Machine freezes up when I try to remaster CD

[usepix]

Hello Team,
I'm a fairly new linux user and am trying to follow some instructions I read on the web for remastering the Knoppix CD. I have several problems to overcome with my remaster. The first and worst is that once I open a root console I have to accomplish my tasks before the machine freezes up. The last time it froze was during the use of dpkg -P which corrupted the /usr/lib/dpkg/status file so I have to start over it seems...once again. Is there a way around this freezing up of the console? I'm running 2.6.12 Linux kernel. The boot up screen says regarding the video...
Video is Savage 4, using XFree86(savage) Server
Monitor is IBM40a5 H... V...
and so on.
Maybe the problem is with KDE using too much memory...not sure. I've got 2G memory total.
Maybe I should perform the remaster in another runlevel...again not sure.
Maybe I could use the original /usr/lib/dpkg/status file but again I'm not sure if I should.

Thanks for the suggestions.

[usepix]

The cheat code xserver=XF86_SVGA solved the problem with the freezing up. Now I would like to make the specificatin of XF86_SVGA permanent in my remastered CD. Perhaps someone can help me with this?
Thanks