X Window session terminated with errors

[Jamo]

Hi,

I'm trying to get Knoppix running for the first time to try and recover some files from a laptop with a suspected hard drive failure.

X window loads as far as the title screen and mouse cursor then crashes.
I'm getting the message: 'X Window session terminated with errors'

Its also throwing some IO errors when it tries to enter stand by mode.

Is the a way round this, or, is it possible to use the shell to copy files from the internal hard disk to an external hard disk?

Thanks

[hal8000]

Yes this is possible using basic unix commands.

You will however need to know the paths on the host system and also the directory structure on the usb drive.

When you plug in your usb drive (with knoppix cd loaded) type dmesg

This should give you the device name of your usb drive, possibly /dev/sda1.

You may have to manually mount this as well, if you have errors and are at a terminal. I suggest you
do sudo passwd (create a root password) then work as root.

Make a mount point for the usb drive i.e
mkdir /usbdrive

then mount the usb drive (im assuming fat32 filesystem)

mount /dev/sda1 -t vfat /usbdrive

(sda1 partition revealed from dmesg)

You will also need to mount the host system. Assuming host system is an IDE drive on proimary partition 1 with ntfs structure. First create a mount point:
mkdir /harddrive

then mount the harddrive
mount /dev/hda1 -t ntfs /harddrive

To copy files or directories use
cp or cp-r

[Jamo]

Thanks.

dmesg gives me a page of output the topmost of which (I can read) is:

ide: failed opcode was: unknown


I can't create a password or create mount points either.

Sorry I don't know a thing about Linux.