Knoppix from CD locks up while booting, no error message

[wordpaw]

Hi, I'm trying out Knoppix for the first time. I downloaded Knoppix V 5.1, and used Nero to burn it to CD. I verified the md5 check sum (it's accurate). Computer is an HP Pavilion laptop - not sure if this would make any difference.

Anyway, when I start the computer with the CD in the drive, the Knoppix banner flashes on the screen, prompts me to continue. I do so. I am then greeted by the "Welcome to KNOPPIX live Linux-on-CD" boot screen. So far so good.

The boot screen runs through two or three lines of code along the lines of "scanning for usb/firewire devices...done.". It then has a line which runs something like "Accessing Knoppix Cd at /dev/hdc...". The cursor sits blinking at the end of this line; nothing happens. Eventually the cursor stops blinking; nothing happens. When nothing continues to happen, I assume that the computer has locked up.

Again, there is no error message, and the cursor vanishes after a good 20 second interlude. Again, the check sum was valid, and I burned at second-lowest speed on Nero. If anyone could give me any advice, I would be grateful.

[wordpaw]

Oops, I see that the last topic before this one covers very similar ground. Still, at least he gets an error message and gets "dropped" to a limited - but still interactive - shell. My computer just freezes.

[Harry Kuhman]

Hi, I'm trying out Knoppix for the first time. I downloaded Knoppix V 5.1, and used Nero to burn it to CD. I verified the md5 check sum (it's accurate). Computer is an HP Pavilion laptop - not sure if this would make any difference.

.... and I burned at second-lowest speed on Nero. If anyone could give me any advice, I would be grateful.

It's helpful to know the Computer model, but Pavilion is a generic term that HP has used for many desktop and notebooks, so it would be more useful to give us more details on the compute. Model number at least, but to save someone trying to help you from looking the model up, I would suggest also giving some specs.

I'm not sure what second lowest speed means, Nero will vary greatly depending on Nero version and hardware in question, I've seen the lowest speed offered for CD burning range form 1x to 10x on different systems. My advice is to aim for 4x or as low as you can go if forced to go above 4x. Still, I doubt if the burning speed is your problem.

You might find, depending on your hardware, that you need one or more "cheat codes" to get you past problems with hardware detection. Some common cheat codes that may help in your case are noacpi, noscsi or DMA=off. You would use these at the boot prompt as in: "knoppix noaspi anscsi DMA=off" (omit the quotes). You might also want to see if the failsafe cheat gets you running. Failsafe bypasses a lot of hardware detection, so you will not want to normally run this way, but if failsafe gets Knoppix running than it's pretty certain that the disc is good and that you can get Knoppix to boot once you find the right cheat codes. The expert cheat code will walk you through the boot process. This can be handy to find just where hardware detection is going bad. Make notes about how you answer the questions if you try expert, and if you get a hang change your last answer. Follow the documentation link near the top of this page and see the cheat codes section of the wiki for more details.

Good luck.

[wordpaw]

Hi, I'm trying out Knoppix for the first time. I downloaded Knoppix V 5.1, and used Nero to burn it to CD. I verified the md5 check sum (it's accurate). Computer is an HP Pavilion laptop - not sure if this would make any difference.

.... and I burned at second-lowest speed on Nero. If anyone could give me any advice, I would be grateful.

It's helpful to know the Computer model, but Pavilion is a generic term that HP has used for many desktop and notebooks, so it would be more useful to give us more details on the compute. Model number at least, but to save someone trying to help you from looking the model up, I would suggest also giving some specs.

I'm not sure what second lowest speed means, Nero will vary greatly depending on Nero version and hardware in question, I've seen the lowest speed offered for CD burning range form 1x to 10x on different systems. My advice is to aim for 4x or as low as you can go if forced to go above 4x. Still, I doubt if the burning speed is your problem.

You might find, depending on your hardware, that you need one or more "cheat codes" to get you past problems with hardware detection. Some common cheat codes that may help in your case are noacpi, noscsi or DMA=off. You would use these at the boot prompt as in: "knoppix noaspi anscsi DMA=off" (omit the quotes). You might also want to see if the failsafe cheat gets you running. Failsafe bypasses a lot of hardware detection, so you will not want to normally run this way, but if failsafe gets Knoppix running than it's pretty certain that the disc is good and that you can get Knoppix to boot once you find the right cheat codes. The expert cheat code will walk you through the boot process. This can be handy to find just where hardware detection is going bad. Make notes about how you answer the questions if you try expert, and if you get a hang change your last answer. Follow the documentation link near the top of this page and see the cheat codes section of the wiki for more details.

Good luck.

Hi, thanks for the quick answer. The cheat codes did not solve the problem (that is, "knoppix noaspi anscsi DMA=off" still led to a lock-up). On the other hand, failsafe got Knoppix running beautifully. Unfortunately, failsafe meant no mouse input, so I had to make do with whatever keyboard shortcuts I could guess (I've never used Linux before). I didn't try expert yet, but besides that, do you have any better idea how to get the system working if failsafe is effective but the other cheat codes are not?

I'll try expert tomorrow.

Thank you very much for your help.

[Harry Kuhman]

....Unfortunately, failsafe meant no mouse input, ......

It also means that your network interface was not detected, so no Internet or even local network. But at least now you know that it's a hardware conflict somewhere. All I can suggest, beyond my previous suggestion to reveal your HP model number and specs (someone with the same model may already have the answer), is to look at the cheat code wiki section, or the cheat code txt document that you get with a bittorent download (and that should be on most mirrors) and experiment. Yea, I know this can be a pain, it took me a long time a few years back when Knoppix picked up some changes and I needed to find the right combination of codes that worked for me.

[vilius]

ok, i've been browsing to find my self the anwser to my problem and got here so far... i've got an exact same problem with booting. it locks up while loading cd/dvd. first i thought it was a problem with the dvd, but when i got an exact problem with the cd i got confused. so can you please help me? it locks up showing: LOOKING FOR DVD IN dev/hdc _
while in failsafe it loads normaly in expert got pretty much the same result as running knoppix normaly with no extra comands. so i'm a bit confused :S

P.S. i've got HP Pavilion dv5111eu notebook.

[wordpaw]

Alright, I have an hp pavilion zv5000, same problem as Vilius, more or less.
I found that Knoppix loads flawlessly with the cheat code: nodma

Give it a shot.

[vilius]

well since nodma cheat worked perfectly i can now get on using my knoppix DVD . thank you for helpin'