Won't Boot

[Mr_B43]

My friend and I both have Laptops from AJP (www.ajp.co.uk)
His is the AJP 8880E and mine is the D480W

He downloaded Knoppix 3.3 because he needed to get into a folder he locked himself out of (don't ask) in NTFS and that worked fine.

The spec on my laptop is very similar to his:
- same processor
- same graphics card
- similar sound
- different LCD screen

But on mine whenever I try to boot Knoppix the screen goes blank and there is no CD activity. No even the penguin at the top of the screen

Is there anything I can try? Any BIOS settings or cheatcodes I should specifically try? Or is it hopeless? I'm a complete linux novice BTW if you hadn't noticed.

Thanks

[paradocs]

Welcome Mr_B43,

My first guess is memory.

Please list as much specific information
as possible.

The age old question goes:

Why doesn't my goose
Sing as well as thy goose
When I paid for my gooes
Twice as much as thine?

Serach this forum for memory links such as:
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1111#4709
Best Wishes
paradocs

[Mr_B43]

Ah yeh now you mention it there is a difference in the memory
His is running 512MB of DDR266 in 256MBx2
Mine is running 1GB of DDR300 in 512Mbx2

Does this help at all?

[paradocs]

Mr_B43,

So much for the memory theory -- wow
I am envious -- 1GB of DDR300!

Lets work on the BIOS.
Be sure you have boot from CD first.

Is the CD valid -- check it on another machine
or check the md5sum of the iso file if
you made your own CD.

One more test idea-- make a boot
floppy from the boot.img on the
CD. What does it do?

Best Wishes
paradocs

[Mr_B43]

Sorry about the slow reply, I just moved to uni.

Yeh it boots from the CD fine, because the cheat entry screen comes up fine. The problem is after that nothing happens at all. There is nothing on the screen, no CD activity. I have tried the CD in two other machines, one a laptop and one a PC and they both worked fine with this exact CD.

I'll try the floppy boot and get back to you. I don't have a floppy at hand at the mo. Will it make a difference from booting from CD though?

Thanks for your help so far though.

[Mr_B43]

I tried using topologilinux as well that creates an image file for linux to use in an existing NTFS partition but that hangs as well but it is a little more descriptive

It says that its trying to enable a PCI card I think (writing this away from my machine)
Any suggestions?

[paradocs]

Hello Mr_B43,

I would not do anything with NTFS. Some have said
you can look at files but writing to NTFS is dangerous.

If you are interested in liunx on that machine,
perhaps you can get a second hard drive.

Search the forum for NTFS but be cautious.

On the humerous side, if you do crash your
computer, you might find some time to study.
Make the best of you days at the uni.

Best Wishes,
paradocs

[bigfatass]

I've got a D480W too but I got mine from rock direct. 512 MB 333DDR etc.

I have the exact same problem also. Booting from a known working CD, see the knoppix splash / boot screen, press enter, screen blanks and thats it. no disk or cd activity and i believe num-lock was broken too.

i tried knoppix 2 for textmode and also knoppix screen=1400x900 (since its a widescreen 17" laptop) but with no change.

anyone got any ideas ?

Cheers
--
pete

[windos_no_thanks]

Are we talking about machines made by Clevo ?
(they are sold under many different brands but the sticker on
the bottom of the machine usually reveals the "real" maker)

I just got myself a Clevo M410E and I'm seeing the same thing,
that is the machine freezes right after
"Loading miniroot.gz......."
When trying failsafe mode I get two more lines:

Ready.
Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.

The same thing happens with a recent redhat CD too so
I think it's not just a knoppix issue...

[paradocs]

Bummer
Hi you all,

I come from the wrong side of the pond, I guess,
to know about this brand of PC. I have heard of a
Dell problem with the BIOS not being independent
of the hard drive.

I wonder if this a case of the BIOS of these machines
not being stored on a chip? Can you get any help
from the seller? -- I can hear the no Linux support
answer already.

KNOPPIX works with so much hardware that it
is disconcerting to see non compatible PC's.

It would be nice if the purchasing public were aware
of the issues and would demand to know if the
machine is KNOPPIX/LINUX KOMPATABLE.
Seriously, if a seller does not let you boot with a KNOPIX
disk, don't buy it. Even is you are buying a machine
for non Linux use, it would increase its value to know
that it could be recycled for use with a different
operating system in its old age.

Best Wishes,
paradocs