Disk mount error?

**Harry Kuhman** · 09-20-2009, 08:51 PM

I'm not clear on why it is trying to get to tty. I've run every version of Knoppix since 3.1 on several systems, most with hard drives but some without, and I've never seen that message.

**dudepool** · 09-20-2009, 08:55 PM

i tested my disk on my work computer and it works a treat! so i have no clue as to why it isnt working at all on my laptop! so ive ruled out missing files and burn error

**dudepool** · 09-20-2009, 09:02 PM

the other computer didnt say waiting for usb on it before... maybe the laptop is too old?

**Harry Kuhman** · 09-20-2009, 09:07 PM

Originally Posted by dudepool

i tested my disk on my work computer and it works a treat! so i have no clue as to why it isnt working at all on my laptop! so ive ruled out missing files and burn error

Well, you have ruled out missing files and I'll even say that if the md5 was bad it would not likely have burnt on the other system either. You haven't really ruled out the burn issue of speed, as the faster that you burn a disc that less likely it is to boot ob some marginal optical drives. I'm more inclined to think that you need the right cheat code to boot on this system, but I can't be sure it isn't a media issue yet.

If this laptop can boot from a USB flash drive you might want to try booting Linux that way. Be warned though that even some laptops that have a USB boot option in the BIOS either will not boot a flash drive or are extremely picky about how the flash drive is created. However, I think this would be worth a try, if you saw the same error on a USB flash media boot then you could completely rule out media issues. Apparently the latest version of Knoppix can install itself to a large flash drive, but I don't have any that are suitable for it and have never done it. I have used other much smaller Linux distros to create a bootable flash drive on a small 64 meg flash drive. I think Puppy Linux can do this, but if not try DSL (it's been ages since I've done this and I don't trust my memory on which I used).

**Harry Kuhman** · 09-20-2009, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by dudepool

the other computer didnt say waiting for usb on it before... maybe the laptop is too old?

I've booted Knoppix on old Pentium 90 systems and even 486s (although low memory can make them too slow to actually use and even the boot can take several minutes). This was older Knoppix versions, but I doubt that it is an age of the laptop issue. What are the specs on the laptop, but I doubt that is really the issue and I do expect that if you find the right cheat codes(s) that you can get it to boot.

**dudepool** · 09-20-2009, 09:13 PM

i dont think my bios supports booting from usb because in the boot options there is only:

atapi cd-rom drive
hard disk
diskette drive

**dudepool** · 09-20-2009, 09:14 PM

im not sure on any other specs other than that it has 64mb of ram, it is a notebook if you wanted to search it the model is sony vaio pcg-n505x

**Harry Kuhman** · 09-20-2009, 09:19 PM

I'm not going to spend time tracking down the specs, but if it has 64 meg of RAM then I'll go ahead and pronounce it too limited. With a hard drive you could have a swap file, but it would be overly slow as it swapped memory in and out of disk, without a swap file you are certainly not going to run the GUI, and I have doubts if you can even run the command line prompt (Linux has become bloated just like Windows). As a test you could type knoppix 2 at the boot prompt and try to boot into a command prompt shell but don't get your hopes up.

**dudepool** · 09-20-2009, 09:22 PM

when i typed knoppix 2 it just said loading linux.......... then went to the normal screen

but your saying even if it did work i wouldnt be able to run linux?

**Harry Kuhman** · 09-20-2009, 09:34 PM

Originally Posted by dudepool

when i typed knoppix 2 it just said loading linux.......... then went to the normal screen

but your saying even if it did work i wouldnt be able to run linux?

I'm not sure what you mean by "the normal screen", unless you mean that error you have reported.

64 meg is too little to run the GUI. And this is due to bloat. You certainly could run Linux (the operating system) on that computer, but in shell mode (command line text mode). But that might not give you what you want, depending on what you hope to do with the OS once you have it running. Browising the web with a graphical web browser would be out, for example, although you could still download files with FTP or use other internet tools that are non-graphical. Think DOS.