boot: knoppix26
pauses indefinitely at: Starting init process.INIT: version 2.78-knoppix booting
on a desktop Dell NTFS Win XP PC here, bought new last December.

I get the "(very limited)" cat/ mount/ mod shell only from the bootline: knoppix26 hda=ide-cd. Bootlines that hang include: knoppix26, knoppix26 noscsi, knoppix26 nodma, knoppix26 hda=ide-scsi. I burned iso of Knoppix 3.7, checked the md5sum, "verified" the CD-R, twice. The default empty Knoppix 2.7 bootline boots 2.4.27 no worries, except the HDD is not found. I have run boot: memtest thru Test % reaching 100 and starting over.

Please advise how I could investigate this further.