booting from ISO on hard drive

[gonzofonts]

Ok, this should be simple, but I can’t get this to work.

I have a laptop. There are two partitions on the drive which are “C:\” and “D:\”. The C drive is a WinXP partition and it’s formatted for NTFS. The D drive is a FAT32 partition (no OS).

When I use a Knoppix Live CD, the disks show up has “/mnt/hda1” (C drive) and “/mnt/hda5” (D drive).

I have a directory on “/mnt/hda5” called “knoppix”. In this directory, I have the version 3.9 ISO. The full/exact name of the file is “KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN.iso”.

From reading the cheat codes, I should be able to boot from the ISO on the hard drive.

I have tried the following:

knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hda5/knoppix/*.iso
knoppix bootfrom=/mnt/hda5/knoppix/*.iso

knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda5/knoppix/*.iso
knoppix fromhd=/mnt/hda5/knoppix/*.iso

None of the above has worked.

How do I get this to work?

Thanks in advance.

GF

[oscar]

this is in c:\boot\grub\menu.lst and works (I have a knoppix.iso in D:\isos)

title Knoppix from hda5 ISO scan ramdisk=32MB
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/knoppix/linux ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 nomce quiet bootfrom=/dev/hda5/isos/KNOPP*.iso config=scan home=scan ramdisk=32768 noprompt keyboard=es screen=800x600 xvrefresh=62 xhrefresh=40
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/knoppix/minirt_ntfs.gz
boot

fromhd works for kanotix.iso

[quit5]

I tried the same way, but it still does not work. The grldr is under root c:\, grub is under c:\boot, and I set the menu.lst almost the same as oscar do except the .iso locates at c:\KNOPPIX, together with minirt_ntfs.gz.
When I tried to boot, it always says "File not found".

Anybody else met and solved this problem?

[oscar]

@quit

may you cut&paste menu.lst here?

[quit5]

title Knoppix
kernel (hd0,0)/KNOPPIX/linux ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 nomce quiet bootfrom=/dev/hda1/KNOPPIX/KNOPP*.iso config=scan home=scan ramdisk=32768 noprompt
#131072
initrd (hd0,0)/KNOPPIX/minirt_ntfs.gz

boot

[oscar]

title Knoppix
kernel (hd0,0)/KNOPPIX/linux ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 nomce quiet bootfrom=/dev/hda1/KNOPPIX/KNOPP*.iso config=scan home=scan ramdisk=32768 noprompt
#131072
initrd (hd0,0)/KNOPPIX/minirt_ntfs.gz

boot



if in C:\KNOPPIX there are these files

linux
KNOPPIXxxx.iso
minirt_ntfs.gz

and a C:\grldr file exists then I dont know what is wrong

[rwcitek]

I have tried the following:

knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hda5/knoppix/*.iso
knoppix bootfrom=/mnt/hda5/knoppix/*.iso

knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda5/knoppix/*.iso
knoppix fromhd=/mnt/hda5/knoppix/*.iso

None of the above has worked.

How do I get this to work?
First, let's simplify. Move the iso from D:\knoppix\KNOPPIX_V3.9-2005-05-27-EN.iso to C:\knx.iso in Windows. Then boot with the 3.9 Knoppix CD and type boot: knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hda1/knx.iso debug The debug cheatcode causes Knoppix to pause at various stages in the boot process and presents you with a shell prompt. You'll know if the bootfrom= cheatcode worked or not before you even get to the first stage. So, you can avoid having to go all the way through hardware detection and starting KDE. Once you get to the first stage, you can reboot with Alt-SysRq-B and try the next step. Did the bootfrom= cheatcode work in this case? If it did not, check for typos, because this should work.

Next, move C:\knx.iso to D:\knx.iso in Windows and boot from the CD with boot: knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hda5/knx.iso debug Did the bootfrom= cheatcode work in this case?

Next, move D:\knx.iso to D:\knoppix\knx.iso in Windows and boot from the CD with boot: knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hda5/knoppix/knx.iso debug Did the bootfrom= cheatcode work in this case?

Next, update your grub.conf with bootfrom=/dev/hda5/knoppix/knx.iso debug Did the bootfrom= cheatcode work in this case?

Let us know what worked and what didn't.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org/

[quit5]

My harddrive has only two ntfs patitions, is it necessary that D:\ be FAT for a hardrive boot?

[gonzofonts]

Thanks fror all the replies.

rwcitek,

I like the way you think - keeping it simple when trouble shooting. :D

I tried:

knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hda1/knx.iso debug

Does not work. I get an error that says it cannot find the file. I'm thinking that it cannot find the image because the image is on a NTFS partition.

I also tried:

bootfrom=/dev/hda5/knoppix/knx.iso (note, I left out the debug option)

The good new is that this worked. The bad news is that I can't write to this partition when I boot from it.

Also, I don't see how the above (i.e. "bootfrom=/dev/hda5/knoppix/knx.iso") is any different than what I initially tried (i.e. "knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hda5/knoppix/*.iso")

To solve my problem, I think I will split my FAT32 partition into two FAT32 partition and put the ISO on one of them and boot from there.

Thanks for the help.

GF

[oscar]

....The good new is that this worked. The bad news is that I can't write to this partition when I boot from it.
....

Thanks for the help.

GF

Yes, the drawback is when you boot knoppix this way then the partition is not writable because it is a CD for all purposes (a virtual CD of course).

[rwcitek]

I tried:
knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hda1/knx.iso debug
Does not work. I get an error that says it cannot find the file. I'm thinking that it cannot find the image because the image is on a NTFS partition.
Knoppix can mount and read an NTFS partition just fine. The above bootfrom= should have worked; I do it on my WinXP machines all the time. I can only think of three possible reasons why it would not work:

1) /dev/hda1 is not the C:\ drive (that would be odd)
2) the image is not in the root directory on C:\
3) the image is not named knx.iso

If you want to explore this further, boot up Knoppix from the CD and then type the following:

cat /proc/partitions
fdisk -l /dev/hda
and post the results.


I also tried:
bootfrom=/dev/hda5/knoppix/knx.iso (note, I left out the debug option)
The good new is that this worked. The bad news is that I can't write to this partition when I boot from it.
That's great news. You should be able to read and write to the FAT32 partition. There is a trick to doing that when you have your image on the same partition. I don't recall off the top of my head. But I'll post later when I am at a Windows machine. In short, it can be done and you don't have to repartition the FAT32 partition.


Also, I don't see how the above (i.e. "bootfrom=/dev/hda5/knoppix/knx.iso") is any different than what I initially tried (i.e. "knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hda5/knoppix/*.iso")
You specified the full filename and not a pattern. For some reason patterns are not working. If you wish to delve into the code and debug why this is, have a look at the script /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig

BTW, I reread your original post and realized you are using Knoppix 3.9. I had some issues with 3.9, especially when using unionfs and apt-get. So, I moved back to 3.8.2. Just a heads up.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org/

[quit5]

Hi, guys, I moved a little forward. I have met the error of "file not found", that is because my c:\ is not hda1 but hda2, I do not know what is wrong. My new probelm is after running the kernel and initrd command in menu.lst successfully, some message appears as:
INIT: version 2.78-knoppix booting
Running Linux knernel 2.6.11
processor 0 is ......
ACPI BIOS found, activating modules: ac battery button container fan processor

Then everything stopped, even the cursor don't flash. All I can do is to press the power button to swith off the computer. Anybody know what should be the reason? This issue really bothered me for a long time. Thanks in advance.

[rwcitek]

Anybody know what should be the reason? This issue really bothered me for a long time. Thanks in advance.
How are you booting? What cheatcodes are you using?

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org/

[quit5]

kernel (hd0,1)/KNOPPIX/linux ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 nomce quiet bootfrom=/dev/hda2/KNOPPIX/K*.iso config=scan home=scan ramdisk=131072 noprompt
pause step4
initrd (hd0,1)/KNOPPIX/minirt_ntfs.gz


thanks, robert.

[quit5]

Hi, guys, I finally made it through. Boot from one NTFS partition. The problems I met are:
1. C:\ is not hda1 but hda2
2. there is bug in the linux kernel I used. When I use the kernel included in the KNOPPIX image file, everything is fine.

Thank you all for helps.

[rwcitek]

Hi, guys, I finally made it through.
...
Thank you all for helps.
Glad to hear it's working. And thanks for letting us know.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org/