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 APPLE MACINTOSH IIci DESKTOP COMPUTER - POWERS ON NO FURTHER TESTING
$149.99
Vintage Apple Modulator A2M4020 for Television
$32.00
Vintage Apple III Profile Paperwork
$34.99
Vintage Apple Twentieth 20th Anniversary Macintosh (TAM) With Upgrades
$5000.00
Vintage Apple Disk II Analog Card 820-0007
$50.00
Vintage Apple Macintosh Powerbook 190 Series M3047 Laptop Parts/Repair
$69.00
Vintage Apple LisaDraw Brochure, very nice condition
$40.00
Vintage Apple II IIe IIGS Computer Adventure Game Pack On 21 Disks 27 Games *GR8
$64.99
MacEffects Gray ALPS Mechanical Keyboard for Vintage Apple IIe Computers
$195.00
Apple Macintosh PowerBook 180 Vintage Laptop | Retro Computer
$149.95