Okay i fgured it out.

when i get to the grub loader, i can hit 'e' to edit the
small script (is this a file somehwere?) using bash line
editing commands (stretching way back in memory now..)

i changed it to ramdisk size=0 and it loaded up fine
no problems.

It screams now, no delay full java applets that bog down on
1.8ghz windows xp snap to on this 850mhz knoppix 5.1.1
hdd install..

In case anyone else wanted to know.. the leap to linux
is worth it there is nothing i want to do yet that cant
be done smoother and faster on this install.