5.0 CD won't boot

[marcelloz]

Hi guys,
I'm totally new to linux - not for long I hope

my 5.0 CD used to work on a desktop, but on the notebook it hangs on:

PCMCIA found, starting cardmgr

I'm not sure what kind of info you need, so be patient
thanks for any input
Marcello

[Harry Kuhman]

There is no officially release Internet version called 5.0. The newest is 5.1.1. There was a 5.0.1. Knowing what you really have might help (but quite frankly it likely doesn't make much difference).

My first guess is that you likely burnt the CD at high speed, or didn't check the md5 checksum before burning, or worse yet bought it from one of those crooks on the electronic bay of thieves. But if these guesses are wrong and you confirmed the md5 checksum and burnt the disc at low speed, then you might have a hardware conflict and need to find the right cheatcodes to help get past the hardware detection phase. See the cheatcodes section of the wiki, or the cheatcodes.txt file that you got with your download. Try typing knoppix failsafe at the boot prompt to avoid most hardware detection (you will not be happy running Knoppix in this mode, but it will let you see if you can boot past a hardware detection problem).

[marcelloz]

There is no officially release Internet version called 5.0. The newest is 5.1.1. There was a 5.0.1. Knowing what you really have might help (but quite frankly it likely doesn't make much difference).

My first guess is that you likely burnt the CD at high speed, or didn't check the md5 checksum before burning, or worse yet bought it from one of those crooks on the electronic bay of thieves. But if these guesses are wrong and you confirmed the md5 checksum and burnt the disc at low speed, then you might have a hardware conflict and need to find the right cheatcodes to help get past the hardware detection phase. See the cheatcodes section of the wiki, or the cheatcodes.txt file that you got with your download. Try typing knoppix failsafe at the boot prompt to avoid most hardware detection (you will not be happy running Knoppix in this mode, but it will let you see if you can boot past a hardware detection problem).

Hi, I tried the failsafe option and it does boot although I don't even have the touchpad... the version is 5.0.1 in fact and if I well recall I made sure that the cd was created al low speed... I tried to downlod 5.1.1 but it times out on me, I'll keep trying.

Could you guess what is the hardware I should skip considering that it freezes on the
"PCMCIA found, starting cardmgr" line?

.. and one more thing: I'm not sure about the exact synthax to type after the F3 option at the no{scsi|pcmci....}

thanks much

[Harry Kuhman]

Hi, I tried the failsafe option and it does boot although I don't even have the touchpad...

yup, don't have a network connection either. Told you that you wouldn't like it. But at least you know the CD can boot into Knoppix

..... the version is 5.0.1 in fact and if I well recall I made sure that the cd was created al low speed... I tried to downlod 5.1.1 but it times out on me, I'll keep trying.....

If you want 5.11 then I strongly suggest using BitTorrent. See the Get Knoppix link at the top of this page. BitTorrent, when properly set up, will address several problems including timeouts, slow downloads, and corrupt downloads.

..... Could you guess what is the hardware I should skip considering that it freezes on the
"PCMCIA found, starting cardmgr" line?

Looks like someone is too lazy to read the cheatcodes documentation that I pointed you to in my last post, otherwise you would have seen that there is a nopcmcia code. Of course, I can't be sure that this is where the failure is happening and not in the next step of hardware detection, but you could have found this faster by reading the documentation than by asking and waiting again for a response.

[marcelloz]

no, not that lazy, I did try that, I just didn't explain myself in the post (I'n new to Linux, not to... life)

it still hangs with the nopcmcia option on

"starting udev hot-plug hardware detection...";
since I need usb, I'll keep reading... and I'll try 5.1.1, you'll never know...

anyway, I was just able to make it boot disabling agp, audio, scsi and pcmcia... I'll work to point out the "guilty" line

I hope can save the boot config on a usb pen
thanks again
Marcello

[Harry Kuhman]

Well, another trick that I sometimes try is the expert mode, and take notes as each question is answered. Then, when it hangs, go back and try expert again answering the last question differently. However, I have at times found that I needed a combination of codes to get a Knoppix disc to boot properly, in my case I needed knoppix noscsi acpi=off but other systems may need other combinations. Sometimes it just takes trial and error.

There is, of course, a small chance that if you post your make and model number, or motherboard model number, someone else with the same system may already know what you need and might post it.

[marcelloz]

ok it seems like we nailed it

using expert I found out that it boots fine with nopcmcia acpi=off - no big deal for my intended use

we'll see if 5.1.1 makes it easier

Marcello

[marcelloz]

I still have to use the nopcmcia acpi=off boot options but the system starts definitely faster and does not hang on shutdown as 5.0.1 did

next step: I have an unused 2gb usb pen drive which I want to use to boot knoppix from...

Marcello