Booting a copy if the knoppix cd (not an ISO) from dos

[jwstolk]

hi, i need some help with this.
i read most of what i could find on google (mostly from this form) and managed to burn the
knoppix 3.8 cd (witch works great on other systems!), install grub.exe, etc.

setup:
Toshiba 7200 laptop, 10GB HD, single 10GB FAT32 partition, "working" dos/win98, no floppy drive,
128 MB USB drive works in windows, Sony PCMCIA cd-rom works in windows (not in dos)
dosu not boot from cd-rom.

done so far: (over the last 2 1/2 days)
-booted win98, copied all files form knoppix 3.8 cd to c:/knoppix/
-copied grub.exe to c:/
-copies all files in c:/knoppix/knoppix and c:/knoppix/boot to c:/boot
becouse is read that grub has som problems with directories.
-copied the 700mb knoppix file also to c:\ (just in case)

-c:\boot\grub\menu.lst containing:
title knoppix 3.8
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/linux ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init bootfrom=/dev/hda1 BOOT_IMAGE=KNOPPIX nodma
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img
boot

problem:
i start the laptop, pres F8 to boot windows in ms-dos-only mode, start grub.exe, select "knoppix 3.8"
knoppix boots ok, ("welcome", etc.) then scans drives, then reports "no knoppix filesystem found"

(what i would like to do once i get knoppix running:)
-mount the drive as r/w
-shrink the partition to about 5GB

[whoeverheis]

Haven't had my coffee yet this morning so a liitle slow. Are you saying you can't boot from a cd to do the normal hd install? No way to tell the bios to boot from the cd?

[jwstolk]

Haven't had my coffee yet this morning so a liitle slow. Are you saying you can't boot from a cd to do the normal hd install? No way to tell the bios to boot from the cd?

no way. there are bios setings for booting from cd-rom, but thats only for cd-roms connected to a docking station (witch i don't have)
the PCMCIA cd-rom drive works in wondows, but not in dos.
i have the knoppix files on the hdd (on FAt32), and would like to start knoppix from dos. (see above)

[fingers99]

I think you're doing this the hard way. I'd be inclined to pull the drive, put it in another computer, and do the resizing from that.

But I think there is a way of booting Linux from DOS -- SuSE used to have a utility called loadlin.exe which did more or less what you want.

http://yolinux.com/MINI-HOWTO/Loadlin+Win95.html

for more details, but it assumes Win 95.........

[jwstolk]

I think you're doing this the hard way. I'd be inclined to pull the drive, put it in another computer, and do the resizing from that.
But I think there is a way of booting Linux from DOS -- SuSE used to have a utility called loadlin.exe which did more or less what you want.
http://yolinux.com/MINI-HOWTO/Loadlin+Win95.html
for more details, but it assumes Win 95.........

AFAIK, using loadlin it's not possible to specify the directory, but grub is capable of doing that.
very similar thing has been done before:
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=52847

it works all the way up to the point where knoppix can not find the (700 mb) "KNOPIX" filesystem file.
i can even (re-)boot windows from grub.
i'd rather not pull the drive. (i don't have a cable converter for laptop drives anyway)

jaap.

[fingers99]

apropos loadlin, take a look at this:

http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18007&highlight=

[jwstolk]

apropos loadlin, take a look at this:

http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18007&highlight=

and they are right, it does not work with knoppix 3.8 :-(
jaap.

[jwstolk]

i moved the KNOPPIX file to c:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX
(was: C:\knoppix\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX) but still not able to find the knoppix file system.

it seems to scan all drives (difficult to see, it's very fast and then overwritten by the error message)

would it be difficult to take the connector form a (dismantled) laptop, and build my own
laptop IDE to normal IDE adapter (including power supply adapter) ?

jaap.

[fingers99]

would it be difficult to take the connector form a (dismantled) laptop, and build my own
laptop IDE to normal IDE adapter (including power supply adapter) ?

Probably not, but why take the risk? You can buy the adaptors for around £10.

[jwstolk]

Probably not, but why take the risk? You can buy the adaptors for around £10.

but not today :-)
anyway, i dug up a connector and old IDE cable and now have an IDE cable with a laptop-style connector.
pins 1-40 are same as normal IDE, figured out what to do with the 4 extra pins
http://forum.tweakzone.nl/topic/11534
see if it works.... (might need to connect mater/slave pins)
jaap.

[jwstolk]

Connected a (very) old IBM laptop drive using my brand new(tm) converter cable, and...
it wend up in smoke. guess the old IBM's have power on a different pin....
Connected an old 130 MB laptop drive, bios recognized it, can now read the files from it. :-)
lets hope the BIOS will recognize the 10 GB disk....
jaap.

[jwstolk]

10 GB laptop drive recognised in pentium 166MHz 64Mb, knoppix booting from cd-rom (no GUI)
Mounted /dev/hda1 and it all works. :-)
I'm off figuring out how to shrink the partition

Thanks for all the help.

Jaap. (jwstolk at gmail dot com)