KNOPPIX will not boot

**Herminio** · 01-15-2007, 06:20 PM

Just burned an image of KNOPPIX 5.1.1 on my MAC OS X then tried to install it on my pentium celeron pc running XP and it would not boot. I went into the bios to make it is was set to boot from the cd-rom and it still would not boot. any suggestions?

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-15-2007, 06:26 PM

You should be able to burn an iso file from a MAC, although I don't know the proper tools or exact options. You didn't give us much to go on, but I suspect the most likely problem is that is was burned improperly. See answer #1 for details, you'll have to either apply the key information to the MAC world yourself or move the ISO to a PC and do a burn there. Please feel free to update the FAQ if you determine the proper way to burn an ISO on a MAC.

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-15-2007, 06:29 PM

Originally Posted by Herminio

... then tried to install it on my pentium celeron pc running XP and it would not boot. ....

By the way, I'll try to help you to get a disc to boot, but I will not contribute to any effort to actually install this software to hard disk.

**Herminio** · 01-15-2007, 06:39 PM

I do not want it installed just want it to boot from cd-rom. the faq does not give instruction for mac os x . I believe i burned it correctly b/c when i place it in my cd rom while xp was running i was able to open the cd and get into html page that gave instruction on how to boot it. But i could be wrong.this is the first time i burned an ios on a cd.

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-15-2007, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by Herminio

I believe i burned it correctly b/c when i place it in my cd rom while xp was running i was able to open the cd and get into html page that gave instruction on how to boot it.

Well, that's better than opening the CD and just seeing an ISO file (a too comon mistake), but I really can't tell from what you are saying (and not saying) what you did. Did you use some option on the MAC to Burn the ISO as an image? Did you make the common error of extracting all of the files from the ISo and burning them? Did you burn at low speed? Did you download with BitTorrent or confirm the MD5 checksum of the ISO before burning? Do you perhaps actually just have a copy of the ISO on the disc but then look inside the ISO when you look at the disc under windows? Is you bios set to allow booting from disc? You say it will not boot, but what happens when you try, how far does it get, what messages do you see and so on. You're not giving us anything to help you with.

**Herminio** · 01-15-2007, 07:03 PM

" Did you make the common error of extracting all of the files from the ISo and burning them?"

i did that!

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-15-2007, 07:12 PM

Originally Posted by Herminio

i did that!

Well, don't do that.

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-15-2007, 07:20 PM

I thought that the downloading faq that I previously referenced you to spelled out the issue of burning the ISO as an image, but apparently not. What should be done to make this more clear, such that you would have avoided the problem in the first place or at least, when reading the faq after making a failing disc, help you spot what had been done wrong? Feel free to update the faq yourself, or provide some insight on what should be put there so others avoid this in the future.

**Herminio** · 01-16-2007, 10:37 PM

For MAC OS X you have open a terminal session and enter the following command: hdiutil burn image.iso
This command has to be in the pwd where the image is stored. After I did that I was able to boot KNOPPIX with no problem.

**Harry Kuhman** · 01-16-2007, 11:30 PM

I certainly wouldn't pass that along in it's current form. The command you give seems to make no allowance for burn speed, and even though it seems to be working for you, we know from experience that fast burns can cause a lot of problems, even when the disk seems to boot (here is one of many examples). Good luck to you and I'm glad you're working, but I didn't want to leave your post as advice to others without this warning.