I have had terrible trouble with 7.4.2 and 8.1.0 on a Dell XPS9360. Whether booting from the KNOPPIX DVD (burn iso) or from a boot USB (I use Pendrive's Universal-USB-Installer v. 1.9.8.0, there may be other or later versions) all I got was a blank screen. But a certain amount of whirring suggested to me that the live version was in fact progressing and available. After a lot of messing about with vga=xxx in the KERNEL stanza in /boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg I iterated to the best, sparsest and most portable version of this configuration file that I have EVER had. It reads
DEFAULT console
TIMEOUT 40
PROMPT 1
LABEL console
KERNEL linux
APPEND initrd=minirt.gz vga=893 lang=uk 1
LABEL video
KERNEL linux
APPEND initrd=minirt.gz vga=893 lang=uk #
By portable I mean this works on an ancient (really ancient) Samsung, any number of Dells in all configurations / ages, likewise Fujitsus. All screens from 800x600 to 1920x1080.
Still can't get 8.1.0 to work using a boot USB (DVD is fine). The architecture dictated by Pendrive leads to a configuration location error ("Can't find ..") from the very start. Even mimicking the geography of the 7.4.2 boot USB does not mend this.
Fergus
A8picoCart Atari 130 / 65 XE 800 / 1200 XL XEGS multicart UnoCart clone game
$32.95
Atari 800 w/ A/V Cable, BASIC, misc. accessories, Tested Working - NO OUTER CASE
$165.00
A8picoCart Atari 130 / 65 XE 800 / 1200 XL XEGS multicart UnoCart clone game
$32.95
Kraft Maze Master joystick for Atari/Commodore/Amiga computers
$34.99
Atari Power Cube 800XL, 600XL, 65XE, 130XE USB-C Power Supply PSU
$11.25
Atari 8bit A8 Pico Cart XL XE XEGS - NEW
$20.00
Atari 400/800/XL/XE Computer SIO2PC - PC/Mac Disk Drive Emulator Adapter/Device
$15.25
Atari 810 Disk Drive sold as is for parts
$44.99
Atari 1050 US Doubler upgrade kit
$35.00
Atari 1050 Floppy Drive 5.25 Single Disk No Power Supply (Untested)
$34.95