booting live-cd on Dell 300m laptop

[bxb32001]

So I says to me boss, "Ya know it'd sure be nice if you could get me a new laptop." He said, "Sure thing, take your pick." 8)

Mindful of our budget though, I chose a Dell 300m (with media bay DVD+RW). I am now typing this post using it... :)

I also just downloaded and burned to disc the recent Knoppix release. I also have with me the release before that. Both work fine as I have used it for my desktop at home. I can't get the live CD to boot off this laptop though.

It gets to a point where the penguin sits at at the top and searches for the boot image... ends up telling me to make sure I have it on the CD....

Is there a way I can get the Knoppix to boot?

Thanks in advance,

- Bryan

[aay]

You most likely need to experiment with various cheat codes (http://download.linuxtag.org/knoppix/knoppix-cheatcodes.txt).

The first one I would start off with is testcd. This will tell you if your cd is corrupted.

If your cd appears to be ok, then try booting with the failsafe option. This gives you very little hardware support. But if it works, then you know that you simply need to go back and try out the other "no" cheat codes to see what the offending hardware issue is.

[bxb32001]

Thanks for the respons Aay...

The CDs are fine (I have three) and I've tried toram and ide2=0x180 nopcmcia and still no go... here is what it says:
Welcome to the Knoppix live Linux on CD!

Can't find Knoppix file system, sorry. Dropping you to a very limited shell.

I suspect it has something to do with Dell's BIOS (I think I've read something related to it but I can;t remember where).

I wonder if there is a specific boot option to get around the problem.

[bxb32001]

*bump*

Anyone?

[Shmude]

Any luck on this. I have the same notebook and the same problem. I have found that RedHat 9 goes on well though. I think its because the CD-Rom is in the media bay which is connected by USB. Just some more info to try and get this issue resolved, i would like to be able to use Knoppix on it soon.

Good Luck

[bxb32001]

Yup, sorta figured that out too... the DVD drive on the media bay is treated as a USB CD-ROM / DVD Drive... it's just that I've been dumped with a truckload of projects that may take me a few more months to complete... I hope I can retry some time soon.

[Shmude]

Post back with any new info...if you figure something out