I am trying to use Knoppix on my mother's computer, but no matter what I try, it always locks up during boot. She has an old eMachines computer with a Cyrix MII 266 MMX processor, 192 MB RAM, a 2.1 GB Hd (never used by Knoppix, of course), and an ATI 3D Rage IIc video card.

If I allow Knoppix to boot without any special instructions, it always locks after detecting the processor. If I specify "knoppix no usb apm scsi" or any combination of those, it locks after detecting APM features, which it detects immediately after detecting the processor. And if I use "failsafe", it boots normally until it tries to start X, at which time the screen goes blank, and sometimes the CD-ROM drive keeps reading from the CD for an indefinite amount of time. Never does the X GUI start.

I cannot use "knoppix 2" because it locks after detecting the processor. I have tried using "failsafe knoppix 2" and "failsafe 2", but it does not seem to understand my intent.

Is there some way to boot to text mode only and have failsafe mode? And does anyone have any ideas on how I might start X? I have used this very same CD successfully on the computer I used to download and burn it. It had the thing booted to a full KDE desktop faster than Windows XP Home can boot. Everything worked. Both I and my friend were very impressed; he even asked for a copy.

Can anyone help me with the problems I am having on my mother's computer? Any suggestions as to what I can do to get it working? Thanks in advance!

P.S. - Downloading a new version of Knoppix is not easy for me. I have only a modem, and in order to even be able to download it, I need to use broadband because it changes so often. So I have to "borrow" bandwidth from this friend of mine, and that's not something I can do very often.