Cannot boot from Knoppix

**Wakenaam** · 07-27-2007, 04:30 PM

My Friends: I am running a Pentium III, 650 MHz, 512 MB RAM, Windows XP Pro. I downloaded a copy of Knoppix 5.1.1 and burned a CD from it. My computer would not boot from it. I changed the boot sequence in BIOS to all possible combinations, with the CDROM being the first boot device now. Still it would not boot. Thinking my CD is defective in some way, I ordered a CD from The Linux Store, still it would not boot from this Knoppix CD. Any ideas how I can fix this? Thank you.

**Harry Kuhman** · 07-27-2007, 04:45 PM

Originally Posted by Wakenaam

. I downloaded a copy of Knoppix 5.1.1 and burned a CD from it. My computer would not boot from it. ........ I ordered a CD from The Linux Store, still it would not boot from this Knoppix CD. Any ideas how I can fix this? Thank you.

There are two different things here, which may or may not be related. I don't know what the Linux store offers, but CDs done as a high speed burns (as opposed to pressed CDs) often fail to boot. So without more information I'm not sure if your system is at fault or the CDs.

Can the computer boot other bootable CDs?

How did you make that CD? Many people who are new at this don't know how to properly burn an ISO file to a CD. This is a very common problem here. See the downloading faq for details.

What happens when you try to boot the Knoppix CD? Does the CD spin at all? Do you get any error message? Do you get a DR-DOS prompt? What do you see if you look at the Knoppix CD that you made under windows?

**Wakenaam** · 07-27-2007, 09:56 PM

Harry: Thanks for your response. The CD I made is exactly like the one I bought from the Linux Store when I check the files. My Knoppix CD boots from a Compaq Pentium 4 as it should, but I just can't get it to boot from the Pentium III. The Pentium III has no problem reading the CD, just that it wouldn't boot from it. I have no problem booting other CD's from the Pentium III computer. Thanks for any further insights.

**Harry Kuhman** · 07-27-2007, 10:23 PM

I don't have any insight on what is happening with the computer when it fails to boot. And I still don't know if it is spinning the disc or giving an errpr at boot time. My best suggestion would be to make a smart boot manager floppy (SBM) and see if that can boot the CD. Your computer is old enough that it might not boot cds properly (even though the option shows in the bios).

If that works and you don't want to fool with a floppy every time you boot a CD, you could install sbm to the hard disk's mbr (I did that on one old system that needed it, worked fine). But I would test it with a floppy first.

**Wakenaam** · 07-28-2007, 04:25 AM

Harry: Thanks again for your help. I installed the SBM as you suggested on a floppy. I succeeded in getting my system to boot the Knoppix CD from 1 of my 2 CDROM drives. For some reason, it just would not boot from my second CDROM drive. Now I just have to play around with the Knoppix environment. Looks very interesting. Cheers!!!