problem booting from floppy in 4.0.2

**Old Optiplex** · 10-18-2005, 08:27 PM

I have a successfully burned CD and have booted Knoppix from this in one computer, but my real aim is to use Knoppix on a computer that will not boot from CD. Using the working Knoppix computer, I created the pair of floppies for booting, but whenever I try these (and I've tried them on 3 different machines, including the one that I booted from the CD) I get as far as the point that I'm asked to insert the "root floppy".

So I insert the second of the floppies, and I get this message

"Invalid compression format (err=2)"

I've repeated the floppy creation process, but the problem remains.

What should I be trying here?

Thanks for any help.

OO

**Harry Kuhman** · 10-18-2005, 08:55 PM

Originally Posted by Old Optiplex

I created the pair of floppies for booting,

Bad idea. See the downloading faq (which also contains info on booting). Use Smart Boot Manager or XOSL.

**ruymbeke** · 10-18-2005, 09:49 PM

Originally Posted by Old Optiplex

I have a successfully burned CD and have booted Knoppix from this in one computer, but my real aim is to use Knoppix on a computer that will not boot from CD...OO

If you want to boot from a usb dongle or boot from the hdd hosting the iso file have a look in here:
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtop...?p=93758#93758
http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Win_Partition
Hope this helps. Please let me know if this works for you. Best Regards, Gilles

**Old Optiplex** · 10-18-2005, 10:31 PM

Originally Posted by Harry Kuhman

Originally Posted by Old Optiplex

I created the pair of floppies for booting,

Bad idea. See the downloading faq (which also contains info on booting). Use Smart Boot Manager or XOSL.

Good plan. Smart Boot Manager successfully carried me along to the next problem!

**Harry Kuhman** · 10-18-2005, 10:40 PM

Originally Posted by Old Optiplex

Actually I got into Knoppix, but only in text mode, since I can't seem to create a "knoppix.swp" file during the boot sequence. (Machine has only 80mB of RAM.) When asked if I want to create the file in a particular partition, I hit <return> with <OK> highlighted, but get no response. Have to escape out of that dialog to progress.

You're not telling us much about the system that you are hoping to create the swp file on. I sure hope it's isn't XP and that you are running Xp with only 80 meg of ram. Knoppix can't write to a NTFS partition. If it's a FAT partition, how much free space is available? You might want to try to be sure that there is free space on the disk, even defag it for better performance. It's been a while since I've run Knoppix on a limited memory system, but I did get it to boot on a 64 meg system and create the swp file for me just fine. I don't recommend doing it and you might be better off running in text mode or at least finding a Linux that uses a less memory intensive GUI, but it should at least create the swp file if you have free space on a fat partition. Just don't expect to be very happy with the performance.

**Old Optiplex** · 10-18-2005, 10:45 PM

Originally Posted by Harry Kuhman

You're not telling us much about the system that you are hoping to create the swp file on. I sure hope it's isn't XP and that you are running Xp with only 80 meg of ram. .... I don't recommend doing it and you might be better off running in text mode or at least finding a Linux that uses a less memory intensive GUI, but it should at least create the swp file if you have free space on a fat partition. Just don't expect to be very happy with the performance.

OK. Thanks. I got the swap file working right after posting my previous message but too late to forestall your reply.

This is an old Pentium I running Windows 95. This installation is purely to tinker around with Linux on a computer that is almost junk anyway, so I'm not (very) worried about performance.