I'm a biologist linux newbie trying to use biolinux / vigyaan linux (for biologists and chemists) based on knoppix on my laptop (HP 4150), but as soon as it detects my soundcard (Neomagic AV256) during start-up it hangs and fails to proceed or respond. I tried it on my desktop (HP d220-mt) and both the distros work fine.


Can someone pl lemme know what i'm supposed to do to fix this. I like the features they offer like Jemboss and rasmol (hence fixated on these distros)

Since they both fail on your laptop, I would guess that the knopix 3.3/3.4 that they are based upon have a problem with the hardware. Knoppix is up to 3.6 (3.7?) now and it might have the hw detection you need. Try it if the bandwith is not a problem for you.

A temporary fix would be to run w/o sound. Boot from the vigyaan linux cd and specify no sound at boot. I cannot remember if that was an option in knoppix 3.3, which is what vigyaan 1 is based upon. Try looking through the options (F2 or whatever for help). You could also turn off the on board sound in the bios and see if that works.

There are 2 other distros you might want to look at. Bioknoppix (The link I had is dead, so maybe it is gone). There is also dnalinux: http://www.dnalinux.com/