Vista Broken after using Knoppix Live CD

[jonah]

So far the famous Knoppix just does not go past the ramdisc merge on my
machine. What wonderful, crappy software.

There is actually a germ of truth to this. I had this same experience
lately (crashed at exactly that point in the process) and I fixed it by
replacing the CD drive. The issue with Knoppix is that they try hard
(some might say "too hard") to cram as much as possible onto a CD (using
every trick in the book). So, if your CD drive isn't 100% perfect, it
won't boot.

Is this a negative reflection on Knoppix? Good question. Some would
say "yes". There's clearly a difference in philosophy here. It is 100%
clear to me that MS and the rest of the "commercial" software world take
the attitude that if it is possible for something to fail (and I mean
"possible" in a realistic sense; I'm certainly not arguing that
MS/commercial software never fails, so don't even bother trying to flog
that horse), then it can't be released to "the masses". That is clearly
the attitude they take and it is more than likely right when one is
marketing to "the masses".

Linux, and Knoppix in particular, take the alternative view; it is
understood that things might not work, and the fun is in exploring those
possibilities.[/QUOTE]

Yeah Kenny I am aware of all that, I am not having a go or complaining
about Vista or Knoppix, just trying to figure out what caused the
problems. I am a very experienced user, its all on a test box anyway
which is there to be broken and recovery was pretty straightforward.
Its just the "Live CD" thing, it should not cause the existing OS to
crash on reboot as it is running from a CD, OTOH the ramdisk knoppix
uses and the BIOS that some responders pointed out have given me a
clue. My hunch is its a Vista issue not a Knoppix one per se but as I
said I am not having a go at Vista I just want to know why.

Tried it again with Knoppix, older version (5.0) did exactly the same
thing, will have a good look later at the BIOS and then I will force
Knoppix to write ramdisk to a separate partition, see if that sorts
it.

Jonah

 

[NoStop]

Alpha wrote:

Then explain why, when it tries various disc systems on the hard drives,
it aborts installation and crashes?

I have no idea what you're trying to say. What is "tries various disc
systems on the hard drives" supposed to mean? What's a "disc system"? Also,
I have no idea what you mean by "aborts installation". You don't install
Knoppix unless you want to install it. It's a LiveCD that boots up and runs
and doesn't "install". Please learn a little bit about computers before
mouthing off in the future.

Cheers.

 

[Timothy Murphy]

There is actually a germ of truth to this. I had this same experience
lately (crashed at exactly that point in the process) and I fixed it by
replacing the CD drive. The issue with Knoppix is that they try hard
(some might say "too hard") to cram as much as possible onto a CD (using
every trick in the book). So, if your CD drive isn't 100% perfect, it
won't boot.

I read what you say, but my experience has been completely different.

I have run Knoppix on many different machines, and it is more likely to run
on a given machine than any other similar software - Linux or Windows -
that I can think of.

I only wish the Fedora developers would take a leaf out of Knoppix' book -
I have had a huge amount of trouble installing Fedora on different machines,
and always keep a Knoppix CD to hand to check that the partitions, etc,
are as they should be.

 

[jonah]

I read what you say, but my experience has been completely different.

I have run Knoppix on many different machines, and it is more likely to run
on a given machine than any other similar software - Linux or Windows -
that I can think of.

I only wish the Fedora developers would take a leaf out of Knoppix' book -
I have had a huge amount of trouble installing Fedora on different machines,
and always keep a Knoppix CD to hand to check that the partitions, etc,
are as they should be.

Yeah been there done that Tim, Fedora is a pain in the bum but its my
number one Linux distro, I guess if you want to use Linux you have to
learn to mess about for hours with it, thats OK its free.

As it happens on this dell dimension 5150 "Vista Ready" (LOL) test box
which I won from a client Knoppix does not recognise the built in
Network card, had to put in an ancient card from a Win 2000 box to get
a network connection with the latest Knoppix live CD - not very
amusing.

Jonah

 

[Balwinder S \bsd\ Dheeman]

So far the famous Knoppix just does not go past the ramdisc merge on my
machine. What wonderful, crappy software.

If you really want to seek to some helpful answers, provide some more
and, or relevant information, please.

I've been using GNU/Linux since 1993 successfully on various machines
and have never ever faced any such problem. Moreover, Knoppix version
5.0.1 2006-06-01 (installed, dist-upgraded, vanilla kernel 2.6.20.1) is
running fine here on my DELL Inspiron 4150 since August 2006; everything
except for win(cheap)modem is working.

 

[Don]

Thanks Charlie, that makes sense will check it out later, makes more
sense than a random - co-incidental boot fault. Its on a test box
anyway so I don't particularly care if it blows up, will try again
then check the BIOS.

I have no idea about the original Knoppix problem, but I do know that
some BIOS's have an 'anti-virus checker'. I dunno for sure, but the
BIOS may check for boot-sector viruses just by looking for changes
in the boot sector. (I haven't heard anything about boot-sector viri
for years, so maybe hackers have given up on them.)

 

[jonah]

I have no idea about the original Knoppix problem, but I do know that
some BIOS's have an 'anti-virus checker'. I dunno for sure, but the
BIOS may check for boot-sector viruses just by looking for changes
in the boot sector. (I haven't heard anything about boot-sector viri
for years, so maybe hackers have given up on them.)

Good point Don, dunno if its relevant but will have attempt number 4
soon, its getting old recovering windows again every time. I think I
saw AV checker in BIOS somewhere I will check it what the hell its
only a test box, just bugging me now I gotta know what the problem is.

Thanks

Jonah