Thanks. As suggested I tried various cheat codes, but without success. The latest download for Knoppix produces the same problem. It seems to be hardware related and not just with Knoppix. I've tried installing the latest versions of Suse, Mandriva and Ubuntu. None could be installed and all had problems with hardware detection. Suse and Ubuntu couldn't detect the CD (DVD) drive the install program was running from.
Its been suggested that as the mobo is new, perhaps the chipset is not supported for Linux. The specs for the board claim support for all later WIN versions, but make no mention of Linux. I'll do a bit more research and if I can get to the bottom of this I'll post the details.
Thanks again.