I know this has been covered many, many times, but I am looking for help with my specific configuration.

In both Knoppix 3.4 and 3.6 (both cds pass "testcd" and have correct md5sums), I get the dreaded "you passed an undefined mode number" message with one of my machines.

The problem machine has a Diamond GL 1000 card outputting to a Samtron 75V monitor.

With no additional boot parameters (and waiting the 30 seconds OR selecting one the modes) X will start, but hang when Konq starts.

I have tried various boot settings:

failsafe, noddc, noagp, xmodule=glint, xvrefresh, screen, vesa, vga=normal|all|ext ...

All to no effect.

Where do I look for more answers? What files do I need to look at?

This is kind of irritating, and may be a specific card problem. The monitor works fine with other comps using the same Knoppix cd.

Thanks in advance

Gregg L.

I use knoppix CD's regularly on various systems. I get the "undefined mode" message often enough, particularly with the cheaper systems. I have never had other problems show up because of it (to my knowlege).

Does the whole system lock up, or just the X server? Can you switch to another tty and kill the server, and start a new one? You could try 'knoppix 2' to start into a text based mode and then 'startx'.

When knoppix starts do you see any white text talking about blocks and missing data? If so then your drive may not be reading the disk properly.

I know I probably didn't hit the answer, but these were my thoughts.

I don't know if the "whole system" locks up, but the keyboard and mouse become non-responsive, so I cannot switch to a tty.

Knoppix 2 goes fine, but even using "startx" from there causes the same problem.

I have noticed some missing block business, but one when using less. Isn't that odd? The md5sum of the disk is fine. Hmmmm.... I'll investigate more if I get some time.

My solution is workable, but non-ideal --> I just stuck the card in a Sarge server I build, that doesn't even have X. Perhaps is it some driver dispepsia between my DiamondMax card and the glint drivers.

Thanks for the help!

Did you try the md5sum from 'knoppix 2' or from a different machine?

The 'unable to read block 1234567, 98765 bytes missing' error that I've seen is related to the knoppix filesystem (I don't have the exact error in front of me, it's something like this). Knoppix's root filesystem is stored in the /cdrom/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX file as compressed blocks (2.5 GB total before compression, I believe). If a block cannot be read from the disk, then that content is lost to the system.

This happens either when a disk didn't burn correctly or when a disk cannot be read properly. If the md5sum is correct on a different machine, I would still check it on the problem machine. It could easily be that a partly corrupted block is successfully read and uncompressed, but the output is part garbage. That garbage then could be treated as an X system file (if that's what is supposed to be in that block). This then could lead to your crash.

I won't discount hardware/driver issues, but I would be concerned about the reliability of your CD drive.