i just downloaded knoppix and burnt to disk. when i restart and boot from cd dos picks up and finds drivers and all my drives and then it goes to dos prompt. Im not sure what command to use to finish booting. plz help

I'm affraid you messed up image burning...Try again....burn .iso file with Nero do not extract it with RAR, if for example this app. is using associated file... Try out

where is a good place to download from

My guess would be a wrong order of boot devices.

In order to boot from a CD, the CD must be checked first (before the hard drive) by the BIOS to see if there is something on it from which the BIOS can boot.

The order of boot devices can be configured in the BIOS.

What do you mean with DOS prompt?

The (MS-)DOS prompt (usually c:\>) or the Linux prompt?


Mike

it is booting from cd already but after it finds mscd driver and my hard drives it goes to a prompt that looks something like this DR-DOS[A:>]. It gives me four current selections like {lend=on} there are three morebut can't remember what they are.

AFAIK, there are no MSCD driver or DR-DOS on the Knoppix-CD. If they are loaded, you are not booting from CD.

The first thing you should see when starting from the Knoppix-CD is the prompt:

Here you can enter additional boot options. After a few seconds without any input it automatically continues.

Then you should see the line
So, I still think that you have to check your BIOS settings to verify the boot sequence.

The boot sequence determines in which order the boot devices (floppy, hard drive, CD, USB stick) are checked.

If you have a floppy inserted in to the floppy drive and a CD into the CD drive AND the floppy is first in the boot sequence AND there is a system on the floppy, then the CD is not checked and the boot process will continue from the floppy.

In order to change this order, access your BIOS (by pressing <DEL> repeatedly early in the boot process). When the BIOS screen opens look for an option named "boot sequence" or "1. boot device, 2. boot device, etc." . Change the sequence in a way that the CD is first (don't forget that the hard drive (C, usually) is present somewhere in the sequence as well).

Save the BIOS setting, reboot and try again.

If you find the "boot sequence" option, but there is no option for the CDROM, then you have a very very old computer, which is not able to boot from CD - but this unlikely unless you really use a vintage model :-)

I think there is a way to create a boot floppy which then starts the CDROM, but this is for the vintage computers and not necessary in most cases.

So, try to locate the "boot sequence" option in the BIOS.

Mike

http://www.knoppix.org

Click on the american/british flag, locate the Download link, choose an appropriate mirror (near you).

Look for the newest version. If you want the english version, make sure that the ISO image ends with -EN.iso

thanks for the download link!!!!!!

The boot sequence is set right, i even disabled everything else from booting. That beside the point, even with a fresh bootable cd that a friend bootes with would not even boot so i think it must be in the setting somewhere but not in sequence.

Thank for all the replies

I wonder what a "fresh bootable cd" is.

Empty CDs are not bootable, and creating bootable CDs (other than from already built ISO images) is a bit tricky.

I hope the images from knoppix.org will work for you.