Live CDs-false advertising.

[tcdz01]

Why do Live CD/DVDs work so well but when it comes to installing distros nothing seems to want to work, not detected etc.? If I wanted to live with SUSE, Xandros or Knoppix of Live DVD everything would be fine.

Short story: I get many live DVDs to boot right up and basically everything work. I go to install and things don't want to work. Is there things when live distros work that I can look for and take that information when installing a version? It is very mis-leading when you can pop in a live DVD and everything just works great. Install and nothing wants to work.

Network card. It works on every live DVD. I install and nothing. I know that it uses module 8319too but that only seems to work with certain kernals (2.4.33.3 in Slackware but not with 2.6.17). Slackware connects during installation but then reboots to no network. With sata.i nousb (otherwise freezes at hotplug) the 8319too works fine. If I use huge26.s then I need nousb but 8319too won't work.

Video: the card is Radeon x300, has TV out, TV tuner, and FM tuner. TV & FM stuff has never worked so I give up and moved on, no biggie. But as just a video card, again all live versions work fine. I install and either the fonts all apear fuzzy/blurry very hard to read or it is "stuck" in 640x480 mode. Monitor is found correctly on live but must manually set h&v-frequency etc.

Sound: same story works fine on live, no sound on installation.

By video not working means it is either blurry or only 640x480 screen size. It does have tv out and an fm tuner with video tuner but none of that will work on any distro live or not so I gave up and don't even consider it anymore.

Live DVDs:
Knoppix: Only 5.0.1 works good on desktop and only 4.?.? works good on laptop ( can't get wifi to work on 5.0.1 ) have not tried others on laptop.

Other distos tried:
Ubuntu-Most things work but couldn't get all-in-one to scan.
Kubuntu-didn't work as well as Ubuntu, can't recall specifics though.
Gentoo-no live cd-won't complete installation. Freezes during installtion.
Xandros-live works really well but when installed is very slow and limited apps. *Was very difficult getting loader back off after Xandros second installation!!
SUSE-Everything seemed worked when installed.
Slackware-I had it installed once but nothing worked, printer, audio video. Now after all the various installations ( over 50 in two weeks ) the X-windows will only start for root but freezes when logging off session. ATI video driver will not install.
Debian- all-in-One printer/scanner works and the ATI driver installs fine

I just want to know what to look for regarding video card, sound card and network on working live distros that would help when I go to install a distro i.e. is there a way to tell what driver/module is using when it is working and then I can try to figure out how to get it loaded when doing an installtion.

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to go through all these postings and helps out answering. I know half the time you never hear back from the people that posed the question in the first place but I know that many people like myself find the answers they need and you never hear a thanks from us. I have gained much from your answers so thank you to you and Google.

[jim123425]

maybe you must get the full install cd in place of live cd like live for test all cds/dvds to install????

[tcdz01]

Thanks for the reply.
For SUSE, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Gentoo and Slackware these were full install CDs not live versions. Knoppix is only live.

Frustrating because I like it so much but I don't want to have to run from CD all the time and I don't want to just do a straight copy of the CD to the hard drive.