[Wolfeymole]

Ok today I went to a computer fair and got a copy of knoppix version 4.
This is my first foray in Linux and I havn't a clue.
The thing is according to the guy and also another bloke that was there this will run from the cd.
It was burned on a dvd disk and I have a dvd reader.
I have set it to boot from the cd in the bios and initially all appears to be ok but then the screen turns into what I can only say looks like an old vga monitor with lines running across it and not readable at all.
Any ideas folks?
Specs are;
1ghz celeron
184mb
Trident Blade 3D pro media sucking 8mb
Refresh rate is 60hz

[Squashman]

I have had issues with newer versions of knoppix not supporting my very old Video Cards. I have an old ATI Mach64 2mb video card in an old server I had. I had to use a knoppix disk to recover some stuff off of it when it died. I just remember us having to do some funky startup options to get it to work. I can't remember which ones we set but you can get a list of the startup options at the main boot up screen on knoppix.

[Wolfeymole]

Originally Posted by Squashman

I have had issues with newer versions of knoppix not supporting my very old Video Cards. I have an old ATI Mach64 2mb video card in an old server I had. I had to use a knoppix disk to recover some stuff off of it when it died. I just remember us having to do some funky startup options to get it to work. I can't remember which ones we set but you can get a list of the startup options at the main boot up screen on knoppix.

Thanks for the reply Squashy
Yes I have seen those on F2 or F3 how could I alter it? As I say this is new ground to me mate.

[Wolfeymole]

The monitor was the problem Squashy but it's a poor do when a supposed superior OS cannot solve the problem, however I shall investigate this Linux beast further.
It's one strange animal I'll say that.

[saikee]

I have installed several versions of Knoppix including the V4 and had no problem with the video. The first release V4 is known to be very buggy but the second release works perfectly on mine. I have a cheap nv and Radeon cards on my boxes.

Knoppix is definitely getting heavy and has enormous amount of add-ons.

[Wolfeymole]

Cheers saikee for the input.
Im still lost as to how to get on the net with it plus I'm having to borrow a 19" monitor from a friend which loads up the system ok.
I know windows more or less arse backwards, is there a site that can give me a "How To" do things/configure things in Linux?

[saikee]

I think each mainstream Linux distro has its own configurator.

The Xorg file for selecting the drivers is also a possible culprit for not getting the hardware matched. It is either

/etc/X11/XF86Config-4 or
/etc/X11/xorg.conf

depending on the distro one uses.

The individual drivers are usually stored in /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers directory.

I have installed "quite" a few systems and so do not bother much with one distro not kicking start all my hardware. Recent distributions are a lot better in matching the hardware.

I am sure one can eventually pick or download the best driver for the hardware but I haven't had a need to use those other than the generic drivers supplied by the distros. I rarely have to switch the display video driver myself in order to get the system to work, possibly once for every 15 distros I install.

[prunejuice]

I had the same problems with an Intel board and RIVA TNT AGP card.

The only Linux distros that would boot after install were Slackware and Damn Small Linux HD Install. I went with Slackware which wasn't as complicated as some folks claim. It could use a flashier install GUI which for some, would be less
intimidating.

[Wolfeymole]

Thanks again for the combined input Saikee and Prune.
I have now managed to procure this 19" monitor on a full time basis so I shall experiment with what Knoppix can do, there's just not enough hours in the day.
I really want to try and run it off the cd before I install it on to a partition.
Will that cause problems?
I truly am in the dark on this.

[saikee]

I partitioned every hdd into the nearly maximum number of partitions permitted, 60 for an IDE and 15 for a Sata, and couldn't understand why people are worrying about installing one Linux in the hdd. I typically put a Linux in a 5Gb partition. Any installed Linux can take over the MBR to boot all the systems in the box. Lilo is limited by 15 but Gub doesn't seem to have a limit.