What steps to take after boot fails?

[adamherb]

I am going to go away this summer to a place with some of my old relatives, and they don't have an internet connection. I have tried Knoppix on their computer, but it doesn't work. The monitor just shows this funny rainbow blob. It is an old computer, it runs Win98. I would like to know the things that I should do to try to figure out the problem myself, becuase I will not have an internet connection. Thanxs

[rwcitek]

I am going to go away this summer to a place with some of my old relatives, and they don't have an internet connection. I have tried Knoppix on their computer, but it doesn't work. The monitor just shows this funny rainbow blob. It is an old computer, it runs Win98. I would like to know the things that I should do to try to figure out the problem myself, becuase I will not have an internet connection. Thanxs

You can think of Knoppix as going through 3 different levels as it boots up: 1) boot level, 2) text-mode level, and 3) graphics-mode level. If you can't get to boot level, check your BIOS and the CD. If you can't get to text-mode level, try adjusting the non-GUI-related cheatcodes, e.g. vga=, acpi=, pnpbios=, etc. To get into text-mode level, append a 1, 2, 3, or 4 to your boot command. For example, boot: knoppix 3. If you can't get into graphics-mode level, try adjusting the GUI-related cheatcodes, e.g. xserver=, xmodule=, screen=, etc.

For more control over the boot process, try the debug option:
- knoppix debug
- knoppix debug 1
- knoppix debug -b 1

You may also want to try both the "failsafe" and the "expert" label:
- failsafe
- failsafe 1
- failsafe debug -b 1
- expert
- expert 1
- expert debug -b 1

Good luck and let us know how things go.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org/

[adamherb]

If I boot into text mode, and then what should I do. Would I type init 5 to get into the graphics mode. Or from text mode I could install Knoppix to the hard drive, but if the computer can't run it live, will it work with a GUI after the install?

[rwcitek]

If I boot into text mode, and then what should I do. Would I type init 5 to get into the graphics mode.

Yes. The object is to first get into text mode. If you can't even do that, I would focus on all the cheatcodes that don't start with an x. If you can get into text mode, then I would focus on cheatcodes that do start with an x.

Or from text mode I could install Knoppix to the hard drive, but if the computer can't run it live, will it work with a GUI after the install?

I would not install Knoppix to the harddrive. That's not really what it's designed for.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org/