[olug] on a scale from one to 'teaching a pig how to read'

[Obi-Wan]

> how futile is it to try and install knoppix or ubuntu to a scsi hard drive?

Not at all.  I use my knoppix live CD frequently on the HP ProLiant
servers at work, and they all have SCSI drives using the cciss
RAID controller driver.

> So far i can get through the install of xubuntu 6.10 i386 alternate, but
> after the install all i get is a blinking cursor... classically.

If you can get through the install, and it claims to recognize the
drives during that, then you don't have any driver issues.  I agree
with Jay.  Your system just doesn't know how to boot off the SCSI
drives.  Perhaps they're not listed in the boot order in your BIOS,
in which case you need to hit F2 to enter setup & then poke around,
or perhaps you don't have a boot block installed, in which case you
need to follow Jay's instructions.  I would have thought that the
install process would take care of the boot block for you, though.
Perhaps a newer OS version would work better.

> why am i using such an old version of xubuntu?? ...the newer versions
> complain that the install cds are bad... which of course they are not, as
> i have tested them in another comp.

What part complains?  Booting as a live CD, or the subsequent install
process?

> why knoppix or ubuntu?

Why not?  Knoppix is my favorite quick-n-dirty rescue CD, and Ubuntu
is my favorite desktop OS.  No need to be ashamed.

-- 
Ben "Obi-Wan" Hollingsworth                             obiwan at jedi.com
   The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the
     Giver of all good things, so if I stand, let me stand on the
       promise that You will pull me through.  -- Rich Mullins