More likely, if you get all the way through to the X server starting, it's not a bad burn. The problem's that Knoppix isn't automatically configuring XFree86 correctly for either the video card (a driver problem) or the monitor (usually a vsync or hsync rate problem).

Since the X server actually quits on you, I could be wrong but I'd guess it's a driver problem. Especially since you have a laptop which may have an esoteric chipset.

After X quits, the reason why it quit may be explicitly displayed on screen. If not, take a look at /var/log/XFree86.0.log -- errors are marked "EE". If you can find and fix the error in your /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file (that's the configuration file for the X server), save it, then restart X with the command "init 5".

Also remember that you can explicitly tell Knoppix which video card driver and refresh rate(s) to use with cheatcodes (see "knoppix-cheatcodes.txt" on the CD for more info).

If you do (hopefully) get it going after editing XF86Config-4, you can save your configuration files (Knoppix menu > Configure > Save Knoppix configuration), and Knoppix will save your modified XF86Config-4 for future use.

Finally, there's a section for laptops on this forum -- you could try posting your make/model and problem there, and see if anyone can recommend what to do to get X working.