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
$59.99
Seagate Exos X16 ST14000NM001G 14TB 512E SATA 6Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Hard Drive
$169.99
WD 2TB Certified Refurbished Elements, External Hard Drive - RWDBU6Y0020BBK-WESN
$49.99
WD 4TB Certified Refurbished Elements SE, Hard Drive - RWDBJRT0040BBK-WESN
$79.99
HGST Ultrastar DC HC520 12TB SATA 6Gb 256MB 3.5" Enterprise HDD- HUH721212ALE601
$89.99
Seagate Exos 7E10 ST2000NM000B 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
$29.99
HGST Ultrastar HE10 HUH721010ALE600 10TB SATA 6Gb/s 7200RPM 3.5" Enterprise HDD
$69.99
HGST HUS724040ALS640 4TB 7200RPM 64MB Cache 6Gbps SAS 3.5" Hard Drive HDD SERVER
$19.99
WD 16TB Elements Desktop, Certified Refurbished Hard Drive - RWDBWLG0160HBK-NESN
$209.99
2 PACK Seagate ST1000LM035 Mobile HDD 1TB 2.5" SATA III Laptop Hard Drive
$26.89