1. Let me start by saying that I have no clue on Earth, BUT

2. I'd be really curious to see if a newer version of Knoppix would help. Like you, I started with 3.2 and put it aside, and it is amazing to me how many more drivers and apps that 3.4 has.

3. In a console, 'su' makes you root; 'sudo' makes you root for the particular command.

4. I'm running ADSL right now with DHCP on v3.4 - no configuration needed.

JD