Can't see desktop after boot up - only multicolored vertical lines

[texasnomad]

I am booting up Knoppix 6.4.4 from a thumb drive on an older Dell Inspiron, but after booting up, it changes to a black screen with a bunch of vertical lines of different colors...and that's it. There is nothing else. It will boot fine on my other newer Dell laptop, but not this one. I've tried many of the cheat codes to get something to work even if it is not optimal. It won't even display in text-only mode...unbelievable. Diagnostics on the hardware indicate things are ok, except for the hard-drive and cd-rom which I am not using.

Any ideas on what to do???

tm

[Capricorny]

As you don't give any model indication, except for "older Dell Inspirion", it's hard to tell. I have been using Knoppix 6.X on several machines fitting that description, all the way back to i8100, with no problem at all.

You might try with an older Knoppix, like 6.0.X.
I doubt there is really a problem with text-only mode, as it seems that you have been able to enter init cheat codes. As you know which graphics module is used, you could check out hints for that. I have saved the day that way.

Somehow, I feel that you haven't gone thoroughly through the whole list?

knoppix screen=1280x1024            Use specified Screen resolution for X
knoppix hsync=95                    Use 95 kHz horizontal X refresh rate
knoppix vsync=60                    Use 60 Hz vertical refresh rate for X
knoppix xmodule=ati|fbdev|intel|mga Use specified Xorg-Module (1)
knoppix xmodule=nv|radeon|savage|s3 Use specified Xorg-Module (2)
knoppix xmodule=vesa|svga|vmware    Use specified Xorg-Module (3)
knoppix norandr                     Disable Xorg RandR feature (may be
                                    useful if wrong resolution was detected)
knoppix noddc                       Don't query monitor for resoution
knoppix no3d|nocomposite            Don't use Xorg Composite extension
knoppix vga=normal                  No-framebuffer mode, but X
knoppix nodrm                       Don't load graphics acceleration modules
knoppix nofb                        Don't load framebuffer modules
knoppix nomodeset                   Don't use Kernel Mode Settings for X
fb1280x1024                         Use fixed framebuffer graphics (1)
fb1024x768                          Use fixed framebuffer graphics (2)
fb800x600                           Use fixed framebuffer graphics (3)
fb640x480                           Use fixed framebuffer graphics (4)