The Knoppix CDs I burned will not work. Downloaded
Knoppix 3.4 from both bittorrent (sp?) and FSU web
site. Burned 3 separate CDs from the downloads but
Knoppix will not boot with either of them. Have tried
the CDs in a Dell SC 400 running Debian and a Compac
Evo notebook running XP. Like my Momma says, "where
did I go wrong"

Did you make sure that you changed your BIOS settings so that your PC first tries to boot from your CDROM drive before your hard drive? That would be the most likely explanation I would think.

BIOS was set to CD before HD before trying to boot. Thanks for the fast reply

It sounds like you either forgot to check the MD5SUMS on the Knoppix image that you downloaded (the MD5SUM is a checksum that is used to verify that a file was not corrupted during a download), or it's also possible that you didn't burn Knoppix to the CD correctly. What program and procedure did you use to create the CD? -- J.W.

Bittorrent itself automatically checksum's the pieces it is downloading; if it fails on any piece it discards it, and redownloads it (possibly from a different source). I doubt that the MD5 is the problem (however, you can't rule that possibility out, so check the MD5SUMS anyway; it's not that hard). Maybe the CDROM drive that you are using is too old, and may not be able to boot burned CDs very well (many drives before the 24x era had this problem). Since you tried burning (and successfully created coasters out of) 3 CDs, I'd seriously consider the program and the drive that you are using to burn the CDs. If you are doing this in Windows, make sure that, whatever program you're using, choose the 'burn CD from Image' option rather than just draggin the ISO file onto the CD and clicking burn (although, when you are first starting out, that is an easy mistake). If you want to try a different program, Deep Burner is a good one for Windows (it is very easy to use, and has a nice 'burn CD Image' option). Hope that helps.

I think changing my CD burning procedure is going to fix the problem. Will post results once completed.
BTW linuxquestions rocks. I posted the same question twice to knoppix boards and received no response.
At Linux questions I received a response within 10 minutes and the responses seem to keep coming until the
problem is fixed. I look forward to the day my linux skills get to the point that I can give as well as receive.

Roxio CD Creator 5 > Project Selector > Make a data CD
> Data CD Project > File>Record CD from CD Image ...
> {went to the folder with the Knoppix download
clicked on drop down arrow at Files of type at bottom
of dialog box and selected ISO image Files (*.iso} >
Clicked Start Recording- worked like a charm Knoppix Boots!

I made the same mistake when I tried to burn my Debian CD. They sure did a good job of hiding the "burn CD from hard disk image" option...

Maybe they got a payoff from M$ to hide it well.