Can Old PC run Knoppix?

[shah]

You mentioned that you set the BIOS, but that it refuses to boot off the CD, why? Does the CD spin, (NO)

light on the drive come on? (NO)

Does it display anything that would be associated with Knoppix? (NO)

the system stops at something like " Booting from ATAPI CD" in dos mode and stays there for approx 30 mins and i had to assume that it hangs

Since the cdrom not reading your cd, try that cd on other pc, see if it's okay.
If it can boot from other cd then you can try boot using smart boot manager's floppy to bypass bios problem:
http://btmgr.webframe.org/index.php3?body=download.html

[Mic Q]

Thanks all,

managed to got it running .... create boot disk (02 floppy) using Knoppix at another PC.... BUT with 32M of ram is insufficient for any desktop environment

anyway, at least satisfy my curiosity..


New Problem :

Boot up Knoppix LiveCD (w/o floppy) with another PC (my newphew's) P3, 128Mram and able to boot till after video card recognition after which knoppix searches knoppix system from the CD Rom /dev/scd0 and stops stating that it is unalble to locate CD Rom.

How is it possible since it is booting from CD until this stage?

Any hints?

[garyng]

Thanks all,

managed to got it running .... create boot disk (02 floppy) using Knoppix at another PC.... BUT with 32M of ram is insufficient for any desktop environment

anyway, at least satisfy my curiosity..


New Problem :

Boot up Knoppix LiveCD (w/o floppy) with another PC (my newphew's) P3, 128Mram and able to boot till after video card recognition after which knoppix searches knoppix system from the CD Rom /dev/scd0 and stops stating that it is unalble to locate CD Rom.

How is it possible since it is booting from CD until this stage?

Any hints?

It is possible. The booting(from CD-ROM) is handled by the BIOS, not KNOPPIX. This usually means your CD-ROM is not recognized by the linux kernel, for whatever reason.

[Cuddles]

I am not sure about this, but, I think it should get you what your initial thought was,

Use your friends computer, boot the CD, then run the mkbootfloppy, then try the floppy / CD combination on your computer...

Considering the replies to your booting Knoppix, you might be able to "trim down" some of the boot stuff, through cheatcodes, and you might be able to get Knoppix running, say with a less "memory hog" desktop manager - look at the boot: cheatcodes on Desktop Managers...

It sounds like your system is a little older than assumed, considering the limitations on the CD boot, have you taken a look at any updates for your BIOS ? ( just some idle thoughts )

Hope this helps,
Ms. Cuddles
EDIT: oops, dummy me, went to take the kidlet to kindergarden, was thinking of this response, when I came back, thought I'd just post, DOH, should have done a refresh first... Sorry for the additional noise
END EDIT