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
LOT OF 20 Genuine Cisco SFP-10G-SR V03 10GBASE-SR SFP+ Transceiver Module
$89.00
New Cisco w/ Green Hologram SFP-25G-SR-S 25G SFP28 SR 850nm 300m LC MMF Module
$69.99
10 PCS Cisco GLC-LH-SMD 10-2625-01 1310nm SFP Transceiver Module
$85.00
New Cisco w/ Green Hologram GLC-TE 1G SFP Copper RJ45 100m Module
$29.99
Genuine Cisco SFP-10G-SR V03 10GBASE-SR SFP+ Transceiver Module 10-2415-03
$8.00
Brand New Cisco GLC-LH-SMD 1000BASE-LX/LH SFP Module 1310nm 10km SMF LC
$10.99
NEW FS SFP-10G-T 10GBASE T SFP+ 30M Transceiver Module (Lot of 1)
$39.95
Genuine Cisco GLC-TE 30-1475-01 V01 1000BASE-T SFP COPPER RJ-45 100M TRANSCEIVER
$11.90
Dell X1018 X-Series Smart Managed Switches 16-Port Gigabit 2-Port SFP Switch
$65.00
New Cisco w/ Green Hologram SFP-10G-LR-S 10G SFP+ LR 1310nm 10km SMF LC Module
$34.99