct codes though, sometimes it's just trial and error, particularly when your hardware needs multiple codes (I needed acpi=off and noscsi with one notebook for several releases of Knoppix and that was very hard to find). Beyond reading the cheat code documentation, a couple more things that you can try are:
1 Try booting in failsafe mode. this almost always boots, but usually doesn't provide a very useful system, as things like the network and even the mouse may not be detected and therefore not work. But it's a good chance to at least see Knoppix running on your system.

2 Read about the cheat codes and then boot in expert mode. Take good notes about how you answer each of the questions. If Knoppix hangs again, reboot, go back to the last question and try changing your answer.

[TheWhale]

Thank you! xmodule=vesa did the trick. Next after looking through the nice features of knoppix I could use a hint as to how to get my D-Link wireless network card to work. Any ideas?

[Harry Kuhman]

....Next after looking through the nice features of knoppix I could use a hint as to how to get my D-Link wireless network card to work. Any ideas?
1 Different question, best to start another thread in the Networking forum.

2 Just saying Dlink isn't enough. You need to say the model number. And particularly with Dlink the model number isn't enough either, as they change hareware vendors but keep using the same device model number and just call it a different revision or version number, so you'll want to spell that out also to have any chance of getting good help. See the wiki section on wireless networking for what little information people have taken the time to post about Dlink devices.

3 I have several Dlink wireless cards, none of which have ever been supported under Knoppix. Strangely, I did discover that a couple of these cards are supported just fine under other Linve Linux CDs like Puppy Linux and Mandriva One.

4 Up until and including Knoppix 4.02 I was able to use a Belkin wifi card with Knoppix (the only wifi card that I ever got to work with Knoppix). All of the 5.x versions fail to work with that card. They do seem to detect it, but I can no longer properly configure Knoppix for wifi operation. I've pretty much given up on wifi for Knoppix. Knoppix has it's uses, but it shouldn't be a main OS that one depends on, and I've spent way too much time fighting wifi problems that should be easy to keep fooling with this. This is extremely unfortunate, since Knoppix would be a wonderful solution to many of the problems that can occur when using public wifi hot spots, but it's the reality of the software. Maybe you have a different model of interface and your experience will be completely different. If not and you want a Live CD solution for wireless access, try Puppy Linux and Mandrive One (and perhaps others) and see if they support your hardware where Knoppix does not.

[TheWhale]

Sorry for not starting a new thread this one was on a roll so I just went with it. My wireless card is a D-Link 650+. After some research about linux drivers for the card I did find out that it has some component known as acx100 and I need the driver for this. I just dont know where to go from here. I have an old 6gb hard drive I was going to install linux on once I got a good feel for knoppix. If I cant go wireless with my card on knoppix what are the chances it will work with a hd install of different disrto?