Noobe - how to run cd image from hd

[WebbPA]

Hi folks,

Another noobe here. I'm sure this has been asked and answered before but I'm being overwhelmed with new terminology.

Before I make the partitioning and installation plunge I'd like to run the cd image for a while, but from hd for speed. When I look at my boot floppy and startup sequence I see:

Loading vmlinuz (no extension)
Loading miniroot.gz

Can I just write a batch file that points to these and then to the cd image on my hd? Then exit to DOS, run the batch file and go?


What's the difference between saving Knoppix config on the boot floppy and "persistent home"?

[Stephen]

See the How-To here (http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/HdBasedHowTo).

[WebbPA]

Thanks Stephen, RTFM usually works but it didn't. Here's what I did:


"Poormans install" ;-)

Copy the CD:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX file to HD:\KNOPPIX\
E:\KNOPPIX\>mkdir D:\KNOPPIX
E:\KNOPPIX\>copy KNOPPIX D:\KNOPPIX\
1 files(s) copied

Make the bootfloppy. Start "mkfloppy.bat" on the CD in the KNOPPIX folder.
E:\KNOPPIX\>mkfloppy

Boot from the floppy. It should scan for the KNOPPIX file and find it on the harddisk.

But it didn't work. All I got was a bunch of "can't find file" messages.

The deviation I made from the instructions was to copy the entire cd to C:\Knoppix and ran mkfloppy from there. I'm not sure what the E: is. I have 1 physical HD with C and D logical partitions, and CD's E and F.

I don't have to add a new partition (yet) do I?

[Stephen]

Try it with the just the /knoppix directory from the CD in c:\ not with it in a c:\knoppix.

[WebbPA]

That did it. All I needed on the hd was c:\knoppix\knoppix (file - not folder). I think the manual overcomplicated it.

Thanks for your help.

[Stephen]

That's what I thought good luck.

[bongski55]

I followed everything from this post but I am still getting this message:

"Cant find KNOPPIX filesystem,sorry. Dropping you to a (very limited) shell. Press reset button to quit."

I am beginner.

Thanks!

bong

[A. Jorge Garcia]

OK, I figured out how to run KNOPPIX with neither the CD nor the boot floppy from the hdd without knx-hdinstall. I don't like knx-hdinstall as you loose all the KNOPPIX autodetection stuff!

Here are my steps (only for WIN95/98/ME on a VFAT partition):
(1) On your M$ WINDOZE box, mine is WINME, create a directory called c:\KNOPPIX.

(2) Copy from d:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX, the huge 690MB file on the KNOPPIX CD already burned from an ISO, to c:\KNOPPIX.

(3) Copy the files vmlinuz and miniroot.gz from the boot floppy, already rawritten from boot-en.img, to c:\KNOPPIX.

(4) Download a copy of loadlin.exe to c:\KNOPPIX from the net.

(5) Write the following batch file in Notepad, save as knoppix.bat in c:\KNOPPIX, its all one line.

loadlin.exe vmlinuz lang=en init=/etc/init initrd=miniroot.gz quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix

(6) In WIN95 or 98, make a shortcut for knoppix.bat on your desktop. You can't run a batch file in real-mode DOS with WINME, you have to run knoppix.bat from the rescue disk in console mode....

(7) Click on this shortcut and viola KNOPPIX boots faster from your hdd than from your CD, and it still autodetects everything and resides in the ramdisk.

BTW, one side effect is that you cannot mount your hdd as its busy reading from KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX just as the CD used to be tied up.

Also, if you do not want to rawrite the boot floppy or burn the CD, you can mount the ISO and IMG to extract the files KNOPPIX, vmlinuz and miniroot.gz (but you need a Linux box for this already - which came first the penguin or the egg???).

[katolo]

will this also work with NTFS... or just FAT32

[RockMumbles]

just FAT32

rock

[katolo]

so if I create a 700 mb FAT32 partition then I can use.... btw I'm using Win Xp

[Stephen]

so if I create a 700 mb FAT32 partition then I can use.... btw I'm using Win Xp

Yes but you might want the partition to be a GB or so.

[WebbPA]

Can someone walk through Jorge's batch file?

I tried lang=en and lang=us but kde always comes up n German.

And I'd like to add a wheelmouse statement but it didn't work.

[A. Jorge Garcia]

I have the lang=en parameter in knoppix.bat, but I don't think you need it if you extract vmlinuz and miniroot.gz from boot-en.img.

Regards,

[Dave_Bechtel]

--Good stuff. You may want to copy the commandline stuff from the knoppix bootfloppy into your loader tho:

APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off hda=scsi hdb=scsi hdc=scsi hdd=scsi hde=scsi hdf=scsi hdg=scsi hdh=scsi vga=791 initrd=miniroot.gz nomce quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix

--Ah, the pain of posting from Windoze; I had to ftp the latest knoppix ISO over to another machine and loopback mount both the iso and the boot.img just to get that... (couldn't find the boot floppy) :roll:

--BTW, there is a way to enable DOS in winME; you just have to google for it. It involves downloading some replacement files, YMMV. (This is why I'm still running 98SE. MS gets more evil every rev...)

--Those running Win9x are advised to shutdown into MSDOS mode before booting Knoppix, otherwise you are probably in for a Scandisk when you run Win again - due to the HD "dirty bit" left on from an un-clean shutdown. (You're basically taking the rug out from under Windoze otherwise, and leaving it badly confused. "Anybody get the # of that truck?" ;-)


OK, I figured out how to run KNOPPIX with neither the CD nor the boot floppy from the hdd without knx-hdinstall. I don't like knx-hdinstall as you loose all the KNOPPIX autodetection stuff!

Here are my steps (only for WIN95/98/ME):
(1) On your M$ WINDOZE box, mine is WINME, create a directory called c:\KNOPPIX.

(2) Copy from d:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX, the huge 690MB file on the KNOPPIX CD already burned from an ISO, to c:\KNOPPIX.

(3) Copy the files vmlinuz and miniroot.gz from the boot floppy, already rawritten from boot-en.img, to c:\KNOPPIX.

(4) Download a copy of loadlin.exe to c:\KNOPPIX from the net.

(5) Write the following batch file in Notepad, save as knoppix.bat in c:\KNOPPIX, its all one line.

loadlin.exe vmlinuz lang=en init=/etc/init initrd=miniroot.gz quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix

(6) In WIN95 or 98, make a shortcut for knoppix.bat on your desktop. You can't run a batch file in real-mode DOS with WINME, you have to run knoppix.bat from the rescue disk in console mode....

(7) Click on this shortcut and viola KNOPPIX boots faster from your hdd than from your CD, and it still autodetects everything and resides in the ramdisk.

BTW, one side effect is that you cannot mount your hdd as its busy reading from KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX just as the CD used to be tied up.

Also, if you do not want to rawrite the boot floppy or burn the CD, you can mount the ISO and IMG to extract the files KNOPPIX, vmlinuz and miniroot.gz (but you need a Linux box for this already - which came first the penguin or the egg???).

[A. Jorge Garcia]

>>
--BTW, there is a way to enable DOS in winME; you just have to google for it. It involves downloading some replacement files, YMMV. (This is why I'm still running 98SE. MS gets more evil every rev...)
<<

"Yes, most evil it is," says Yoda.

>>
--Those running Win9x are advised to shutdown into MSDOS mode before booting Knoppix, otherwise you are probably in for a Scandisk when you run Win again - due to the HD "dirty bit" left on from an un-clean shutdown.
<<

I used to do this in a WIN95 lab with Slackware Linux BigSlack without a problem. The way around it is to right click your batch icon (which is a shortcut to the batch file I copy to the desktop) and set something in advanced features. I don't have a WIN95 box around right now, but its something about running in DOS mode.

Regards,

[katolo]

I followed this guide.... and added this line in Boot.ini:

f:\knoppix\knoppix.bat="Knoppix"

when i reboot and I want to start knoppix I get an error which says that the harddrive ain't ready... or something like that.... anyway to fix this?

I'm using Win XP.. all my partitions are NTFS execept for F:\ which is FAT32

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Like I said, I would only try this on FAT32 with DOS RealMode.

Regards,

[katolo]

I made an Win ME bootdisk and started it with that..... And want just to say it's crap..... dosen't get any faster because it's on the HD.... ahhh... back to old CD ....

[garyng]

I made an Win ME bootdisk and started it with that..... And want just to say it's crap..... dosen't get any faster because it's on the HD.... ahhh... back to old CD ....

You must have a very fast CD, The difference for me is night and day(HD based vs CD based) but then mine is the cheapo 24x one.

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Once the KNOPPIX image is booting, its faster than the CD boot. Also, if you're using a boot floppy, loadlin is a lot faster to.

Works for me at least!

Regards,

[Ewen]

This post for A. Jorge Garcia or anyone who can offer a solution;

At last, after battling all day, I have managed to get Knoppix to run off the hardrive and it will run off any of these batch files:

loadlin.exe vmlinuz lang=e initrd=miniroot.gz load_ramdisk=1 init=/etc/init hdc=ide-scsi vga=791

or:

loadlin.exe vmlinuz lang=e initrd=miniroot.gz quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix

The problem being that the programme loads in German. Elsewhere in this thread someone had the same problem but no-one answered

Finally how can I get it to read my config files which are stored on another partition?

Can you help please?

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Did you use the file boot-en.img when extracting vmlinuz and miniroot.gz?

Regards,

[RockMumbles]

loadlin.exe vmlinuz lang=e initrd=miniroot.gz load_ramdisk=1 init=/etc/init hdc=ide-scsi vga=791

or:

loadlin.exe vmlinuz lang=e initrd=miniroot.gz quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix

if these are your batch files I believe the language entry should be: lang=en

HTH

rock

[bongski55]

This post for A. Jorge Garcia or anyone who can offer a solution;

At last, after battling all day, I have managed to get Knoppix to run off the hardrive and it will run off any of these batch files:

loadlin.exe vmlinuz lang=e initrd=miniroot.gz load_ramdisk=1 init=/etc/init hdc=ide-scsi vga=791

or:

loadlin.exe vmlinuz lang=e initrd=miniroot.gz quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix

The problem being that the programme loads in German. Elsewhere in this thread someone had the same problem but no-one answered

Finally how can I get it to read my config files which are stored on another partition?

Can you help please?


I also had this German GUI problem. Also I do not have boot-en.img because the ISO file I downloaded was EN.(-as in English version 3.2.)

My solution is to rearrange the batch file so that the lang=en or lang=us comes after init=/etc/init or
"loadlin.exe vmlinuz init=/etc/init lang=us vga=788 xmodule=fbdev initrd=miniroot.gz quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix"

Seems the order of the batch file is significant

note that I reduced the resolution to 800x600(vga=788)


Hope this helps

[Ewen]

RockMumbles... what a stupid error on my part! "Bugger" as they say in Australia, I'm going back to the setup and try again.

Bongski55... I am going to try your .bat file as well

I'll post back with the results.

PS: Can anyone answer my question about getting the programme to read 'myconfig' files saved on a different partition?

Thanks to all for the replies.

[bongski55]

PS: Can anyone answer my question about getting the programme to read 'myconfig' files saved on a different partition?



I can access my files by clicking on the icons(shortcut) of the partitions on the desktop(hda0,hda1,hda2,hda3-I have 4 partitions). The contents are displayed by konqueror. Config files are opened by kwrite.

I am not sure what you really mean by "on a different partition".

[Ewen]

Bongski55 and RockMumbles... thanks for the batch files... they both work famously.


I am not sure what you really mean by "on a different partition".

Ok... my post was badly worded. I have on my system hda1, hdb1, hdb5, and hdb6.

When I make changes to the Knoppix sytem I go to the Knoppix entry in the Start menu and I sellect Configure/Save Configuration. This gives me the options of what I want saved and the nect requester gives me 'where' I want to save it.

I always save to 'hdb6'. When I start Knoppix from the CD at the boot prompt I type 'knoppix myconfig=scan' and when it boots it finds all the settings and I'm ready to go.

I now have Knoppix saved to my HD and by using the knoppix.bat file (also gleaned from this site) I would like to be able to access the same configuration so that when I boot into the HD version everything will be as I set it up in the saved configuration.

[bongski55]

I think what you want is to be able to display the boot prompt. Perhaps a modified batch file can do this.Have not tried this and I am not sure it would work because of the loadlin.exe. I think loadlin is programmed to go through the boot process without going thru the boot prompt?

Any comments?

[ivansaez]

just FAT32

Has anyone managed to boot a KNOPPIX image in a NTFS filesystem from a floppy disk using the NTFS drivers http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/?