HI, I have an old pc I'd like to put linux on eventually, just to try it out I've tried 2 different linux live cds without succuess. I've tried both Knoppix and Dsl linux. The computer is able to boot from the cds, and it takes me to both the knoppix and the dsl splash screen. But when it begins to load up linux nothing happens, the screen just stays blank. Any ideas? I'm not planning on running windows at all on this system, it will mainly be for web browsing. Also I have access to a usb to ide adapter so I could always put the linux I want to use directly onto the hard drive if you think that might help. Or if you know of another distro of linux that would be easier for me let me know. I have never used linux before, so keeep that in mind.

Might try the floppies to boot. If very old then the new kernels will not support the machine. Also issues between isolinux and syslinux. See if you can't get a boot floppy with linux to boot first. Check pages for hardware support. Might want to test you cd's in a newer system to see if they are at fault too. While it is not a noob venture you can get a suse cd that downloads from the web. Not too many how to pages but they are out there. A steep learning curve on all of that stuff. It can get to the point of setting up a tftp/nfs server and loading from a remote computer too. There are also other choices too. See bebits.com for a bootable beos cd distro. Also there is a live Zeta Cd download out there. They should work. QNX has V6.2ish that works on old systems. Might look at skyos or menuetos. I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you goober.

If the hardware is really old, try an older RedHat system, like 7.1. Guy

Shao: How did you burn the CD? You need to use a special option in your burning software. It is usually called "burn from image(or iso file", "write image (or iso file) to disk" or something close to these. Also, if your burning software has a burning option to finalize (or close) CD, or prevent further burning to CD then use it also as some older CD readers would not work properly with multi-session CDs.

Yeah, I burned the .iso's properly. Like I said both cds booted to the splash screen of the distro I was trying to install. They just simply wouldnt load up the os.

If you can get to a splash screen then your PC is able to boot from CD and you have burned the discs correctly so the problem doesn't lie there. There is a possibility that burning at a slower speed may help but it is more likely a hardware issue. Have you tried passing some of the knoppix cheat codes at boot time? Changing your display or turning off things like power management may help with older systems, for some examples: http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_C...