Knoppix won't boot on my laptop -- DVD is NOT bad - tested it on other laptop

[morgan4k]

Hi all,

I can't get the Knoppix 6.2 to boot on my Dell D620, running Window XP Professional. I bought the DVD from Knoppix.net and have tested it on my other newer laptop - an Acer running Windows 7 Home Premium. It boots on that laptop fine and runs perfectly from the DVD on my Acer. On my Acer, it's perfect -- boots, gets to the Knoppix desktop, runs all Linux apps.

On my Dell, I've followed the instructions -- inserted the DVD, pressed F12 for the One-time boot menu, selected to boot from the DVD. Then the Windows logo appears and starts booting into the Windows OS.

Help please!! This is driving me nuts. This SHOULD work.
~K

[utu]

@morgan4k

Sounds as if your Dell doesn't like your Knoppix DVD.
One alternative might be to make a Knoppix CD or USB
and try to use that on your Dell.

[morgan4k]

Yes, I guess I could try that but I think I'd probably still have the same problem.

I'm probably not as technical as the rest of the members -- but here's what I think might be happening -- I just have no clue how to deal with it.

I think that when I change the boot order and force it to boot from DVD, it does recognize that but then it might have something to do with the boot.ini file... it looks at what OS it should load, sees only Windows in the boot.ini, tries to load that, can't load it from DVD, so falls back to the HD... and Windows loads.

I could be wrong but I think ... at least on Win XP or maybe it's a Dell thing ... there's more steps to getting my laptop to boot from DVD when the DVD has an different OS from what's loaded on the HD. Also, I have a feeling that this would be the same issue whether I booted from DVD or USB flash drive.

[Harry Kuhman]

DVD is NOT bad - tested it on other laptop
I don't know if your DVD is bad or not, and I'm not saying that it is, but your title statement is just completely bogus. I suggest that you look at the post by giddonah (http://www.knoppix.net/forum/../members/44794-giddonah) , currently right below your post in this same forum, and see what I had to say about his disc that booted OK in another computer and what his response was.

[utu]

@morgan4k

I notice on this forum that a lot of would-be first-time knoppix users
have the problem that their CD or DVD's won't boot at all. Experienced
users (like Harry) usually tell them to re-record these at a lower speed,
and a great many, find that solves the problem.

I am just guessing that yours may be a variant of this scenario where
you have the problem on one machine but not on another with a particular
DVD. Making that particular DVD work on your Dell may be a harder task
than you want; maybe a lot harder than the new CD or USB task suggested.

[morgan4k]

My last post got cut off -- sorry

I read all the posts about booting trouble -- decided to BUY the DVD from Knoppix - figured that would prevent me from having bad media -- ie things like it not being recorded at a slow enough speed, etc.

But are you all Saying it could STILL be bad? Even though you guys sold it to me?

Thanks -- sorry if this sounds like a rant -- it's not. I'm just trying to understand this issue and fix it.

~K

[Harry Kuhman]

As far as I know Knoppix.net never sells discs, although this site may, as advertising, refer you to a disc vendor.

I have been asked by the site owner not to disparage our advertisers. However, I believe strongly that any high speed bun is always marginal, and that the 12.5% or so a a disc that is "wasted" for error correction code conceals this. And, from what I have seen, Linux apparently isn't doing error correction on optical media while it is still booting, so the problems that can occur from high speed burning are not corrected and hidden the way that they normally are after an OS has booted.

Now I don't know if the vendor who you used burnt at slow speed or not. I do have my opinion of what speed a disc is likely to be burnt at by anyone selling the disc to others, particularly when sold at such a low price, but I don't know. And as I said in my previous post, I'm in no way saying that I know your disc is bad, what I was saying is that any statement that a disc worked in one drive so it must be good and should be expected to boot in any drive is completely bogus. In addition to the reference that I gave you, which shows this is not the case, there are many other times in these forums where I've convinced someone to burn an ISO file at slow speed, and that has allowed the disc to boot properly when a high speed burn failed or when a high speed burn took much much longer to boot than it should. I'm sorry, I can't give you links to those threads, as the forum has changed software since then and the links that I recorded are no longer valid for finding the posts. If you are interested in reading these I suggest searching the forums for terms like "slow speed" and "4x" (or just read all of my posts).

Your problem might be some other compatibility issue with Linux. But I don't know that it is. Personally, I would try reading the downloading FAQ, download an ISO file (maybe start with a different version than what you have now so that you will have multiple versions on the machine that boots your current disc), confirm the md5, then burn the file AS AN ISO (don't just copy it to the disc) at low speed as described in the downloading FAQ.

Feel free to discuss the issue with the site owner Clinton also. But I'm not one of the guys who sold you the disc, I'm just the unpaid janitor here, trying to help you and others get Knoppix running.

[klaus2008]

Sometimes burning a DVD from an ISO file can be very expensive and time-consuming. When I tried to create a bootable DVD from an ISO file for the first time I did not know that the CDRW/DVD drive in my notebook does not boot if I burn on a DVD-R medium. It does read DVD-R without any problem. After several unsuccessful attempts I tried DVD+R(W) media. And with these types of media I am able to boot my Linux DVDs. Since that day I know that not all drives are equal even if they are called compatible with DVD-R and DVD+R media.

[Harry Kuhman]

Interesting point klaus. I do suggest that anyone starting burning start with RW media if they can, as it avoids any waste and, as a nice side effect, usually forces them to do a slow speed burn. Also, you don't end up with old versions that you no longer want if you update every time a new version comes out (although I would suggest keeping a few old versions around, just in case you need something that has been dropped from a new version).

However, it can be even more time consuming and expensive to wait for an ordered disc to come in the mail, and then find that it will not work for you. I've seen people post that they were in a hurry to recover a crashed computer so they ordered the Knoppix disc, that just makes no sense to me. I can download it and make a working CD in an hour or two. Other's time may vary depending on their Internet connection, but mine is by no means extremely fast. And people who still have dial up can likely find a friend with high speed access and offer to make them a Knoppix disc if they will let them download the needed file. Anyone willing to follow the instructions in the downloading FAQ should be able to make their own copy, and perhaps develop a skill in the process.

I don't know what the vendors are sending out, but if like you many people have systems that will not boot either DVD-R or alternately DVD+R, there is no reason that I know of to think that the vendors will use the media that is correct for you, so ordering would not seem to improve your chances over doing it yourself. If you were making a point that I just don't get please help me understand.

My real point in responding to this thread at all is that even the title repeats the old myth that if a disc worked in one computer it should be expected to work in them all. I don't want Knoppix.net visitors to read that unchanged and believe it is true, perhaps even repeating the myth to some other victim. I wish that was the case, but years of experience and literally thousands of CD and DVD burns (not all Knoppix) have proven to me that high speed burns have errors. These are usually concealed by the error recovery data on the disc (a 700 meg CD actually has over 800 meg of data space, but the rest is normally used for error correction), but this does not seem to help when booting Linux. And even for discs that will only be used after booting, I want that error correction data to be available to help me get past later minor disc scratches, optics imperfections, or even disc aging (a.k.a. "disc rot"), I don't want it wasted by a high speed burn when I can simply avoid that problem by burning a disc in 15 minutes rather than rushing to get it done in one or two.