Knoppix won't boot up

[IM2Slick]

My live CD (5.0.1) and the DVD (5.0) both stop at the same place ...... auto configuring devices ....... I have checked the MD5sums on both ..... both were burned at 8x, There's nothing wrong with the burner, I have burned a couple of distros after Knoppix to check that, and no other distro stops at the "auto configuring."

My computer is an HP Pavilion, AMD 3000+ Semperon Processor, 512 MB RAM, and lots of hard disk space. I usually have no problems at all installing Linux distro's except *buntu's, which this box hates! They always crash the hard drive and all of the distro's on it, except for Libranet and Slackware.

I have not had knoppix on this box, but had it on several boxes before (v.3.4). If I were to be able to install 3.4 on this box, can I do an upgrade to 5.0.1? I'd like to get back to Knoppix as a primary distro, after playing around with many others since 3.4. If not, can anyone tell me why it's stopping in the same place for both the CD and the DVD? I have other distro's that are based on Knoppix, but they seem to install just fine!

Thanks

[IM2Slick]

I have bumped this post a couple of times .... the latest time was last nite! I can't figure out why I get no response, and why I can't find my previous bumps .... after all, my first post was Dec 26th .... time enuff for someone to respond, I'd think, unless there's no one watching these forums; which, of course, means I'll never get an answer to my question ...... Is anyone home?

[jjmac]

If it's stopping at the 'auto configuration' stage you may have some hw facility that is conficting.

Try applying some of the cli codes described in the file, 'cheatcodes.txt' which should be included with your iso.

You don't really say much about what you have actually tried.

You might like to scan through the various posts/wiki as you may well stumble apone a discussion that may apply to your particular setup.

jm

[IM2Slick]

Customizing
After you have experimented with Knoppix for awhile you may want to customize it. Customizing may be as simple as using the Cheat Codes while booting the Knoppix CD. You may want to look at the Customizing FAQ or at some of the specialized Knoppix based Linux distributions.

jjmac This told me that I have to get past the autoconfiguration and at least get it running before I use the cheat codes, however, I am taking a look at them anyway, since you suggested it, and I will see if I can find anything to help me with this problem. I am surprised that this forum is not more responsive to the answers to problems, rather than ignoring posts. Thanks for your response ..... at least there is one person on the forum that is willing to help. I appreciate that ..... As I said earlier, I have used Knoppix 3.4, but got into Libranet after that and never looked back. Now that Libranet is in the toilet, I am looking for a new permanent distro, and I had hoped it would be Knoppix. As I also indicated, I have installed (and deleted) DSL, which uses the Knoppix installer, and it has no problem getting past the "autoconfiguring devices" I am surprised that Knoppix will not work.

[onemyndseye]

The cheatcodes are used from the boot prompt. (The screen you first see when you start from the CD)


they are used to boot the system with special options... like this:

to disable USB:
knoppix nousb

to start in text mode:
knoppix 2

to disable sound:
knoppix nosound


and so on....

They can also be strung together:
knoppix 2 lang=us nousb noapm noapci nosound nomce desktop=kde

Hope this helps
-Justin
One Mynds Eye

[Robert72]

Just wondering if someone knows what I should try with the following freeze (Knoppix 5.1 LiveCD):

Scanning for USB/Firewire devices... Done.
Enabling DMA acceleration for: hda [FUJITSU MMH2048AT]
Enabling DMA acceleration for: hdc [TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-1702BC]
Looking for CD in : /dev/hda

*freeze*

I tried "failsafe" and it booted up without any support for the devices.
I tried "knoppix dma" with no luck

Any ideas would be appreiciated.

Robert

[Robert72]

Woops, my mistake, I should have typed "knoppix nodma" which worked. So everything is ok, thanks anyway.

Robert

[jjmac]

>>
Scanning for USB/Firewire devices... Done.
Enabling DMA acceleration for: hda [FUJITSU MMH2048AT]
Enabling DMA acceleration for: hdc [TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-1702BC]
Looking for CD in : /dev/hda
>>

Well, google comes up negative forFUJITSU MMH2048AT. But ... the ,

'Looking for CD in : /dev/hda' is quite interesting ,

IM2Slick ....

Can't say i have had as extensive experience at burning as most people, especially around here. But i have gotten the general idea that a lot of cd/dvd problems will stem from subtle variances involving the burn. Which become more probable with speed. I haven't had a problem yet though, just with cd iso burns. But they have always been at the slowest speed x2 max. And always after a canceling burn first on a RW disc.

The other thing can be hw that is recent. A person can't expect the kernel to always be aware of very recent hw, such as graphic cards, networking etc. Especially as the kernels used may well be a number of months dated.

Not sure how you interpreted the FAQs on autoconfiguring in the way you suggest. But as suggested above ... the cli options are designed to be appended to the boot cli to give some control over the process.

Booting to the console can be very useful too, especially if you need to look into how X has been configured.

It is worth the read ...


jm

[maretard]

The same DMA error happened with me on an HP Pavilion dv5000z laptop. Interestingly enough, my hard drive is also a Fujitsu, possibly even the same serial number o_O
My best guess is that Fujitsu hard drives just don't like Knoppix looking in them for files; The way I got around this was to boot Knoppix from a USB drive instead of a CD. No spin-up time, blazing fast speeds, and above all, more convenient transportation. If you want to save a config file, though, you'll need to save it onto another USB drive, because Knoppix won't let you save stuff on its boot drive (because it thinks its boot drive is a read-only CD). Take both USBs out AFTER shutting down Knoppix, and copy the config files over via another computer. You might need to experiment to find out which USB drive the config is on though, as Knoppix sometimes assigns SDA1 and SDA2 to two drives installed in order, but other times assigns them by USB port. Go figure, eh?
If you need any more help with USB, feel free to PM me. Lord knows I had enough trouble getting that damn USB to work!
(Oh, another side-note - You may have to disable your hard drive in BIOS (yes, disable your hard drive) in order for the USB drive to boot. For some reason, my BIOS keeps resetting the boot order on every restart, and loading XP instead, so I just disabled the hard drive altogether. You can still access the files once you get in Knoppix, you just can't boot from the hard drive, which leaves only the USB drive, containing Knoppix.)
Regards,
Maretard

[jjmac]

I find it interesting the diversity of experiances people have been having with the knoppix 5.0.1

Personally, i haven't had any freezes as such, but did have an issue with getting the 'home=' persistance to work. I had to effect it manually via the 'knoppix.sh' script.

And i alwas disable boot time detections for facilities that i don't have.

I feel that knoppix tries to do to much really. As a demonstration disc, demoing all the possible hw and sw inclusions that Linux can be used with/for --- well, ok --- , but it still needs to work in that sense otherewise that design goal fails. And it dosen't work in that respect. Not consistently it would seem.

And also, a lot of posters don't reveal the hw that they have plugged in, so it becomes almost imposible to get a clear picture on just where problems are stemming from.

Very new hw, well, problems should be expected. Unless the kernel has a call-back available to handle its' interrupt, what can it do but hand/freeze at that point. The kernel option 'irqpoll' may or may not help there.

In any case, i recon the big noise should be that 'syslinux' boots for optical media (cd/dvd) is now redundant. But it is still being used of course Ever sinse grub has has an iso 2nd stage loader available -- 'stage2-eltorito' -- there is now an editable cli available applie kernel parameters and other options directly. But it isn't being taken advantage of for some reason.

Remastering is a good fix method but it does take a degree of expertise, and time, so for most people they are left with a disc that ... just kinda works, in a way. Pity ...


jm