black screen with only the word "GRUB" on Dell Ins

**blizzardscout2** · 01-24-2008, 02:33 AM

I used the live disk that I got with the Knoppix Hacks book, finally I was able to partition my hard drive and install knoppix. When booting up my PC I get the normal Dell screen (A32 BIOS) and then I get a black blank screen with only the word "GRUB." I did have this same problem with Windows before I decided to give up on it and go with a Linux OS. Now I do have a successful Knoppix OS that I run off of my USB thumb drive and it runs with no issues on my Dell Inspiron 1100.

My ultimate goal is to run Knoppix from my hard drive. Any help would be awesome.

My uncle does dabble in Linux and he believes it has to do with my boot.conf file. I dont know if this helps.

THANKS!

Reese

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-24-2008, 02:48 AM

Originally Posted by blizzardscout2

....My ultimate goal is to run Knoppix from my hard drive. Any help would be awesome.
...

Really a bad goal. Knoppix is a Live CD, but not a good choice for installing to hard disk. I suggest, if you like Knoppix and want a similar distro installed on hard disk, install the testing version of Debian. I would suggest doing a net install from either the net install iso or the business card iso as long as you have high speed internet access.. You'll be able to install any of the applications included with knoppix, and a lot more, just by using apt-get. You'll end up with a far more stable system and it will be more up to date. I know of absolutely no reason to install Knoppix rather than Debian.

**blizzardscout2** · 01-24-2008, 03:09 AM

The nice thing about Knoppix is that it pretty much makes itself work with the components in my dell including the graphics card that seems to have problems with lots of other operating systems. Is it possible to make it work on the hard drive? What are the reasons for not putting it on there? Thanks.

Reese

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-24-2008, 03:23 AM

See answer #2. I take it that you have not even tried Debian. Now that your hard drive is available for installing something would be a good time to give it a try. Not only should it's video support be as good or better than Knoppix's, you could also install the 3D drivers for your particular card that Knoppix doesn't include because of redistribution restrictions. See the above link for further details on why installing Knoppix is a bad idea™.