Knoppix on CD

[Icky_Thoomp]

Hi guys,

Some help and advice is appreciated with Linux and specifically with the Knoppix distro.

I received a bootable CD with APC mag and decided to have a crack. It worked really well and I am happy with it. What I now want to do is to not have to boot off the CD (my CD drive is S-L-O-W....). I want to actually install Knoppix. I tried the FAQs on the CD and the Knopper.net site but they have nothing about actualy installing the system.

I appreciate the OS-on-a-CD concept but I would like to use this distro from my (much faster) hard drive.

Any ideas? The PC is a bog-stock ex-lease P2 with 4Gb hard drive and 192 Mb RAM. Being a tightarse and also on dialup Internet at home, downloading a distro is not really an option nor is paying for one. :D

Many thanks in advance.

[MaJeztik]

I wouldnt recommend installing knoppix to your hdd.

If you wanna do it just coz you like the look and feel, you will find that pretty much any linux OS looks like it with KDE installed.

Installing knoppix to your hdd can be done, but quite frankly is a waste of time.

Try lindows or lycoris if you are looking for the same look/feel of knoppix. As knoppix is purely a (i think) taste test for linux.

If I havent deterred you enough, try www.google.com/linux for a guide to doing it.

[wolfpac181]

First get a good partition on the disk. Prolly you will use QT-parted under the sysutil section.

sudo bash to root

knx-hdinstall

or
knoppix-installer

depending on what version you have. AND.. with this point in mind, there are SO many different styles go knoppix out that it's great!

STD-Knoppix: Tons of great security/hacking utils
Gnoppix: Gnome based
DVD-knoppix Comes with tons of good ports due to it being a DVD. Supposed to roxered it up

the HD based is not too shabby, deb-style. has quite a bit more to it.
I did a HD install to external HD, and booted from floppy based bootloader, have a mini PC on the go. was quite nice due to the huge database of drivers it keeps, auto detect is great:)

[Icky_Thoomp]

Originally posted by wolfpac181
First get a good partition on the disk. Prolly you will use QT-parted under the sysutil section.

sudo bash to root

knx-hdinstall

or
knoppix-installer

depending on what version you have. AND.. with this point in mind, there are SO many different styles go knoppix out that it's great!

STD-Knoppix: Tons of great security/hacking utils
Gnoppix: Gnome based
DVD-knoppix Comes with tons of good ports due to it being a DVD. Supposed to roxered it up

the HD based is not too shabby, deb-style. has quite a bit more to it.
I did a HD install to external HD, and booted from floppy based bootloader, have a mini PC on the go. was quite nice due to the huge database of drivers it keeps, auto detect is great:)

I don't think you realise how much of a Linux noob I am.... I assume that you advise to create a disk partition and then copy the installer files to it from the CD? That's hard...

Knoppix seemed a good idea, mainly because my first attempt to install Linux was Debian. I got the command line working but could not work out dependencies and stuff to get KDE or Gnome working. The auto-detect stuff is great for us Windows and Mac raised nerds. :)

I will have a go at formatting my hard drive with Knoppix tonight and see how far I go. Here's hoping I don't start blubbering about dependencies....

[wolfpac181]

Actully, I was thinking some more on it...... during the hdinstall, I think that there is a part where it will partition the disk for you. Well, with a little of your help.

/root doesn't have to be huge
/home does
/swap can be double your physcial mem
/usr should be big
/var can be fairly little

that should be good nuf.

[Icky_Thoomp]

OK, last night's effort went something like this -

* tried to find a way to install Knoppix to HDD - couldn't work it out so I fucked it off and installed a version of Debian that I got last year.
* Install of Debian went fine. Partitioned drive with boot, Linux and swap partitions and pretty much followed what Wolfie suggested.
* got to the bit where I could use tasksel, apt or dselect to install apps when I got fucked over by

FUCKING DEPENDENCIES!!!!!!!!!

I hate fucking dependencies, they fucking shit me to tears! FUUUUUUUUUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have been able to boot the beast to a command line and use it in text-only mode.

I tried to install X-Windows from dselect as per the instructions I got, but it behaved very strangely. I appreciate that to have something work you will need another thing installed already, but Debian have not made it easy for dumb fucks like me.

I am going to the Debian site and do some research on dependencies and installing X-Windows and KDE. After I get a GUI, I should be on a better path....

It also caused a tanty from my girlfriend - mainly because I was not paying her attention or watching Queer Eye with her. I should start laying the smackdown I think.

[wolfpac181]

Why couldn't you install it?

Open a shell and do what I talked about above. what verison do you have anyway?

Good item to check: Here (http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/FaqInstall) and here (http://www.freenet.org.nz/misc/knoppix-install.html)

[Icky_Thoomp]

Hi Wolfie,

To be quite honest, I could not understand your advice. When I say that I am a Linux noob, I mean NOOB. That is, no fucking idea about anything. I know a couple of commands, ls -al and uname -a, and thats it.

Thanks for the links - they have put all of your advice into context. Hopefully tomorrow will bring some good news from me about my new Linux/Knoppix beast.

Me - :fag:

Wolfpac181 - :banana:

[Icky_Thoomp]

I did it! Got Knoppix onto the hard drive of my PC and it works a treat.

Thanks for the advice, Wolfie, it made sense to me when I got the shell prompt.

Now to get Apache working. Wish me luck!

[wolfpac181]

Good luck with apache....

Word of advice. Install webmin with apache. this is the only way to go. will make your whole life easier.

[Icky_Thoomp]

For those following my fledgling love affair with Linux, you will be pleased to know that I have achieved the following -

* installed and used Webmin 1.150
* updated my Linux kernel to 2.6.7
* finally worked out how to play Enigma.

All in all, going slowly at the moment. My next goal is networking my PCs and using the Knoppix machine as a Web server (Apache installed too!).

I do have a question though - I tried to mount my USB flash drive but had no luck. In Webmin I could see the filesystem in one of the screens but could not mount it. I remember seeing an APC article on how to mount USB flash drives but I can't remember which issue it was in... Any ideas??

Cheers
Icky

[urban_gorilla]

for future reference DONT use dselect or tasksel is debian.
just apt. you might want to look around for the apt sources that are right for you. i think aarnet have some decent speed mirrors.

apt-get update
will update your package lists. you should do this before installing packages, and you havent updated your list of packages for a while. you will have to run this as root (or use sudo)

apt-cache search bunnies
will search all the packages for anything with "bunnies" in the title or description

apt-cache show bunnies
will show you information and description for the packages named "bunnies"

apt-get install bunnies
will fetch and install the package named "bunnies". you will have to run this as root (or use sudo)

another useful thing is the "-s" switch, which simulates whichever command you were to do, so if you were to go
apt-get install bunnies -s
(or even apt-get install -s bunnies )
then it would do a simulated install of the "bunnies" package, ie tell you what other packages need to be downloaded, what version you are getting. how big it is, etc.

[urban_gorilla]

for mounting usb drive you could try here, might be of some help
http://www.linux-usb.org/

knoppix should run hotplug, which should do most of the hard work for you. if its not picking it up try opening up a terminal and running
tail -f /var/log/messages
then plug your usb drive in. wait till you get messages scrolling past like
hub.c: new USB device
usb-uhci.c: interrupt, status 2, frame# 922
etc
open another terminal and type
cat /proc/scsi/scsi
and you should see something like
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: Model: 16X52X32X52COMBO Rev: 107G
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: Apple Model: iPod Rev: 1.50
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02

hopefully you can do a
mount -t msdos -o noatime /dev/sda2 /mnt/usbdrive
this is for my ipod which has to mount the second partition of the hard drive (ie sda2) - i would assume you would mount sda1 (the first partition) for a usb key

edit: you'll need to create a /mnt/usbdrive directory to mount to.
you probably want to do eject, rather than unmnout stuff as well ie
eject /mnt/usbdrive

[wolfpac181]

For those following my fledgling love affair with Linux, you will be pleased to know that I have achieved the following -

* installed and used Webmin 1.150
* updated my Linux kernel to 2.6.7
* finally worked out how to play Enigma.

All in all, going slowly at the moment. My next goal is networking my PCs and using the Knoppix machine as a Web server (Apache installed too!).

I do have a question though - I tried to mount my USB flash drive but had no luck. In Webmin I could see the filesystem in one of the screens but could not mount it. I remember seeing an APC article on how to mount USB flash drives but I can't remember which issue it was in... Any ideas??

Cheers
Icky

Urban did a good job explaining, but I think Knoppix does think in sdx for USB drives. Reason I know is the USB HDD I have, and USB compact flash adapter both show up as sdx devices.

Try this in shell:
cd /dev && ls sd* && cd /mnt && ls
mkdir /mnt/whatever && mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/whatever
cd /mnt/whatever && ls -la

should show..... sorry I'm on an && complex right now

Don't know of the knopp has an automount feature or if it's something worth installing... but worth looking into.

[minorproblem]

I am playing around with knoppix at work at the moment v3.4 has automounting for usb drives. Then you can specify a home directory as an image on the drive and it automatically saves all of your settings every time. Which i think is pretty cool. So i just take my cd and usb key to work plug it in boot and run
home=/dev/sda1 screen=1024x800 (cause ive got the default to 1280x1024) quite nifty casue this way all of my setup and stuff comes with me and i can install any apps i want onto the home directory onto my usb key.

Also "Icky_Thoop" If you really like knoppix then a full install of a distro will feel like heaven.

[AntZ]

if you can - find a copy of Tuxracer (the free one) - it is without a doubt the single best Linux game ever ported to Windows, even if its only for the map "Who say's penguins cant fly".