Riddle me this:

I bought a Dell Inspiron 1200 laptop computer ($500 after rebates including the Winodws tax), and to quickly see how Lixnux-compatible it would be I had it boot off a Knoppix 3.4 boot cd. Amazing: Almost everything worked, even the netwrok card, dma settings for the DVD drive, battery life indicator!

Well, I downloaded 3.8, which just came out: One of the first lines on boot is: "CTR not recognozed", and as a result it does not recognize my keyboard at all.

Any suggestions?

theory_prof

I also had problems with hardware detection in knoppix 3.8 wich i had not with older versions and I am starting to think if there is something wrong with that version.

Try giving more information about your keyboard and have you tried booting in safe mode?

Meanwhile I have played a little, and here is some more background:

(0) I have booted with "failsafe" and it did detect my keyboard and mouse and booted fine. (Thank you!)
HOWEVER, now many things do not work; I had to configure my network card, and upon poweroff the box does not poweroff
without me manually pushing the switch at the end, etc...)
Is there way to get back to regular mode, once one ha booted with "failsafe"?

Now back to the original problem:

(1) I have downloaded Knoppix 3.7 and it works just as well as Knoppix 3.4. (Even with the 2.6 kernel).

(2) The problem with 3.8 is reported right at the beginning of the boot process; there are two lines:

audit(11600361.459:0): initialized
i8042.c Can't read CTR while initializing i8042

The whole thing distresses me, since earlier version did not have this problem. Also, is Knoppix perhaps becoming too daring and now
things that worked so well in the past are not stable any longer? I mean, come on, detecting the keyboard on a regular Dell notebook should
work work without a hitch, right? I am not talking a Winmodem or a Wireless Card here...

I would REALLY appreciate further input...

One more thing: What do you mean by "what kind of keyboard"? Is there a Linux command to list the keyboard hardware? Thanks in advance!

Alright, turns out that Knoppix 3.8.1 has a known bug (you could call it a deficiency) with advanced power management on some Dell laptop computers. This causes the problem of not recognizing the keyboard. In any event the solutions is to type knoppix "acpi=off" at the boot prompt.

You can read all bout it at
the Knopppix bug page .


A side effect is that now there is no battery status and the like...
Any suggestions how to get this switched on once one in within the knoppix session?

theory_prof