Knoppix wont fully load

[bdshort]

My setup:
Asus A7M266-VM
Athlon XP 1700+
GeForce 2 GTS 32 meg
nForce audio
256 megs PC2100 ram
Windows XP Pro on a NTFS formatted HD

Knoppix looks like it detects all my stuff fine, and the xwindowing environment (KDM?) starts to load, and it gets to the point where it's setting up peripherals (the mouse icon is highlighted) but then it just locks up. CD spins down, mouse doesnt respond, keyboard lights dont work, etc... ideas? I unplugged my USB Joystick and HP Printer just incase those might be doing something, but that didnt work. I also removed the spare network card I had in my machine that I wasnt using, still no go.
It's not the CD, because I tried it on my dad's computer and it worked fine.


On a slightly different topic, what's involved in setting up a XP, Linux dual boot on an NTFS drive? I assume I will have to get Partition Magic, and set aside some free space for Linux to create a partition, but beyond that, I'm clueless. Total Linux newbie.

[aay]

There are several things you can try. First of all have you played with the cheat codes. Before you do this try booting into runlevl 3. To do this type 'knoppix init 3' at the boot screen. This will get you into text/full network mode. Hopefully your machine won't crash at this point. Now issue this command: 'dmesg |more' This should give you the output of the bootup process up till that point. You may not know what everything means, but look for red flags - error messages. You can post back here about it. Apart from any visible error message in dmesg, play around with the cheat code options.

Regarding NTFS resizing, I think I may have some good news to people who are trying to do this without buying Partition Magic. The new Mandrake is supposed to be able to resize NTFS partitions. You can try downloading the first CD and using the installer to do the resizing of your NTFS partition. As always - BACK UP YOUR STUFF FIRST!!!!

Mandrake 9.1 isn't finished yet, but you can download the latest testing version here (http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/ftp.php3). As far as I know, the installer SHOULD work. Again, people who want to try this are doing it at their own risk, but the outlook is good that it will work. Hopefully the upcoming Debian installer will do this too.

[bdshort]

I tried those commands you listed and I didn't see any obvious errors. What are the cheat codes you're talking about? Are they the different options you can try that are listed when you hit F2 at the boot: prompt?
I tried running it with the gnome GUI, that started loading, I saw the Gnome splash screen, but then it crashed out to the prompt with an error I dont remember. I havent tried the other GUIs.

I looked at the mandrake site last night, and that looks like it has a fairly friendly installer. If I did create some free space on my HDD for it, it would install there if I told it to, and set up the correct dual boot setup? I was also pointed to a Linux release called Lindows OS, and that also looked pretty friendly, but it seemed like you had to pay for that one. At least I wasnt able to find a link to download the thing.

Brian

[aay]

I have no idea if lindows can resize ntfs partitions safely. Being able to do this is a new development in linux. I "think" that Mandrake is doing this with open source tools (ntfsresize et al). Another linux distro that I have been told can do this is ASP linux. It uses some commercial stuff to do this. Xandros can resize NTFS also, but unlike Mandrake or ASP it isn't a free download.

Re the cheat codes - yes they are the options you get when you press F2 at the boot screen. You can look at a full list fo them here: http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/CheatCodes

[bdshort]

I tried a couple of the other GUIs, and they worked, but I didnt have any network support, and I had no idea where to look to find that stuff out. When I tried Knoppix on my dad's machine, KDE loaded fine, and the internet worked fine... I've thought about disabling the motherboards onboard ethernet, and reinstalling the network card I had in, and seeing if that works. Haven't done that yet though.

Brian