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
1TB/2TB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Thumb U Disk Memory Stick Pen PC Laptop Storage lot
$80.39
USB Flash Drive Memory Stick Pendrive Thumb Drive 4GB, 8GB, 32GB, 64GB 128GB LOT
$336.27
Type C USB 3.0 Flash Drive Thumb Drive Memory Stick for PC Laptop 1TB 2TB lot
$73.29
Lot SanDisk USB Flash Drive Cruzer Blade Glade Force Ultra Flair Luxe 3.0 3.1
$149.99
64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive USB Memory Stick High Speed Retractable USB Thumb Drive
$6.99
Lenovo Flash Drives 2TB Usb 3.0 Mini High Speed Metal Pendrive.
$9.99
1TB/2TB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Thumb U Disk Memory Stick Pen PC Laptop Storage lot
$7.99
2TB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Memory Photo Stick for iPhone Android iPad Type C 4 IN1
$11.38
USB Flash Drive Thumb Drive Memory Stick Pendrive 4GB, 8GB, 32GB, 64GB 128GB LOT
$308.13
SanDisk Cruzer Glide USB 3.0 16GB 32GB 64GB 128GB 256GB Flash Drive Memory Lot
$239.99