Earlier version of Knoppix

[Jared]

is there a version of knoppix that can run on a windows 98 computer?

[rickenbacherus]

Well since Knoppix runs independently of the hard disc and the OS on that hard disc then yes- any Knoppix will run on a win98 machine.

[Jared]

Yes I know that but I tried to install knoppix on my win 98 but when it didn't work I checked to see if my coputer was set to boot from the d drive and found out there was only the choices to boot in the A and C drives.

[Jared]

i

[rickenbacherus]

If your machine is incapable of booting from cd then you need to boot from floppy. (The a drive as M$ likes to call it). Boot windows, mount the Knoppix cdrom and look for a .bat file (makefloppy.bat??) to make a floppy Knoppix floppy under windows. Sorry I don't have a Knoppix cd handy to look right now.

[Jared]

The problem is I can't get into windows. my computer will only make it partway through the startup. thats why I am trying to use knoppix to recover my data.

[rickenbacherus]

The problem is I can't get into windows. my computer will only make it partway through the startup. thats why I am trying to use knoppix to recover my data.

Hmmmmm- that's a problem isn't it. Do you have access to another machine to make the floppy? Personally I would use a Linux floppy like Tom's rtbt to mount the cdrom and make the boot floppy from there. I doubt that you have one of those lying around though. If you have a win98 floppy then you could boot it cd into the cdrom directory and run makefloppy.bat from there.

[Jared]

Yes I do use another machine, a win NT and could make a floppy but wouldn't it take a whole bunch of floppies to copy the knoppix OS cd? I am not a computer wiz and am new to linux so Tom's rtbt means nothing to me. Could you explain? I don't have a win98 boot floppy either (besides the normal ones that the computer comes with and erases all of you data).

[Duffin444]

No, just one floppy. The idea is to make a "pointer" to the CD. So you put in the floppy and the CD and set the computer to boot from floppy. The computer will look at the floppy start to load Knoppix and then look for a CD. This allows you to get around the problem of not being able to boot directly to the CD.

-Dustin

[Jared]

sounds good, so, how exactly do I do this?

[rickenbacherus]

Boot windows, mount the Knoppix cdrom and look for a .bat file (makefloppy.bat??) to make a floppy Knoppix floppy under windows.

[Duffin444]

Get yourself over to a computer and put in the CD. Then put in a blank floppy. Navigate to the cd, right click it and select open. I do not have the cd to see; but I believe that you open the folder called Knoppix. Then double click the makefloppy.bat file. I think that is what it is called but I could be wrong....it is something like that. Rawrite will then make the floppy. Reboot, leaving the cd and floppy in the drives, and make sure the computer boots from the floppy (A drive). You’re done; you should see the knoppix blue (in a nice way) screen. Press enter and it will load.

-Dustin

[Jared]

From what you are saying I am not sure if you want me to get into my win98 and make the floppy or use another computer to do this. if the former is true than that is imposible for me to do since I can't open windows. if the latter is true would it work for me to create the floppy on my win NT/2000 since my 98 is a 9x and my 2000 is built with NT so would there be a compatibility problem?

[Jared]

I just made the floppy on my 2000 and will try to load it.
see you later

[Jared]

I loaded the floppy and than the cd and knoppix started loading but just after it said "wecome to the knoppix live on cd" it said "can't find knoppix filesystem, sorry. dropping you to a (very limited) shell. Press reset button to quit." than it said "additional builitin commands available:
cat mount unmount insmod rmmod lsmod"

than it gives "knoppix#" and the blinking underline to show that is where to write a command. What should I do???

I still have the computer running at that state but .... the screen just went blank.
If anyone could help me please reply.

[Jared]

I

[Jared]

I restarted my 98 and didn't put in the knoppix cd, just the floppy and found that the exact same thing happened. I also noticed just after the screen welcomed me to linux it "Probed" in dozens of locations for "SCSI". I figured this must be the cd so I shut down the 98 and booted up my 2000 in linux. I took note of where my 2000 acessed the cd, it was at "/dev/scd0". Then I started the 98 again and when it stoped at the same place again I typed "/dev/scd0" in the command promt and it told me "permission denied". don't know what exactly this could mean so please enlighten me.

[rickenbacherus]

You are correct- /dev/scd0 is where your cdrom drive is located. Even though the cd is there I have had the same thing happen on certain cdrom drives. No particular brand or model but it just seems that Knoppix doesn't like all cdroms. If you have another cdrom install it, if you can boot knoppix on your other machine then maybe swap the hdd over to it and boot knoppix.

[Jared]

let me get this strait. since I don't have another cd of knoppix should I create another one and try booting it? also, what do you mean by "swap the hdd over to it and boot knoppix". as I said, I am not a computer wiz so could you say it a little simpler?

[Stephen]

let me get this strait. since I don't have another cd of knoppix should I create another one and try booting it? also, what do you mean by "swap the hdd over to it and boot knoppix". as I said, I am not a computer wiz so could you say it a little simpler?

What he is telling you is if you have another CD-Rom drive put in in the computer and see if it is going to work. Otherwise if your second machine boots Knoppix fine take the HD out of the dead machine put it in the working one boot with the Knoppix CD and copy your data from one HD to the other.

[Jared]

So you want me to take the hard drive (HD means hard drive right?) and put the old hard drive in the new computer that boots knoppix. How do I remove and install the hard drive?