Newbie can't access Knoppix files

**jfs4321** · 01-06-2007, 08:28 AM

I downloaded knoppix 5.0.1 using bittorrent. I checked the md5, and burned the ISO to CD using ISO recorder. Everything seems fine.

When I insert the knoppix CD I have the folders/files: boot, knoppix, autorun, etc. I can open the folders. But I cannot open or access any of the files. If I try to open any of the text files using Notepad, I get a message "Cannot open the 'G:\..' file. Make sure a disk is in the drive you specified." This happened both times I burned the ISO, on both my systems. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-06-2007, 09:24 AM

Notepad??? Linux has many strange editors, but as far as I know it does not have notepad. And G:\....
Linux does not reference partitions with letters that way, that a Microsoft Windows / DOS thing.

You should be able to navigate to the file that you want with Konquror. I have biases against most Linux editors so I'm not the one to advise you how to edit files, except that if they are on aNTFS partition I would strongly urge you either not to try or have a very good backup of everything on the partion. If it's a FAT partition then editing is safe, but Knoppix will default to opening the file read-only. See answer #6 for details.

**jfs4321** · 01-06-2007, 10:08 AM

I'm not in Linux. I burned the ISO to boot into Knoppix for some disk tools. But the CD will not boot. While in Windows, when I insert the CD my CD drive is G:\, I am trying to read some of the FAQs on the CD, but I cannot open any of the files on the Knoppix CD

**ILoveKagome** · 01-07-2007, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by jfs4321

I'm not in Linux. I burned the ISO to boot into Knoppix for some disk tools. But the CD will not boot. While in Windows, when I insert the CD my CD drive is G:\, I am trying to read some of the FAQs on the CD, but I cannot open any of the files on the Knoppix CD

well if you cant read any of the files and it is unbootable either reburn using a slower speed (sometimes high speeds mess with knoppix) or redownload from a non-torrent site. Bittorrent isnt the best way to get Knoppix in my opinion. if possible try on another system.

**marhleet** · 01-07-2007, 12:36 PM

sound slike the part of the disk with the directory is viewable, but the part where the data is supposed to be isn't there

did you burn it real slow ?

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-07-2007, 05:54 PM

Originally Posted by ILoveKagome

or redownload from a non-torrent site. Bittorrent isnt the best way to get Knoppix in my opinion. if possible try on another system.

As far as I'm concerned this may be the worst "advice" I've ever seem given on these forums. Can you support this statement in any way? The BT downloads, in addition to usually being faster than the mirrors, all contain extra error checking that the mirrors lack and can, in fact, correct errors if they occur in the download. BT can even sometimes "fix" a bad download from a mirror without having to download everything again. And most importantly, the BT download does come with the md5 file for the ISO. While it may take hours to download the file again, it should take minutes or seconds to check the file that you downloaded against the md5 sum. If you have a good md5 match you can be 100% certain that the file is not corrupt; there is absolutely no reason to download it again.

**jfs4321** · 01-09-2007, 02:03 AM

Downloaded from Bittorrent and checked the md5. I burned the ISO twice- the second time on speed =2 (where 24 is max). When I put the CD in the drive in Windows, all the files and folders are visible- but I cannot access any of them. The Knoppix folder has files like "KNOPPIX-FAQ" and "KNOPPIX-FAQ-EN". When I try to open any of these text files under windows I get error saying they cannot be opened and to make sure a disk is in the drive specified. This happens on both my laptop and desktop.

I cannot figure out why this is happening. Anyone have any ideas?

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-09-2007, 03:18 AM

I sure can't determine from what you said why you would not be able to open any of the files when you are in Windows. Obviously they would be read-only so you couldn't edit them, but almost all editors would open them and at least let you see them. My guess is that the disk isn't burnt properly and that you're not really seeing what you think and say you are seeing. Granted that's only a guess, but you have not given us much else to go on.

You might want to try and see if you can drag and drop of copy of one of these files you want to open onto your Windows had drive and try to open it there.

It seems likely that you didn't burn the ISO properly. See the downloading faq for details. See answer #1 if you don't know where the faq is. I'm expecting that you may have just copied the ISO to the CD, or "extracted" files from the ISO (although the second case would not explain why you can't edit files on the cd, but either would explain why the CD does not boot).

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-09-2007, 03:24 AM

Originally Posted by jfs4321

The Knoppix folder has files like "KNOPPIX-FAQ" and "KNOPPIX-FAQ-EN".

One more thing, you're making a very basic Windows problem that is causing you a lot of trouble, and not just here: You're letting Windows hide the file extensions from you. That is, there are no such files as listed above, the files have 3 letter extensios on the end, and since you dropped them you likely don't know the real file names or even what types of files they are. Again, see answer #1 for details on how to tell windows to stop hiding this information from you, it's a stupid feature that should never have been enabled and only causes problems.