I have both bought the cd, and downloaded Knoppix 3.8. Both wind up at the line

Init: Version 2.78-Knoppix booting

Then it just sits.

Forgot to add:
Dell Dimension 8400, Intel Pentium 4, 3.2 GHz, 1GB RAM

Have tried:
Knoppix keyboard=us failsafe debug 1 vsync=60 screen=800x600 noswap

Now it gets to:
Type exit to continue with bootup
#

When I try to type, nothing appears as if it doesn't recognize the keyboard.