error inserting' /modules/cloop.ko' : -bad file number

[Harry Kuhman]

I checked the iso with the checksum utility and it was fine
I burned it with nero burning rom version 5.5.10.35
I used the option under the file drop down menue to burn an image
It didnt give me an error .... its just that ive never seen it come up with foreighn image in the image properties tab

Well, it soundl like you could be using the proper technique for Nero 5 and that you are not getting an error. So far so good. I see you finally told us what version of Nero you are using, but I'm still wondering what version of Knoppix you are burning.

I burned it at 4x ... a painfull experience

Gee, it takes about 15 minutes or so at 4x. It seems like you spent a lot more time than that on this, so doing what has been found by many many users to be important shouldn't be a big issue. I just go and grab a snack or do some chore when I burn a CD (any CD). Sure, I wish my CD burner really worked at 48x or 52x, but the tuth is that high speed burns are marginal; the flaws intrioduced are often but not always hidden by the extensive error correcting code on a CD. I burn everything now at slow speeds. My advice to you is at least while you are trying to resolve things burn a copy slowly so that isn't yet another factor to deal with. After you have things working if you feel that you have to burn the CD in less than 2 minutes, go ahead, as long as you are not giving it to a friend or selling it. You might not have any problems, or you might spot the problems this causes and burn another copy at a safe speed.

You are using Nero 5, which if I remember properly does not do a verification pass for a ISO burn (6 does have that option). So your burn is a little faster than with 6, but you could have a bad burn and not know it.

it finished burning with no problems and restarted the pc to boot from the cd
It booted up to the first command screen (like I said im completly new to linux.. ive never used it before today)
I pressed f2 for the command list and used "Knoppix" It started detecting the usb stuff

OK, it sounds like things are going fine so far. You don't need to type knoppix if not using a cheat code; just an enter at the prompt will do. However, you do use knoppix with most cheat codes, and since you are having problems I would suggest knoppix testcd as the code to start with. Warning: the screen blanker may cut in while the CD is still being checked; just hit the shift key when this happens to get the screen back.

then after it seemed to finish this it started to (i assume) look inside the said directory for something for a split second then it gave me the error i stated in the first post

I'm not clear why you are getting the error. I've never seen it. I don't know what hardware you are booting on or even what version of Knoppix. The cloop file is the large compressed file of all the Linux applications that Knoppix holds, obviously you need this. It sounds more like an issue of something amiss with the disc than with your computer hardware, but at this point that's very speculative.

There is a section in the wiki on cheat codes that would be worth reading. One common problem is a need to force DMA to be enabled or disabled. Can't tell you which your default is since I don't know your Knoppix version, but if it is 4.02 then DMA is off by default and you might want to use knoppix dma to force it on. If all else fails I like to use the expert cheat code to step through the boot process and find where it fails; sometimes this gives a lot of insight to what to change in booting options.

also just tried running slack live cd and it gave me some wierd cache error or something

Should this be so embarissing?

Well, I would personally take a few notes and give people better information than "some wierd cache error or something". And I still have no idea what you mean to say by "I had to sort of manually burn it". Giving good and detailed information is important to getting problems like this resolved.