Forester
01-29-2011, 03:30 PM
Hi, I am running Knoppix 6.4.3 installed to USB as a guest OS in VirtualBox on Windows 7. Knoppix itself runs fine but I can't get the persistent data bit working. I've tried a several approaches over the last week but each has hit a road block and I am beginning to wonder if I am trying to do Something Entirely Unreasonable.
Confirmation of this or suggestions to the contrary would be much appreciated.
I have a collection of Knoppix CDs going back over 5-6 years. I have used them mainly as rescue disks but also as demos to sceptics unable to believe that Linux could run on their PC. A while back I had a USB stick with a 2 Kb sector size (I could not boot it into Linux at all) on which I put a Knoppix 6.0.1 ISO image and qemu-0.9.1-windows. I was able to demonstrate Knoppix running under Windows XP and I have a knoppix.img file that I think proves the persistent data bit was working.
Two years later I have just met Windows 7 and my first thought was Help ! Where's my Knoppix ?. I know as much about Windows and most PC users do about Linux so I guess I'm not a PC.
I have a 16 GB USB stick with two partitions: a 8 GB vfat and an 8 GB ext3 partition. I have installed Knoppix on the vfat partition from the Live CD using the menu option provided. I also have a copy of the Live CD ISO file on the vfat partition. The USB installation boots fine on several PCs and the persistent data bit appears to work. I can boot the USB installation at work but it would be more than my job's worth. So ...
Plan A: Create a VirtualBox VM with the USB stick as a 'rawdisk' and boot the USB installation. It boots, asks about creating a persistent data image but fails to create one, continues to boot. Knoppix is fine. It seems the boot can't create the persistent data image because the 'rawdisk' is read-only. I have found something on a VirtualBox site claiming this is a Windows thing that came in with Vista. Vista, apparently, included lots of measures to stop Windows users self-harming.
I found that the 'rawdisk' is read-only only when it is the boot device.
So ... Plan B: Create a VirtualBox VM with a CD device pointing to the ISO file on the USB stick and boot Knoppix from the ISO file instead of the 'rawdisk'. The idea was to tell the boot to put the persistent image on the 'rawdisk' (aka my USB stick). It seems that when the boot detects a boot from CD, it does not offer you the option to create a persistent image. This behaviour appears to be 'new' but I can't find any documentation that says clearly you can or you can't use a persistent image with Knoppix 6.4.3 booted from CD.
I've looked at the Knoppix cheat codes that come with 6.4.3 with the idea that I might be able to tell Knoppix to use a persistent data image and where to find it. The only cheat code that looks like it might be relevant is home= but I have been unable to get that to work. What is the home cheat code supposed to do ?
I've have tried to install to USB from within the guest Knoppix (this would give a persistent data image inside a virtual disk, which is not ideal). I've tried with the virtual disk formatted with and without (super-floppy) partition table. In both cases syslinux was unhappy and the install aborted.
I've tried my old Knoppix 6.0.1 with qemu-0.9.1-windows but the latter is rather old and Windows 7 really does not like it. I don' t see any reason why using qemu instead of VirtualBox would help anyway.
So ... unless someone out there has any other suggestions, it seems the options left are to revert to an older version of Knoppix where I can use persistent data with a boot from ISO image or to give up on the portability and just install Debian as guest OS. :(
Confirmation of this or suggestions to the contrary would be much appreciated.
I have a collection of Knoppix CDs going back over 5-6 years. I have used them mainly as rescue disks but also as demos to sceptics unable to believe that Linux could run on their PC. A while back I had a USB stick with a 2 Kb sector size (I could not boot it into Linux at all) on which I put a Knoppix 6.0.1 ISO image and qemu-0.9.1-windows. I was able to demonstrate Knoppix running under Windows XP and I have a knoppix.img file that I think proves the persistent data bit was working.
Two years later I have just met Windows 7 and my first thought was Help ! Where's my Knoppix ?. I know as much about Windows and most PC users do about Linux so I guess I'm not a PC.
I have a 16 GB USB stick with two partitions: a 8 GB vfat and an 8 GB ext3 partition. I have installed Knoppix on the vfat partition from the Live CD using the menu option provided. I also have a copy of the Live CD ISO file on the vfat partition. The USB installation boots fine on several PCs and the persistent data bit appears to work. I can boot the USB installation at work but it would be more than my job's worth. So ...
Plan A: Create a VirtualBox VM with the USB stick as a 'rawdisk' and boot the USB installation. It boots, asks about creating a persistent data image but fails to create one, continues to boot. Knoppix is fine. It seems the boot can't create the persistent data image because the 'rawdisk' is read-only. I have found something on a VirtualBox site claiming this is a Windows thing that came in with Vista. Vista, apparently, included lots of measures to stop Windows users self-harming.
I found that the 'rawdisk' is read-only only when it is the boot device.
So ... Plan B: Create a VirtualBox VM with a CD device pointing to the ISO file on the USB stick and boot Knoppix from the ISO file instead of the 'rawdisk'. The idea was to tell the boot to put the persistent image on the 'rawdisk' (aka my USB stick). It seems that when the boot detects a boot from CD, it does not offer you the option to create a persistent image. This behaviour appears to be 'new' but I can't find any documentation that says clearly you can or you can't use a persistent image with Knoppix 6.4.3 booted from CD.
I've looked at the Knoppix cheat codes that come with 6.4.3 with the idea that I might be able to tell Knoppix to use a persistent data image and where to find it. The only cheat code that looks like it might be relevant is home= but I have been unable to get that to work. What is the home cheat code supposed to do ?
I've have tried to install to USB from within the guest Knoppix (this would give a persistent data image inside a virtual disk, which is not ideal). I've tried with the virtual disk formatted with and without (super-floppy) partition table. In both cases syslinux was unhappy and the install aborted.
I've tried my old Knoppix 6.0.1 with qemu-0.9.1-windows but the latter is rather old and Windows 7 really does not like it. I don' t see any reason why using qemu instead of VirtualBox would help anyway.
So ... unless someone out there has any other suggestions, it seems the options left are to revert to an older version of Knoppix where I can use persistent data with a boot from ISO image or to give up on the portability and just install Debian as guest OS. :(