USB booting :: "Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem"...wtf?



I just did a USB-HDD install on my pen drive and it booted perfectly on my two desktops (one of which required a floppy USB boot disk.)  I tried it out on my laptop, and it loads fine until right after "Scanning for USB devices...... done" then it drops to a shell, saying in red: "Can't find KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry.  Dropping you to a (very limited) shell. Press reset button to quit."

I'm baffled.  If it found the filesystem on my other two computers, why would it have a problem on this one?  Both it and my main desktop are Dells, and have very similar BIOSes.  I tried plugging the pendrive in different USB ports to no avail.

Anyone have any clue why this is happening?
Curious.  

I just plugged the pen drive into the front panel USB ports on my Dell desktop, and it gave me the same error.  Plugging it back into the USB ports built into my keyboard let DSL boot normally.

When I plugged it into my other desktop, however, I plugged it into the rear USB ports and it booted fine (though I did use the USB boot disk.)  I would test out the USB boot disk on my Dell desktop and/or laptop, but neither have floppy drives.

So, I've established that it's definitely a USB problem, but I don't know where to go from here.  Why would plugging it into my keyboard's USB ports be any different from plugging it into the front panel USB ports?  Hell, the keyboard itself it plugged into the front USB panel.  I thought daisy-chaining USB was supposed to be completely transparent at the software level...

EDIT: The pen drive was plugged into the keyboard during installation.
On a completely unrelated topic, does the USB pen drive installer default to frugal?  I noticed that only 50 is being used and some apps are taking a while to load.  I heard that the normal install is around 200 MB--if that's true, I can live with only 50 megs of free space if it means getting a decent speed boost.  Just so long as the normal install doesn't write a swap partition...
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I just plugged the pen drive into the front panel USB ports on my Dell desktop, and it gave me the same error.  Plugging it back into the USB ports built into my keyboard let DSL boot normally.


that sounds like the dsl 2.0 typo error i ran into recently. dsl 2.0 doesn't load the usb 2.0 driver in "default" or "dsl" mode. can you try any of the following steps?

- enter the dell machine bios and disable "usb 2.0 support" (only for checking)
- use "expert" mode and load "usbcore.o ehci-hcd.o usb-storage.o" or autodetect
- try dsl 2.1rc1
Also, there is a difference between each USB port for Dells.

When scanning for USB boot devices, it looks at the rear USB ports first (in fact, believe it or not, there is a difference between the group of 2 rear ports and the group of 4 rear ports) and then the front ports.

Also, Dell GX280s have a problem with USB booting that was fixed in a newer version of the BIOS.

But these problems would result in trouble getting past the initial boot screen and are unlikely to be your can't find KNOPPIX error.

The best chance solution is to download 2.1RC1 and do a new USBHDD installation.
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