Knoppix 4.0 DVD PMI on FAT32

[eco2geek]

Works using the loopback images (as Fabian said (http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19689&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=10)).

Proof of concept:
/dev/hdb4 is formatted as FAT32. A directory was created on it named "knoppix". /KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX and /KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX2 (the two loopback images) were copied from the DVD to the /knoppix dir on hdb4 (and they both fit!), along with /boot/isolinux/linux and /boot/isolinux/minirt.gz (the kernel and the miniroot), the background.jpg, and the html files.

A persistent home, "knoppix.img", was created while running from the DVD, and stored at the root level of hdb4.

The GRUB stanza that loads this whole thing is:

title Knoppix 4.0 DVD PMI
root (hd1,3)
kernel /knoppix/linux fromhd=/dev/hdb4 knoppix_dir=knoppix knoppix_name=KNOPPIX ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us keyboard=us vga=791 home=/mnt/hdb4/knoppix.img
initrd /knoppix/minirt.gz
boot
Knoppix successfully loads both loopback images.

Note that if one tries to load the persistent home with "dev" instead of "mnt", it doesn't work.

It would be nice to have a cheatcode that bypassed the "do you really want to use a persistent home" dialog.

[Harry Kuhman]

Works using the loopback images (as Fabian said (http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19689&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=10)).
I know a lot of this is that I'm not geek enough to follow the discussion (even after doing a Google search), but at least let me ask a couple of questions:

I thought Fabian's post was somehow intended as assurance that downloaders and DVD burners would not have trouble downloading and burning the ISO, not transfering it to fat partitions on hard disk as seems to be the case here. Was I wrong in thinking that? Since you already have it, what is the size of the 4.0 ISO that you downloaded? Thanks.

[eco2geek]

Ah, I see what you're saying. The Linux-Tag DVD ISO is 4,319,850,496 bytes, which would seem to exceed FAT32's stated filesize limitation of (2^32) -1 bytes. However, it's got some stuff on it (the "Knowing Knoppix" ebook, an m23 ISO and docs) that may not be included in the final release...

[Harry Kuhman]

Thanks eco2geek. Looks like I'll have to figure out some trick to burn it on my FAT based Win98se system (the one with the DVD burner). Doesn't seem likely the official release will come in under the limit.

Been doing some Google searching and trying to better understand loopback images, but not finding a Linux to Dummy translation.

[eco2geek]

Here's the good news: If you extract the ISO, delete the frou-frou (the ebooks and the m23 software), then use mkisofs to recreate it, it comes in at 3.7GB and should fit on a FAT32 partition. (It even boots. That's always a plus.)

(Maybe I should be more precise in my language: the KNOPPIX and KNOPPIX2 files are cloop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloop) images, as opposed to a garden-variety loopback-mounted (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loopback_mount) image like a persistent home.)