Cant boot from Knoppix 3.7

[Weetabix]

Hello people, after reading a bit about Linux (from ex-Windows users, who were only too glad to ditch Windows) I decided to give it a go.

So after a bit of browsing, Knoppix seemed like a good place to start, what with it being able to run off a CD and not needing to be installed on to hard disk.

After dl'ing the ISO and putting on to CD, I tried to boot from it by changing the boot sequence. Only Win XP kept on booting.

After visiting the Knoppix forums (sorry if youve already read this on there), a thread suggested that I dl Smart Boot Manager to configure the PC to boot from the CD drive. So I dl the .exe and put it on to a floppy, and when I tried to boot from it, I get a "non system disk" error.

Can someone tell me where I'm going wrong?

Thanks

System Spec:

1Ghz pIII
i815 mobo
512 RAM

....running WinXP Pro

[dylunio]

Did you burn the cd as an ISO image (so it would boot) or did you just copy the ISO to the cd (this will not boot)?

Also some burning softwares like nero don't make good linux ISO's, try reading this thread.

dylunio

[Weetabix]

I dl'ed it from here, hmm it may not be an iso after all

I unpacked the rars that came with it and put it on to CD using Nero, and set the burn option as 'Boot CD'.

I suspect the problem is to do with my bios, and it not booting from the CD. And SBM .exe doesnt boot either.

[dylunio]

I always get my ISO's through www.linuxiso.org, I download it then use good cd burning software as stated in the previos post (not NERO!) to burn a bootable cd,

I once made a bad cd with Roxio (as bad as NERO) and set the booting sequence corerectly but since the cd was badly burned it didn't boot, and went into Windblows instead;

dylunio

[Weetabix]

OK thanks dylunio, will give it a go.

I still need to sort out the boot sequence though

[muskrat]

I believe the boot sequence is almost always set by your CMOS, it depends on your motherboard how you access that. I have two PC's, one AMD and one Celeron, both of which I just press delete as soon as the keyboard comes online and I'm in the CMOS. Then I have a Compaq that I need to hit F12 and still I can't get into every thing because the CMOS is basiclly automatic.

One way to tell what your boot sequence is, make a boot floppy for XP place it in the floppy drive. Then put any other bootable CD you have in the CD Rom. And watch which one boots.

If the floppy boots frist then drive A is the frist in your boot sequence.
If the CD Rom boots frist then the CD is frist.
If your HD boots frist the drive C is frist.

If ether A or the CD go frist, remove which ever booted and try again, ideally you should be booting, A then CD then C.

Although some systems will have thier own quirks. My Celeron hangs on CD boot frist if there is no media in the drive.

[psic]

When downloading, never unpack anything, burn an image on the cd! (this is .img or .iso)
As for Nero, I used the express I think and it burned .iso's allright... (they work, anyway)

[loft306]

When downloading, never unpack anything, burn an image on the cd! (this is .img or .iso)
As for Nero, I used the express I think and it burned .iso's allright... (they work, anyway)

Yes! psic nailed it that is totaly corect. also true for .cue images also

[zeeone]

And how many times has this been covered?

1. Make sure your BIOS is set for the CD to be the first booting device {most newer systems are already set for that, how do you think one loads Windblows now days?}.

2. Download the ISO of your choice. I myself use what ever www.distrowatch.com uses.

3. Check to make sure you got ALL OF THE DOWNLOAD, aganist the make file.

4. Have somebody's CD burning software. I myself use the basic version of Nero, use the Disk Copy, last choice on the menu is ISO Burning. Never had a problem with it.