KNOPPIX/Morphix crash after autodetection?

[Brian Kelsay]

Forgot to mention that the "laptop" doesn't have a floppy either.  This is actually the Virgin 
Webplayer that I messed with a year or more ago.  I previously put RH 9 on a drive, but couldn't 
get it to boot.  I think I've figured out a way to get a desktop PC CD Rom attached temporarily for 
boot and install.  I ordered an adapter from www.cablesonline.com that should be here Tues. or Wed. 
 This web player will also have to use a USB keyboard and mouse (which I now have), because one of 
my girls thought it would be a good idea to pour model glue all over the IR keyboard that came with 
it.  I'm *not* going to use Slackware.  It's getting some form of Debian.  I really only want to 
put a 2GB drive on there and remove some packages after install.  Probably Knoppix, Mepis or 
Morphix.

Leo, I tried Knoppix on a PC with a Radeon 7000 and one with a nVidia TNT2 and both work w/out 
special boot options.  For nVidia, there are a couple of drivers loaded.  I admit I was mistaken on 
this issue.  The generic nv driver is present and got used for my card on boot.  You probably ought 
to pull out the cards that you think are causing the problems and add one at a time until you are 
sure which one it is.

Brian Kelsay

>>> Leo J Mauler <webgiant at juno.com> 03/28/04 03:53PM >>>

On Fri, 26 Mar 2004 13:40:31 -0600 "Brian Kelsay" <BLKELSAY at kcc.usda.gov>
writes:
> Are you using any cheatcodes?  Hit f2 when you get the "boot:" 
> prompt.  you can try "failsafe" to get no autodetection, "knoppix 2" 
> to go straight to a command line, "knoppix vesa" with the optional 
> "screen=" with your resolution after that.  I believe that the 
> nVidia driver is not included on the Knoppix disk due to Klaus' 
> feelings on the licensing.  There should be a link to download and 
> install the nVidia driver on the Knoppix disk menu found on the 
> taskbar next to the K menu.  Stuff I have read says you may have to 
> play around w/ the boot prompt if using the nVidia cards.
 
Cheatcodes were my first idea.  It crashes even on "failsafe".

I'm betting its either the NIC or the TV Card, though your point about
the nVidia card is a good one.  Its a bummer, the nVidia card is 64MB
video RAM and the only other video card I have is a 32MB Ati Radeon 7500.

> Anyway, I'm trying to install some form of Linux on a laptop drive, 
> while in a PC for a laptop w/out a CD.  Not sure how I'll work this 
> since I'll lose the autodetection.  Seems like there is a new option 
> to do the autodetect or I can just run kudzo or something.

How big is the hard drive?  You might be able to create a large partition
on the hard drive to hold one of the ISOs, then boot from floppy and tell
it to look at the large partition for files.

Its a little easier to do this with Slackware since you can copy over
just the package sets you are going to install and the text documentation
can help you pick out the right sets.  If you start off with a boot and
root floppy, the A set and the N set, you have a base system which fits
into a 100-150MB hard drive partition and still lets you run the
Slackware installer. These two sets install enough to let you copy the
rest over through a network connection.

And if you're really into masochism, you can format floppies out to
1.83MB and fit nearly every Slackware package onto a complete set of
floppies, for those laptops which have no network access either.  Buy
about 100 floppies and you'll be set.