Laptops :: Hang on boot: IBM Stinkpad i1300

I get this far:

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Welcome to DAMN Small Linux  based on the KNOPPIX Live Linux-on-CD!

  Accessing KNOPPIX CDROM at /dev/scd0...
Total memory found: 183532 kB
Creating/ramdisk (dynamic size=143456k) on /dev/shm...Done.
Creating directories and symlinks on ramdisk...Done.
Starting init process.
INIT: version 2.78-knoppix booting
 Processor 0 is Pentium III (coppermine) 747mHz, 256k cache
 APM Bios found, power management functions enabled.
  PCMCIA found, starting cardmgr.
  cardmgr [55]: starting, version is 3.2.2

And then everything just...stops! Nothing further happens.

Huh? Now what?

TIA

Ok, the only pcmcia card I have in my Toshiba is a modem. You might see what cards you have plugged into the pcmcia slots, and remove them, and see if the machine will boot DSL. Perhaps it is hung on some sort of odd pcmcia device. Don't really know. I do know that on many laptops, they have gone hog wild with strange stuff designed to get it all to work. So, it
winds up not being a standard pc. Latest thing with Thinkpads is a mini-linux system that boots ahead of Wiindows XP, and if XP is down and out for some reason, you can still restore files from the restoration setup, and even connect to the internet with dial up and a small web browser.
You might analyze your hard drive with tomsrtbt linux (on one floppy) to
see what partitions are on it, etc. Your restoration cd may only access a hidden partition, to restore the main partition to Windows. Worse comes to worse, you can install Mandrake on it, and see how that goes. I'd partition the hard drive first, but later Mandrakes can do that for you,
so you wind up with a bunch of partitions. Same with Redhat 9, very popular in the bookstores now. If you get that up and running, then you are way ahead, and can put DSL on your box with this setup:
http://www.angelfire.com/ms/telegram/general_howto
I have that running on a dual boot SuSE/Windows 98 box, and on
a multi boot Windows 98, Redhat, Mandrake, SuSE, Debian box.
Does not require a partition for DSL, and is very fast!
I am of the opinion that most Compaq, HP laptops are going to be
full of suprises too, as far as Linux installations are concerned.
My Toshiba is a 4015cds and is a PII, 160 MB ram. The modem was
very expensive, a hardware pcmcia modem, over $200.00.
Works well, and runs as fast on DSL as my P4, 1GB Dell, running
DSL off the cdrom drive.  
Not that any of that will help, but some of it might be worth a try.
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