well, i'm new to this forum, but not to knoppix. I have been using it since v3.7, and that is the version I am having a problem with. here is my hadrware specs:

Burning Computer:
HP Kayak XA
PIII 550mhz
383mb RAM
15.0gb HDD
13.6gb HDD
3.5" Floppy
16xCD-RW/8xDVD combo Samsung SM-308B drive
Windows XP Professional Edition
Nero 6.0 Suite
KNOPPIX_V3.7-2004-12-08-EN.iso file

Computer to run Knoppix:
Homebuilt, unbranded model
PI 200mhz
288mb RAM (registers to 73mb)
6.4gb HDD
5.25" 1.2mb FDD
3.5" 1.44mb FDD
52xmax Irama CD-ROM drive model # DCE-CD5200A
internal Zip 100 IDE drive
NO Previous OS (low level formated it.)

well, here is what is wrong, I used a Maxwell CD-R, but first md5 verifyed the iso file. it passed. I first burned it at maximum allowed speed, 8x, then at minimum allowed speed, 2x. BOTH times, I set my BIOS boot order to CDROM,C,A. I popped the burned CD in, and it looks like it's reading ok, but then the light stops. (if CD is read ok, light should be on green steady. I get boot failure for ATAPTI CD-ROM, and the thing halts. so, I booted both CDs(one at a time) on the kayak. no problem with bootup. so, I use the mkbootfloppy command in shell. I used two NEW disks, and booted them on the other machine with the disc in the drive. both boot, until where it is looking for the CD-ROM, it passes DMA acceleration for hda (Quatium fireball LP 6.4gb HDD), hdb (Iomega Zip 100) and Hdd (CD-ROm drive. but then it searches for the drive again, and says it cant find it, and drops me to the VERY limited shell. then, five minutes later, I get a:

Knoppix# Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 408f055d
printing eip:
c50278ea
*pde = 00000000
Oops: 0000
CPU: 0
EIP: 0010:[<c50278ea>] Not tainted
EFLAGS: 00010286
eax: b7ff287d ebx: 0000600 ecx: 00000030 edx: 00000000
esi: c447ee70 edi: 0000000 ebp: 0000000a esp: c02f1f30
ds: 0018 es: 0018 ss: 0018
Process swapper (pid: 0, stackpage=c02f1000)
stack: c47d89e0 04000001 00000000 0000000a c01206b2 00000000 c0310030 c010a0b0
0000000a c447ee70 c02f1f98 c03454e0 c0318940 0000000a c02f1f90 c010a2a7
0000000a c02f1f98 c47d89e0 c02f0000 c0106d90 ffffe000 00000000 c47d89e0
Call Trace: [<c01206b2>] [<c010a0b0>] [<c010a2a7>] [<c0106d90>] [<c0106d90>]
[<c0106dbc>] [<c0106e22>] [<c0105000>] [<c0105050>]

Code: 56 04 83 c2 06 66 ed 25 ff ff 00 00 50 51 68 c0 89 02 c5 e8
<0>Kernal panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!
In interrupt handler - not syncing

with my caps lock and scroll lock lights flashing in sync. so, what am I doing wrong? oh, here is my BIOS info:

Award Modular Bios v4.51PG
04/23/97-i430VX-Al15123-2A59GA1FC-3Q

my CD-ROM drive comes up as:
Found LS-120 Device : CTCPX 722 CDROO " " " " " " " " " " " "

and the Zip 100 is also classified as an ATAPI device. when my BIOS is set to boot CDROm,C,A or C,CDROM,A, the Zip comes up as:
Found LS-120 Device : IOMEGA ZIP 100 ATAPI

hmm...

well, I hope you can help me. I'm trying to get this little guy to be a server. I tried FreeBSD, but I couldnt get it to do an FTP install to completion (kept getting BTX halted message or problem with the startx command after logging in as root.)

thank you so much!! -digital