You might look at the following link for some suggestions. You can also try contacting the author at: [email protected]

http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.comp.boo...month=20060201

I would try a NEW floppy and be sure to use the command "sbminst.exe -d 0" and see what happens.

I still think that the issues is related to your hardware/bios and it might be worth a try to check for a bios update, or contact Dell on your issue. It is unusual for system of recent manufacture, to fail to boot from an optical drive. Since Dell probably made more than one of your model system, it might have been experienced by others and may have been addressed already.

As Harry Kuhman explained, there are reasons that the Boot Disk option is no longer available or a viable solution in Knoppix.