Locking up on boot getting very annoyed!!

[Zeus]

Ok I am new to linux and tried knoppix because I heard it was good. I have been fixing things around for hours and hours and I'm still having trouble. First of all since this stupid OS will not support a USB keyboard (and yes I am using a ps/2 adapter) I cannot enter any commands at boot. Well this is not a big problem you say. Well every time knoppix starts to boot up, it locks up on the first task (probing SCSI). Since I can't enter any boot commands I can't get around this lock up in any way. Please help or I'm going back to windows xp

[jm080]

Sorry I think I cannot help you. But I used usb keyboards (both usb directly or via PS2 adaptaters) with knoppix without any problem.
by the way you should provide informations about your hardware: your computer's model, your keyboard. Did you try with another keyboard ? etc.

If you get any error message you must copy it (for this specific problem I suppose knoppix just starts probing scsi without telling anything about your keyboard).

[Zeus]

Thanks for the response. Ok I am using knoppix 3.7 and my keyboard is Saitek Gamer's Keyboard with a ps/2 adapter. My computer is custom built and has no problems on windows xp sp2. I have no other keyboards to try with so I don't know if it will work. The error I am getting when it is probing SCSI is


"Probing SCSI...aic7xxx.0"

then it just freezes. Since my keyboard will not type anything in at the boot screen I cannot input any commands to attempt to get around it. Also I wrote the cd at the slow speed of 8x and also verified my files after it was done burning. I tried this on another comp and it starts up fine except once it gets in the screen is all messed up, flickering a yellow color, and everything is overlapping and reflecting.

[mr_ed]

Yes, very frustrating!

And odd to have such major problems on two different computers - Knoppix is one of the best for detecting hardware. Klaus Knopper intended it to be a complete working environment on a disk so that he wouldn't have to carry around a laptop - he could just stick the disk into any random computer that he came across during the day.

If someone doesn't come up with a Knoppix answer for you, there are a couple of other Linux distributions that also have good reps with hardware. I nearly gave up a few years ago because I couldn't get Debian to work with my equipment, but I found another that did.

So it can depend on how much you want to mess around with getting things goinig. Go do some aerobic exercise before you give your final answer.

-- Ed