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
Vintage DEC/CLEARPOINT INC. -QRAM-2 SAB-1 1MB Q-BUS MEMORY MSV11-QA (B2)
$129.99
VINTAGE DEC Digital RK11-D DISK CONTROL M7255 PDP 11 (B1)
$129.99
Vintage DEC Digital M8048 5013995C PDP-11 LSI 11 ROM (B3)
$79.99
Digital Equipment Corporation DEC-2000 Vintage Keyboard - NOS NEW in Plastic
$129.95
DEC PDP 8/M PDP 8M / 4 avail / Vintage Digital Equipment Corp /Also DEC PDP 12
$5775.00
Vintage DEC Digital RX 180 AB Dual 5.25" Disk Drive
$149.00
Vintage Digital DEC dfo1 Acoustic Coupler modem Anderson Jacobsen Mod# A242 RARE
$195.95
Rare Vintage DEC DIGITAL DFO3 modem with manual Powers up but UNTESTED
$69.95
Vintage DEC/The Redac mini cabinet front panel Digital Equipment Corp. 19"
$269.99
VINTAGE DEC DIGITAL H866 MEM BUS TERM 100 OHM
$229.00