I already tried "knoppix 2" (should be identical to "knoppix24 2") (which, according to the list of cheatcodes, means "Runlevel 2, Textmode only) with the same result - which really astonished me!

Having read your reply, I tried knoppix26, but it gets stuck when accessing the cdrom drive.

Then I tried knoppix 3 - again same result - I am forced to run mkdosswapfile before getting any prompt, and this loops with the mentioned I/O error.

Regards,

Matthias