thanks for the replies-

knoppix seemed to boot fine, but then black screen.

i tried a bunch of the codes, and "ctrl alt -" twice brought up the desktop,
so i knew i was up and running, and xmodule=fbdev at the 'boot:' prompt
did the trick (but i don't know what exactly it is!).

the system is a 650 duron, 256Mb ram, with an old 14" 'daytek' monitor,
and i wasn't sure kde or OO would work.


is there any way to speed up the OO startup process?


thanks,

nomex