How do I boot commands?

My Dell 400 notebook freezes when booting 6.2.1 from a USB drive right after Runlevel5 is displayed. A 1/2 page of text is displayed, followed by a garbled graphic and then the screen goes to black. In the documentation it suggests some things to try, but I can not find instructions on how, when or where to enter the boot commands.


The documentation says:

You type them into the boot screen and press enter/return. The format is "kernel option option option ...". Usually "knoppix" is the right selection for the "kernel". You can type more than one cheatcode before pressing enter. Also note that some options can take on values.

Example: "knoppix xvrefresh=60 noscsi floppyconfig"

My issue is that when I turn the machine on, there is no time or place for me to type the commands in. The machine never stops, is there a key sequence that I am to enter that is not mentioned?


What I plan to try is listed below unless others have suggestions.

Tips&Tricks

If you are unable to boot Knoppix (i.e. the screen goes blank, you see a kernel panic message, the screen flickers, you are dropped into a minimal shell, Knoppix simply freezes while booting, etc.), try these boot commands in order:

1. boot: knoppix vga=0
2. boot: knoppix acpi=off pnpbios=off noapic noapm Helpful for laptops
3. boot: knoppix vga=0 debug -b 3 Using this boot command will cause Knoppix to pause at various stages in the boot process. Just type 'exit' at each shell prompt to move on to the next stage. You will know that you are at the final stage when typing 'exit' does not do anything. If you get that far, type 'init 5' to go into graphics mode.
4. boot: failsafe debug -b 3 That will do the same as the previous boot command, except turn off most of the hardware detection.

If you still have issues, please post in the Hardware & Booting forum, tell us which of the above boot commands you tried, and how far in the boot process you were able to get.

How, when and where do I enter the boot: commands?

My issue is that when I turn the machine on, there is no time or place for me to type the commands in. The machine never stops, is there a key sequence that I am to enter that is not mentioned? Like Cmd C ???

Your notebook has Intel 855 video chipset . The problem is not in Knoppix it is in the new xserver-xorg-video-intel driver introduced in Knoppix 6.2.1
I had exactly the same issue with my laptop IBM X40 with the same chipset. Your options are to use:
knoppix xmodule=vesa or fbdev. I recommend vesa as it provides 24 and 32 bit color depth to the desktop and some applications are complaining about 16 bit color depth which fbdev provide.
Option 2 is to downgrade the entire xserver-xorg section which is a bit difficult. The last working intel driver with 855 GM chipset is xserver-xorg-video-intel 2.9.1-1 with xserver-xorg-core 1.6.5-1.
Option 3 is to download Knoppix 6.2 which has the older driver and works perfectly with 855 GM
Any of this 3 options will solve your problem. If you decide to use knoppix xmodule=vesa or fbdev you will not have direct hardware rendering.
Hope this solves your problem

I forgot to mention. You enter the commands at boot.When you see the big Knoppix logo displaying the version underneath.You have something like 3 seconds to enter your boot commands

thanks. Will try the older version.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mecho

I forgot to mention. You enter the commands at boot.When you see the big Knoppix logo displaying the version underneath.You have something like 3 seconds to enter your boot commands

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The way I think of it is, you have about 3 seconds to strike ANY key. If it's not the right one (usually "k"), then you have plenty of time to erase and carefully type whatever you need to type. It puts more of an edge of urgency on it if you say the "command" has to be typed in.

Cheers!
Krishna :mrgreen:

F2 or F3 are great keys to use for this, they halt the boot process and also give you help scrrens that you can see many of the more common boot options.

mecho

There is another way to avoid the black screen of death with the latest intel driver. Use of the following bootcode make the driver work without the need for vesa or fbdev.

i915.modeset=1

This alters the size of the framebuffer used when in terminal mode. If you prefer the old VGA like display then use the following bootcode as well:

video=640x480

Thank you very much for the tip ICPUG.

I avoided Knoppix 6.2.1 just because of this :D you should have told me about it long ago. Unfortunately I don't have a copy of 6.2.1 right now to try it, and I am sorry for misleading KOTIS on this issue.
I have customized 6.2 way too much to my liking to start over with a fresh copy of 6.2.1.
If KOTIS reads this and is going to try i915.modeset=1
Please post the result

I can see now that even i915-kms.conf can be included in /etc/modprobe.d for permanent change

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ICPUG

video=640x480

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I had not heard of this, but I thought I'd try it. It didn't work for me. I have used

Code:

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knoppix screen=800x600

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successfully, but the 640x480 version was not correct; it looked like a 640x480 piece of the 800x600 screen. I'm curious, more than anything - no big deal, just something to think about.

Cheers!
Krishna :mrgreen:

OK Krishna - I haven't actually tried video=640x480 myself yet but I have been told it works (with Puppy Linux) by reliable sources - the Developer! I will obviously try it now to see precisely what happens. Maybe it's a 640x480 viewport like you suggest. The problem we had in the Puppy world was without the video boot code we would get a really small font with lots of characters at the terminal. The boot code should solve it.

I would have told you earlier mecho but I have only known myself for about a month! I skipped Knoppix 6.2.1 so I didn't get the problem until I got 6.3 and ... then with the latest Puppy Linux and ... then with the latest Ubuntu. It was at this point I had to really find a solution. Pressing the right buttons in the Puppy community eventually created some investigative action and we eventually got to the right answer! The Ubuntu forums helped as well. I am surprised there has not been an outcry about this because it must affect a lot of people. The Intel chipset was used in a lot of notepads a few years back.

I think the problem started with the 2.6.33 kernel - Before that, no problem - but whether it is the kernel or the change in intel driver at that time I don't know. It's all tied up with Kernel Mode Setting.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ICPUG

I think the problem started with the 2.6.33 kernel - Before that, no problem - but whether it is the kernel or the change in intel driver at that time I don't know. It's all tied up with Kernel Mode Setting.

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My xserver-xorg-video-intel is 2.11.0-1, which I remember correctly is said to be KMS-only ( or the second release ? ) I used to get a black screen before the X is fully started. But now everything works normally, I could see all the standard boot messages as though there is no KMS. To do that, one must recompile the kernel to turn off all the frame buffer hardware drivers. Below is an example of such discussion.

http://marc.info/?l=gentoo-amd64&m=126694476009383

There are many such discusions in the net. I don't know what's the implication of turning off frame buffer hardware drivers to non-intel video hardware though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ICPUG

mecho

There is another way to avoid the black screen of death with the latest intel driver. Use of the following bootcode make the driver work without the need for vesa or fbdev.

i915.modeset=1

This alters the size of the framebuffer used when in terminal mode. If you prefer the old VGA like display then use the following bootcode as well:

video=640x480

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I have the same issue where I get past run level 5, a half screen of something flashes on the screen twice & then the screen goes black. For about 10-15 more seconds you can hear the hard drive doing something & then silence. I have a Gateway NV79 laptop, according to the documentation the chipset would be: Mobile Intel® HM55 Express Chipset.

Do you think the i915.modeset=1 setting would work?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KinVA

I have the same issue where I get past run level 5, a half screen of something flashes on the screen twice & then the screen goes black. For about 10-15 more seconds you can hear the hard drive doing something & then silence. I have a Gateway NV79 laptop, according to the documentation the chipset would be: Mobile Intel® HM55 Express Chipset.

Do you think the i915.modeset=1 setting would work?

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Having had a quick look at the Intel website I note the Mobile Series 5 chipset is NOT covered by the intel driver. It lists Mobile series 4 so maybe it is just a forgotten update.

I would certainly try i915.modeset=1 if it was me. If it doesn't work then try a fall back to Mecho's original suggestion.

Please let us know whether it works or not.

It's certainly worth trying! The beauty of the LiveCD approach is that you can't really "mess up" your operating system - it's a CD! So, press on, let us know how it goes, and have fun!

Cheers!
Krishna :mrgreen:

@ICPUG post #8 and
@mecho post #9

My laptop has Intel GM45 video.
I've never noticed any video problems with Knoppix 6.2.1,
either at boot-up or otherwise.

However, recently I've been trying out a 2Gb SD Card version of Ubuntu.
Using the 64-bit Ubuntu version, the video was noticeably flickery.
The 32-bit version was less flickery, but still a little unsettling.

Adding the i915-kms.conf file to /etc/modprobe.d seems to have quieted down
the 32-bit version completely.

My thanks to you both for solving a problem I had no idea where to start going after.

ICPUG and Krishna - thanks for the support. The i915 command did not work, but the xmodule=vesa did. I was able to get to my folders. Everything seemed to freeze when I tried to copy more than one file at a time, but I assume this is a completely separate issue.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KinVA

ICPUG and Krishna - thanks for the support. The i915 command did not work, but the xmodule=vesa did. I was able to get to my folders. Everything seemed to freeze when I tried to copy more than one file at a time, but I assume this is a completely separate issue.

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You might want to use the command line and wildcards for this one, if it's still incomplete. There are a lot ways to do it, but if you want more info on the topic, try going to LXTerminal (black screen on monitor icon) and type in

Code:

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man cp
or
info cp

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Cheers!
Krishna :mrgreen: