Freezes in Boot

**System** · 02-20-2005, 03:23 PM

Hi im new to linux and knoppix and dont know much about it.
I transfered knoppix 3.6 to cd and booted from it on my laptop and it freezes.
This is what i do:
Start up computer (bios is set to boot from cd)
Knoppix 3.6 screen appears.
I press [Enter] next to the word 'Boot:'
it goes:
Loading linux24...
Loading minirt24.gz...
Loading...

Next the screen says:
Welcome to the knoppix live linux-on-CD!

Scanning for USB/Firewire devices... Done
Enabling DMA acceleration for: hda [IBM-DARA-206000]
Enabling DMA acceleration for: hdc [Samsung CD-ROM SN-124]
Looking for CDROM in: /dev/scd0

Then it doesnt do anything, am i meant to type something?
Anyone have any idea what the problem is? or what i should do?

Laptop Stats:
Dell Latitude CPi A400XT
Pentium II
Math Comprocessor: Integrated
128MB RAM
Video Memory 2.5MB
BIOs Level: A08
Hardrive no1: 2.92GB
Hardrive no2: 2.51GB

any help much appreciated

**System** · 02-20-2005, 03:59 PM

Typing 'Failsafe' at boot gets it to start, but it takes forever to start anything, would copying the files to hardisk make everything load quicker?

**HONK** · 02-20-2005, 05:25 PM

Did you check the md5sum? maybe your knoppix disk is just bad....

HONK

**Harry Kuhman** · 02-20-2005, 05:30 PM

If you've already checked the md5 sum (which is certainly the first thing you should have done), then maybe booting with the nodam cheat code would help.

**HONK** · 02-20-2005, 05:33 PM

I think you mean nodma...

**Harry Kuhman** · 02-20-2005, 05:44 PM

Originally Posted by HONK

I think you mean nodma...

Opps, yea!

**System** · 02-20-2005, 09:21 PM

whats md5sum? dont forget im new, i got it working by typing failsafe in at boot

**Harry Kuhman** · 02-20-2005, 09:26 PM

Originally Posted by System

whats md5sum? dont forget im new, i got it working by typing failsafe in at boot

The MD5 sum is a way to verify that the ISO file you have is good, a very important step, particularly if you downloaded the ISO from a mirror (since a high percentage of mirror downloads tend to be corrupt). Read about it in the downloading faq available from the documentation link at the top of the page, or search the forums for md5 for a lot more discussion.

**System** · 02-20-2005, 09:33 PM

how do i look at it? i downloaded it off a site not a mirror

**Harry Kuhman** · 02-20-2005, 09:47 PM

Originally Posted by System

how do i look at it? i downloaded it off a site not a mirror

Looks like the wiki and the downloading faq are unavailable at the moment. There are many md5 programs that will check it. The one I like is available here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/md5summer/

Basically your computer calculates the md5 sum of the file that you have and then it is compared to the md5 file that you can get from the site that you downloaded the iso from. If they match then your file is good; if they don't then your file is corrupt. The comparison can be done automatically by a program like md5summer, or you can just look at the md5 file (it's a text file) and manually check it against the sum you generate for your iso.