Help installing linux with ide expansion card

[Orethrius]

that wouldnt be it because it boots the first bit, and then drops to a shell (which would have to be from the CD)

....not that i can be of any help to the actual problem.

 Actually, it very well could be.  If the disc was burned directly as Data instead of as a copy of a disc image, he'd just have discs with ISO files on them that can never boot because the entire loading process would be in the ISO - thus a catch-22.

Given, that doesn't really apply here, since the first screen that he gets wouldn't load, either.  Forget I said anything.  

[H_TeXMeX_H]

Q: I get the error "Can't find Knoppix filesystem." then it drops me to a "limited shell". What the hell?

    A: This means you are not using a SCSI or IDE CDROM drive. After Syslinux starts up the first thing Knoppix wants to do is find and uncompress the filesystem (that big KNOPPIX file on the CD). Knoppix only probes for the CD on all SCSI and IDE buses. If it can't find it you'll get the error above.

    For Transmeta laptops and some Sonys with PCMCIA cd drives try:

    knoppix ide2=0x180 nopcmcia

source: http://s-t-d.org/faq.html

[hnugz]

source: http://s-t-d.org/faq.html

Yeah I saw that page but the thing is I am using an ide cd rom, tried it with the ide exp card and without just on the main cable.  still no go.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

So you tried it without the ide expansion card and it still didn't work ?

Ok, try it with this boot paramater:

ide=nodma

or in knoppix

knoppix ide=nodma