Shouldn't dpkg work in Knoppix?

[ahfoo]

I've been using dpkg in Morphix for awhile and I assumed it worked in Knoppix as well, but when I try to install I get this error:

unable to access dpkg status area: Read-only file system.

Naturally, it's true that the file system is read-only and I'd assume this is normal behavior for a CD based distro except for the fact that I've been using dpkg on Morphix for months now and never seen this problem.
I checked the archives, but I didn't see this specific issue covered. Do I need to change some configs, or is it true that I can't use dpkg on a CD-based filesystem in Knoppix?

[Henk Poley]

Hehe, you have been spoiled by Morphix. Knoppix doesn't do all these tricks to put the package database in RAM.

[ahfoo]

Arrrgh!
Don't tell me that. This is terrible. I was going along fine using Morphix to host some static content web sites and then I decided to try out PostNuke DB driven web site. That needed MySQL and PHP, so I switched from Morphix to Knoppix.
So, everything's great. I got my new PostNuke site all setup and all that was left was to get my virtual hosting updater going. One little package away.
Tell me it isn't so!

[aay]

Henk is correct. dpkg works fine after a hdinstall but not from the cd. Morphix uses tranlucency (http://sourceforge.net/projects/translucency/) to enable it to do this. Knoppix does not have this. I think I heard discussion once about the possibility of it being added but so far it hasn't been. Apart from that you can look into remastering a cd if it's absolutely necessary that you do all this from a live cd. There's a good howto on remasting in the Docs section.

[Fabianx]

Arrrgh!
Don't tell me that. This is terrible. I was going along fine using Morphix to host some static content web sites and then I decided to try out PostNuke DB driven web site. That needed MySQL and PHP, so I switched from Morphix to Knoppix.
So, everything's great. I got my new PostNuke site all setup and all that was left was to get my virtual hosting updater going. One little package away.
Tell me it isn't so!

It is so, but you don't have to give up ...

If it is really just one package, it should be possible to just extract the package in your homedir ...

mkdir ~/dist
dpkg -x "packagename.deb" ~/dist
~/dist/usr/bin/myprogramm.sh opr similar ...

If you tell me the program, I or Kano (goto freenode.net,#knoppix) can get it in 70 - 90 % of the choices to work :-)

cu

Fabian