Newbie Needs Help - Can't Boot Knoppix v3.3

[Filbert]

I have downloaded and burned Knoppix 3.3 to CD and tried booting from the CD today. It looks like it is going to work, I get the Knoppix splash screen then

"Press <Return> to see video modes available, <Space> to continue or wait 30 secs"

The first time I booted from the CD, I waited - all looked well, then I eventually got a black screen (after seeing all of the following text)

The second time I booted from the CD, I pressed the Space bar to continue and received the following messages:

Autoconfiguring devices...
WARNING: Autodetection seems to hang, please check your computers BIOS settings.

Please check.

Video is (yet) unknown card, using XFree86 (vesa) Server
....several other lines of text followed by...

Automounter started for: floppy cdrom
INIT: Entering runlevel: 5
.....several lines of text that went by quickly and I wasn't able to write them down, followed by.....
After this session terminates this session will shut down
followed by a black screen.

I have the 1st boot device in my BIOS set to check the CDROM first (obviously), so I don't know why I'm getting the BIOS warning.

What am I doing wrong? Is there anything I can do to get this working?

[OErjan]

try typing (when you see the boot: line).
boot:knoppix 2
this will boot you into text only knoppix (somewhat like dos) just to see if it works. then tell us what hapened. i will try to figure it out (so will others).
EDIT oh, you can after "emergency" reboot with ctrl+alt+del just like win /EDIT

[Filbert]

Hi OErjan,

Thank you very much for your help.

I tried your suggestion and all of the same things occured except the last message read:

INIT: Entering runlevel: 2

Then it hung for several minutes and I got a black screen.

I tried booting Knoppix on my old machine and everything worked just fine.....and is quite beautiful, I might add.

Do you have any other suggestions? I would really like to get this working if at all possible.

[Filbert]

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get this to work?

Please?

I was using it on my old PC earlier today and I loved it, I just can't get my modem to work with it on that PC.

I'd really like to switch to Linux, so any help/suggestions are welcome.

Thank you for your time.

[OErjan]

try
boot: knoppix nousb nosmp nodma vsync=60 screen=800x600
let me hear what happens. play around with the cheatcodes.
here is tha lnk to the list
http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/CheatCodes

[Filbert]

boot: knoppix nousb nosmp nodma vsync=60 screen=800x600

This worked beautifully! Thank you so much!

I got lost playing with everything I could find once I got Knoppix to load. I think I'm going to love this OS.

Thank you for the link to the cheat codes too. I've heard about them before, but since I learn things with the "hands on" method I wasn't quite sure what they were until now. I printed them up for future use.

After reading the cheat code page, I added "lang=us" to the boot line you posted above. (Is that called a "boot line?" I'm not familiar with the terminology just yet, but I'm learning.)

One more question and I'll stop bothering you for now.

I was trying to configure the modem using the instructions Found Here, not really expecting it to work, and actually got a "modem ready" message at one point. When I tried to connect I got an Initializing modem...... message but it never went further than that.

I have an Agere Win Modem. Is it possible to get this modem to work with Knoppix? I was planning on buying a 56K ISA Hardware Modem as I was informed that these would work with Linux, but if I don't have to buy a modem, that would be great.

If I've posted this in the wrong place, just let me know where to ask and I'll post in the correct location.

[Filbert]

I have reposted my modem question in Another Thread since I didn't think this was the correct place for it afterall.

Also, I can boot into Knoppix with just the knoppix nousb cheat code.

Thank you again for your help, OErjan, it is very much appreciated.