jebus why have you forsaken me?

[KaReeM oF WHeaT]

Ok heres the deal... A few weeks ago I decided it was time to broaden my horizons and start leraning more about Linux. Well long story short after trolling around a bunch of Linux websites I decided Knoppix was the distro for me. I liked the idea of using a bootable version so I didnt have to mess with my current pc set up while learning Linux. Wow I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I never burn anything so I didnt have any buring apps, I just use xps built in burning function. I tried several freeware burnin apps but all I ended up with was several news coasters for my coffee table So I got myself a copy of nero 6 ultra from a buddy of mine... and well I have more new coasters now I have no idea what i am doing wrong. I've checked around in the forum here and I am using a cd-r and buring on he slowest possible speed. What am I doing wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance

[Harry Kuhman]

Did you read the downloading faq? Did you check the md5 checksum of the ISO that you downloaded? Since you mentioned Nero 6, did you use the Nero menu "OPEN" feature to open the iso and burn it as an image? And, as you mentioned, burning it nice and slow is important.

[KaReeM oF WHeaT]

I did do the check sum and it was fine. I didnt do the open option on nero- I used the wizard and chose burn iso. thanks for your input. I'm gonna check out the faq right now. I'll let you know if I have any luck. Oh yeah and I'm trying to use knoppix 3.6 (I dont know if that matters or not).

[Harry Kuhman]

3.8 is a good choice, 3.9 has some known bugs. But either should burn ok. Oh, just caught that you were trying to burn 3.6, not 3.8. But stiil, the procedure we are discussing should work for any CD ISO. 3.6 may need some additional cheat codes on some systems to boot though. It could be that your "coasters" are just fine, you just need to read the cheat code faq. Are you getting to the first prompt when you try to boot?

I stay away from the Nero Wizards. One would expect an option that says ISO to work, but I just have no experience with it. As long as you have the full version of Nero 6 with the normal menus across the top then you should burn the iso by opening it. (Nero 5 works a bit differently).

Beyond this, since I suspect that the wizard interface should have worked, what can you tell us about these coasters you are making? As long as you have a good iso (the md5 confirms that), burn it as an image, and do it at a slow speed, it should be right. If you put a coaster into a running windows system, what do you see on the cd?

[UnderScore]

Quick walkthrough example burn Nero Ultra Edition 6.3.1.25 (not Express.)
I run it and it automatically starts a "New Compilation" wizard. I immediately click Cancel. Then I go to the File menu and choose Open (or I could just use the keyboard shortcut of CTRL-O). In the Open file dialog box, I change the Files of type from "All Nero compilations and Images" to "Image Files (*.nrg;*.iso;*.cue)". Then I go find the Knoppix ISO file and double-click it to select it. It then brings up the Burn Compilation dialog box. I choose a write speed of 4x or 8x. I check-mark the "Finalize CD (No further writing possbile!)". I personally choose the write method of "Disk-at-once" but I know that "Track-at-once" also works. When I am ready, I click on the "Burn" button and Nero will burn the ISO to the CDR.

[maxIT]

NERO/File/Write Image... ('scrivi immagine' in my italian vers. but in english I think 'write image')

[KaReeM oF WHeaT]

I know this will sound stupid so let me apologize in advancce Where can I get 3.8? when I hit the download link from Knoppix.net it gete me 3.6 Also would a newb see much of a benefit from grabbing 3.8 instead (ok I admit I'm REALLY lazy and don't want to spend the time with another download unless I have too )? Further, when I try to get a copy of 3.8 from Knoppix.com, either the links located in the U.S.A. dont work for me or the only version of 3.8 listed is KNOPPIX_V3.8.1-2005-04-08-DE.iso. Again this may be stupid but I assume thats the German version? I want it to list ENG.iso right?

Whats on my new set of coasters? All of the files are listed but neither of my pcs will boot off of any of them. Let me just say right now yes the boot order checks the cd before trying to boot off the hdd. Let me back up for just a second. Ok I downloaded a zip file for 3.6 from the Get Knoppix link on this site. I then unzipped the file used md5summer at some point (dont remember right now if you use it on the zip file or the files after they were unzipped) but regardless md5summer said everthing was fine. So I used the wizard or nero 6 ultra (w/ the patch from their site) and burned an iso.

Thanks again for all of the input. I'm about to try burning another disk. I'm gonna follow the detailed instructions left above. My fingers are crossed


Thanks again

[Harry Kuhman]

You can get 3.8.2 and/or 3.9 by following the Get Knoppix link near the top of this page. If you do download another file I would strongly suggest using BitTorrent rather than a mirror. There are lots of good reasons for this, trust me. You likely want one of the files that ends in EN, not DE. And 3.9 has some known bugs, I would stick with 3.8.2 or wait for 4.0 (when is that official version going to be released? it's well over 3 weeks since Linux-TAG now).

I wouldn't bother with a new version until you can boot what you have. I sure don't like the mention of unzipping anything, I've never seen Knoppix delivered in a zip file. Do you actually see the zip extension, or do you let windows hide extensions and think it was a zip because of the icon? Turn that damn "feature" off! Did you download the iso and a md5 file with one and only one checksum in it? (it's a text file, you can look at it.) It sounds like you may be using an md5 that is inside the iso. That is NOT what you want to do, that file is there for other reasons. Just follow the instructions in the downloading faq and don't thorw in extra steps that seem to make sense to you and you'll have much better results.

[UnderScore]

Bittorrent will automatically make sure the knoppix file you downwload is unchanged & not corrupt. If you do not want to use bittorrent then download it from here.
http://debian.ams.sunysb.edu/knoppix...5-05-05-EN.iso
http://debian.ams.sunysb.edu/knoppix...-05-EN.iso.md5

Then visit the Downloading FAQ and read about "What are these strange MD5 files that accompany the ISO CD images?".
Once you have confirmed that the ISO is perfect & not corrupt, then you can either read another FAQ "I have downloaded the ISO file. How do I burn the ISO? How is the ISO supposed to be burned?" or you can follow the Nero advice I posted above. If you do not read the FAQs or follow our advice then you will most likely waste your time burning a bad CDR.

[foamrotreturns]

One thing that has not been mentioned yet is the possibility that the computer does not have CD booting enabled. If all the files are on the CD it sounds like it was burned properly. I would bet that it's the BIOS skipping the CD-ROM for boot.