[cool breeze]

Hi,

I have Knoppix on my system with PCLinuxOS, PCLos boots no problem, how do i get Knoppix to boot from the boot screen, without having to use a floppy?.

Knoppix is the first os on the HD, with PCLos second.

If i try to boot Knoppix, i get:

Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format.

What have i done wrong?.

Here's my menu.lst.

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
shade 1
viewport 3 2 77 22
splashimage (hd0,4)/boot/grub/mdv-grub_splash.xpm.gz
default 0

title Debian
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

title linux
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 nousb splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 failsafe
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

Any advice is appreciated (100% newbie).

[saikee]

If your claim that your PCLinuxOS boots OK then it must be in hda5 or (hd0,4) to GRub.

The other bootable partition is (hd0,1) or hda2 in Linux. Knoppix is a Debian and so that must be the partition you are having trouble with.

I notice you are booting it by chainloading (with the chainloader +1 command). That method can only work if you have knoppix's boot loader "inside" its root partition. It will not work if there is no boot loader or a faulty one there.

The cure

I believe Knoppix likes to use Lilo so you can
(1) Make a temporary directory inside /mnt of PCLinuxOS, say call it /mnt/temp
(2) Mount Knoppix on it
(3) Change root to Knoppix (You are then inside it)
(4) Restore Lilo into partition hda2
(5) Exit and reboot

Full commands once boot up PCLinuxOS (in root terminal with root privileage) are

mkdie /mnt/temp
mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/temp
chroot /mnt/temp
lilo -b /dev/hda2
exit
reboot

If Lilo does not complain when "Lilo -b /dev/hda2" command is issued then you should be able to boot Knoppix on a reboot.

Should you have inadvertently installed Grub inside Knoppix then replace "Lilo -b /dev/hda2" with "grub-install /dev/hda2".

[cool breeze]

Thank you.