Knoppix 5.1.1 - "Disabling IRQ #15" - will not boo

**speedKHat** · 11-23-2007, 10:19 AM

Currently attempting to use Knoppix 5.1.1 Live CD but when i attempt to boot it loads for a while before coming up with a screen that says "Disabling IRQ #15" under a small picture of Tux.

Im just curious if anyone has any ideas.

The laptop im trying to load to is an oolder model Acer Travelmate 354TE with a 60gb HDD.

**Harry Kuhman** · 11-23-2007, 10:57 AM

I'm going to assume that you confirmed the md5 checksum of the ISO file, burnt the ISO at a slow speed, and didn't buy the disc from someone on the electronic bay of thieves. If any of those are wrong assumptions, the below my not help.

I'm not clear why IRQ 15 is bing disabled, but it might not even be the problem. I suggest first trying to boot by entering failsafe at the boot prompt. See if it makes it farther or even all the way. You will not like running Knoppix under failsafe; many things like the network and maybe even your mouse will not work. But if it boots that is a good sign that something is going wrong in the hardware detection process and you likely will be able to boot if you can determine the proper cheat code or cheat codes to use. See the cheatcodes.txt file that you got with your download, or the cheatcodes section of the wiki (see the documentation link above). I can give a few codes that I'll speculate my help, but these are just guesses based on my own experience, your results may vary. The codes I would try include noscsi acpi=off and nodma. Try various combinations of one or more of these as in knoppix nodma noscsi . You may also learn something by trying to boot in expert mode and making notes about how you answer the questions. If it hangs try again and change the answer that seems to cause the hang.

**speedKHat** · 11-23-2007, 01:12 PM

Thanks for the quick reply.

The assumptions you gave were all in the positive so i went ahead with trying to boot in failsafe. failsafe worked a treat with knoppix loading all the way until the screen went a little bit whack - black and white horizontal lines with some multicolored vertical lines thrown in for fun. Although i couldnt see whats happening, i could hear the system booting up.

Any ideas which cheat codes could sort out the screen?

**speedKHat** · 11-23-2007, 02:09 PM

Thanks for the help, i got it to run using the knoppix noscsi acpi=off nodma cheat code. New question however: how will this affect loading knoppix onto the hard drive so as not to run from a live CD? Will i be able to do it?

**Harry Kuhman** · 11-23-2007, 02:29 PM

Originally Posted by speedKHat

Thanks for the help, i got it to run using the knoppix noscsi acpi=off nodma cheat code. New question however: how will this affect loading knoppix onto the hard drive so as not to run from a live CD? Will i be able to do it?

I'm glad that you got things working. If there is a screen size/resolutiom or scan rate issue you will also find that there are cheat codes for that.

Kboppix is a Live CD. I do not encourage or participate in any way the installing of it to hard disk. See the warning in the wiki about hard disk installs for details. If you want an installed Linux system there are many to pick from that will not cause the problems that installing Knoppix is well known to cause. If you want a system just like Knoppix, install Debian, which Knoppix is based on. I suggest doing a net-install of the "testing" version of Debian.

**wagoner** · 11-26-2007, 04:30 AM

I too run Knoppix on an older system with a 10 year old video card. Knoppix will only boot up with the "knoppix vga=normal" cheat code.

I installed Knoppix to the hard drive, it is the only OS on this PC, and I love it. It is the only distro that I have been able to get to work on this PC. Debain, which is very similar, Ubuntu, and Mandriva all hang a few minutes after booting up. I have no idea why this is (maybe it's because it uses KDE instead of gnome). If it hadn't been for Knoppix, I would have given up on linux a long time ago.

If you do a hard drive install, you will have an opportunity to specify some of the settings, so you can probably select less demanding display properties. It was a few months ago now, but my hdd install was a snap. Been running fine ever since.

**Harry Kuhman** · 11-26-2007, 05:30 AM

Originally Posted by wagoner

.... I have no idea why this is (maybe it's because it uses KDE instead of gnome). If it hadn't been for Knoppix, ...

Not sure from your post which OS is/was running KDE. KDE is a more demanding OS, but Gnome has been dropped from the CD version of Knoppix for several years now. If you think you had a problem with Debian because it wasn't running KDE, that you be quite strange since Gnome needs far fewer resources. Gnome is the default desktop install for Debian, but you can easilt apt-get install kde and have KDE instead (or as well).