hd install:difference between "knoppix-mode" &

[violinist]

hallo all
I've read that the new version's installer has two options: "knoppix-mode"
system and "debian-mode" system, and understood that "knoppix-mode"
does some hardware detection on every boot.

does someone know more details about the difference ?

thanks a lot

[ndrake]

From what I understand "knoppix-mode" basically acts just like you booted from the CD. "debian-mode" is a full debian testing/unstable distribution.

I've only done a "debian-mode" install, so I'm not 100% sure about "knoppix-mode".

[EdlinUser]

I've been running knoppix-mode on a PII 450 (384 M RAM) for 3 months. Every morning when I boot up I thank Klaus Knopper.

I used Partition Commander to create 4 FAT32 partitions:
8 G for Win98
2 G for the CD files, next version CD files and misc.
500 M for the swap file.
9 G for my /home.
Booted Win98, downloaded Knoppix, burned it to a CD with Nero, Copied the files on the CD to 2 G partition. Rebooted and set BIOS to boot from CD, booted into Knoppix, clicked K=>KNOPPIX=>Root Shell (I love this!) and put a floppy in and entered:
dd if=/mnt/cdrom/KNOPPIX/boot.img of=/dev/fd0
The rare time I need Win98 I take the floppy out. I enter:
knoppix home=/dev/hda4 at the boot: prompt tho this may no longer be necessary with 9-24.
I clicked K=>KNOPPIX=>Configure and created the swap file.
I clicked K=>KNOPPIX=>Configure and created /home.
When I upgrade Knoppix I copy the CD files to the 2 G partition and create a new start up diskette.
Upgrading doesn't get any easier. And that persistent /home can be copied to USB 'thumb' drive and easily moved to another computer.
I love surfing with a smug attitude, Root me! ;-)
Thank you, Klaus Knopper.

[violinist]

hallo all
two more questions:

are the files still compressed when copied to HD as knoppix-mode ?
can you use apt-get for installing programs from the debian tree ?

thanks

[EdlinUser]

hallo all
two more questions:

are the files still compressed when copied to HD as knoppix-mode ?
can you use apt-get for installing programs from the debian tree ?

thanks

1. Yes, frees your CD player, great security online.
2. No, but you can with debian-mode. I use knoppix-mode and haven't tried debian-mode but many people (Joe Barr for one.) say that it is the easiest Debian install.

[3133]

EdlinUser,

Are you sure that the filesystem is still compressed when transferred to HD using Knoppix-mode?
My system shows that it takes up over 2Gb of the HD.

[Eavy]

The installer itself sums it up best:


A Knoppix system will work exactly as from CD, but tools like apt-get do work. Debian-Type however is a full featured debian system and works like the 'old installer'.

The Knoppix-type install simply uncompresses the compressed image onto your harddisk without any modifications. The only difference to the live CD's compressed filesystem is that now it's writeable. That's why you can use apt-get and other programs which require write-access to work properly.

The Debian-type install also modifies the extracted files to turn the system into a normal Debian GNU/Linux installation. It removes the single-user-autologin and shutdown-on-logout, among other things like auto-configuration, so it's a true Debian system.

Hope that helps...