I finally got a bootable CD of Knoppix v-3.7. I followed the suggestion of starting the burn from the K3b 'tools' menu and slowing the speed from 4X to 2X. I had it verify the burn. For the record,

Tools/CD/Data CD burn
Speed = 2X (not auto)
Verify
command: cdrecord -v gracetime=2 dev=/dev/hdd speed=2 -tao -overburn -data ~/KNOPPIX ... EN.iso

I'm running SUSE 9.1 and using an Iomega ZipCD 4x650.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm guessing that slowing it down did the trick. It was good to hear that bugle!

Dave