Booting Knoppix from CD

I am having trouble booting Knoppix 3.4 from my CD drive. I have set the bios to boot from "CDROM" but I am wondering which drive it is checking. My CD is in my E: drive.

When I try to boot it if boots windows from my HDD even though I told it to check for CD first. I am pretty sure the CD-RW is burned correctly, I burned it with Alcohol 120% and I don't think that is the problem, but it may be.

The check sum I have is 7ee0382655abf194aa300a98100cacde which seems to be correct.

Any help is appreciated.

Would give you links to the downloading help, but there is a problem with the website at the moment. Don't know alcohol, can't talk you through that. If you look at the burnt disk in Windows do you see a lot of files (you should) or just 1 big iso file (meaning you burnt it wrong)? Did you check the md5 sum before burning? Keep checking the docs button at the top of this page; when it starts working again read the faq and how to and downloading (which includes burning).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Harry Kuhman

If you look at the burnt disk in Windows do you see a lot of files (you should) or just 1 big iso file (meaning you burnt it wrong)?

---

It has lots of files. The check sum file says 7ee0382655abf194aa300a98100cacde *KNOPPIX_V3.4-2004-05-17-EN.iso

I just can't get it to even try to boot. Do you think it's checking the E: drive for "CDROM"?

I'm trying to download Knoppix 3.6 to burn and try that. I just hope I can get something to work. Other versions of Linux aren't an option, as a HDD installation is out of the question as I am doing this on the family computer. I just want to try out Linux because I may build a cheap computer soon and I don't want to have to pay about a hundred dollars for windows on a $200-$300 PC.

EDIT: Problems out the wazoo downloading 3.6 I am going to try to download Nero.

eadz has the documentation working again. Read http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/FaqDownloading and http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/DownloadingHowTo

Did you check the md5 sum of what you downloaded (and was it correct)?

You might well have a BIOS problem if it's not booting the CD. Can you boot any other bootable CD? There are several boot loaders that will let you boot from any CD drive, even a second or third CD drive, and even if the BIOS can't boot from CD properly. I use XOSL for this, but others have mentioned "Smart Boot Manager". Smart Boot Manager might be a better choice, since you can install it to a floppy and then use that to force your CD to boot (assuming the CD is good). I don't have a link for either handy, but you can find them quickly with Google.

Knoppix is a great live CD, but there are other versions of live CD's that you might want to look at too. Knoppix is not your only option for a live CD. But you need to get booting a CD resolved before you start trying out different versions for the right fit.

If you can get it to boot up to the first prompt, I think there is an option that should let you test the CD. But you don't seem to be that far yet.

Turns out there is nothing wrong with the CD at all.

My bios just won't boot from a CD even when set to do so. I found downloadable Knoppix 3.4 boot disks, downloaded them and then I was able to boot with them.

I am posting this from Mozilla via Knoppix. I just wish I had enough RAM to move Knoppix entirely into it to make it faster.

Thanks for the help.