I've been having strange problems with the Knoppix 3.3 EN ISO images dated Feb 9th and 16th. They download fine, the MD5 checksums match, but they also seem to be missing some content!

(I'm currently running Windows 95 [yes... still] on a Dell Dimension 2400, Pentium II 233MHz, 192MB RAM; burned with Nero Express to a LiteOn LTR-52327S CD-RW... but none of that is relevant to my problem, as you will see.)

The story:

I downloaded KNOPPIX_V3.3-2004-02-16-EN.iso and md5sum.exe gave me the correct checksum, so I burned it to a CD (no errors) and booted up Knoppix (again, seemingly no errors). After booting, however, I began to notice problems.

These included the system pausing for many seconds when browsing the "K" menu, pausing for even longer when dialog boxes would come up, missing buttons in dialog boxes, some missing documentation, some programs not working properly, some crashing, and some even seeming to lock up the system. (The good news: Knoppix seems to recognize all my hardware. But what else would you expect?)

Eventually I tried a program that opened a terminal window while setting itself up and I saw multiple error messages, one of which appeared to be saying it couldn't find a button image. Hmm...

Well, to make a long story slightly shorter, the testcd cheatcode revealed similar errors, so I redownloaded the ISO image and again it gave the correct MD5 checksum. But when I used the option to check all the files individually, it gave me errors!

And here they are:

Code:
autorun.inf: FAILED open or read
cdrom.ico: FAILED open or read
Demos/Audio/green_openmusic_license.txt: FAILED open or read
Demos/Audio/opensource.ogg: FAILED open or read
Demos/Audio/README.txt: FAILED open or read
index.html: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/background.jpg: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/boot.img: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/images/1stleftfill.gif: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/images/2ndfill.gif: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/images/2ndleftfill.gif: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/images/button-knoppix.gif: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/images/button-links.gif: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/images/button-openmusic.gif: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/images/button-selflinux.gif: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/images/button-talks.gif: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/images/knoppix-logo.gif: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/images/sidefill.gif: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/images/topfill.gif: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/images/topleft.gif: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/images/topright.gif: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/index_dk.html: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/index_en.html: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/index_es.html: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/index_fr.html: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/index.html: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/index_it.html: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/index_jp.html: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/index_nl.html: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/index_ru.html: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/knoblind.bat: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/knoppix-cheatcodes.txt: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX-FAQ-EN.txt: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX-FAQ-ES.txt: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX-FAQ-FR.txt: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX-FAQ-IT.txt: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX-FAQ-NL.txt: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX-FAQ.txt: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/knoppix-header.gif: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/LICENSE.txt: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/links.html: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/mkfloppy.bat: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/rawrite2.exe: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/rawrite2-readme.txt: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/README_Security.txt: FAILED open or read
KNOPPIX/web-background.gif: FAILED open or read
Talks/freesoftware-paper.pdf: FAILED open or read
Talks/freesoftware-screen.pdf: FAILED open or read
Talks/knoppix-vortrag-2003-paper.pdf: FAILED open or read
Talks/knoppix-vortrag-2003-screen.pdf: FAILED open or read
The exact same thing happens with KNOPPIX_V3.3-2004-02-09-EN.iso: correct MD5 checksum, so it downloaded okay, but it's missing (or can't read) the exact same files! (This one I didn't even burn, obviously.)

So, how is this possible?? The ISO images have been up for over two months; they can't be corrupt! Right?

(OBTW, the site I used is ftp://ftp.cise.ufl.edu/pub/mirrors/knoppix/, because that one gives me decent download rates. This shouldn't make a difference, though, because all mirrors should use the exact same ISO files and MD5 checksums.)

And it can't just be a problem with md5sum.exe, because some of those error messages seem to reflect the problems I'm having in Knoppix.

If anyone has an explanation or remedy, please post.

I'm now going to try the 2004-11-19 version. Wish me luck...

- dcljr