it works now after using the boot command:

knoppix i8042.noacpi

Which finally gives me the ability to play with the linux but I still have no idea whats going on. According to the reply I dug this cheat command from it states "It looks like your box has a badly written DSDT table. Try booting with i8042.noacpi for now or try Bjorn's patch..." Would anyone like to enlighten a linux newb as to what that means???!!!