I have had terrible trouble with 7.4.2 and 8.1.0 on a Dell XPS9360. Whether booting from the KNOPPIX DVD (burn iso) or from a boot USB (I use Pendrive's Universal-USB-Installer v. 1.9.8.0, there may be other or later versions) all I got was a blank screen. But a certain amount of whirring suggested to me that the live version was in fact progressing and available. After a lot of messing about with vga=xxx in the KERNEL stanza in /boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg I iterated to the best, sparsest and most portable version of this configuration file that I have EVER had. It reads
DEFAULT console
TIMEOUT 40
PROMPT 1
LABEL console
KERNEL linux
APPEND initrd=minirt.gz vga=893 lang=uk 1
LABEL video
KERNEL linux
APPEND initrd=minirt.gz vga=893 lang=uk #
By portable I mean this works on an ancient (really ancient) Samsung, any number of Dells in all configurations / ages, likewise Fujitsus. All screens from 800x600 to 1920x1080.
Still can't get 8.1.0 to work using a boot USB (DVD is fine). The architecture dictated by Pendrive leads to a configuration location error ("Can't find ..") from the very start. Even mimicking the geography of the 7.4.2 boot USB does not mend this.
Fergus
RAD Apple Mac Powerbook Duo 230 Vintage Laptop
$74.95
Vintage Tower Mac Apple Macintosh Quadra 900 - NO POWER
$495.00
Apple MacIntosh IIcx Vintage Desktop Computer M5650 VERY CLEAN Untested
$285.00
Vintage Apple Power Macintosh 6500 Desktop Computer M3548 Power Tested
$100.00
Vintage Apple Macintosh SE M5010 Computer w/ Keyboard & mouse -power up- no OS
$174.99
Vintage Apple Power Macintosh 7300/200 32MB RAM no HD, powers on but no display
$60.00
Vintage Apple Macintosh PowerBook 1400cs As pictured
$89.00
Vintage Apple Macintosh SE Model M5010, Keyboard, Mouse, 2 External Drives
$399.00
Vintage Apple Power Macintosh 5400/180 M3046 Computer -As Is for Parts or Repair
$150.00
APPLE MACINTOSH SE FDHD All In One Vintage Computer - Model M5011 With BOX
$289.99