ISO boot from FAT/NTFS/USB (GRUB.exe, grldr from boot.ini)

**ruymbeke** · 03-02-2006, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by bandoba

...The thing I noticed is the path to the iso file is BOOT/knoppix.402 and not boot/knoppix.402 as mentioned in menu.lst...

I would actually recommend to have a matching case for the pathname. (rename the xp BOOT directory to boot)
If that would fix it, I may have to improve the linuxrc script...
Thanks,Gilles

**Harry Kuhman** · 03-02-2006, 10:35 AM

Originally Posted by ruymbeke

If that would fix it, I may have to improve the linuxrc script...

I don't know if that is the problem or not, but why change the script? Linux by nature is case sensitive. There is no point in hiding that. BOOT and boot should be different under Linux; making a script that couldn't tell the difference or worse would use the wrong one would not be considered a fix by many people.

**bandoba** · 03-02-2006, 05:06 PM

Originally Posted by ruymbeke

Originally Posted by bandoba

...The thing I noticed is the path to the iso file is BOOT/knoppix.402 and not boot/knoppix.402 as mentioned in menu.lst...

I would actually recommend to have a matching case for the pathname. (rename the xp BOOT directory to boot)
If that would fix it, I may have to improve the linuxrc script...
Thanks,Gilles

Well, I tried this and it doesn't make any difference. Just to make sure we don't see people reporting such issues, I think we can change the case of the BOOT folder in your grubh.zip and kno402.zip files. That way whoever uses those files and just copies over the contents will automatically have the small case for the folder names.

Now back to the problem - so the mystery is still there. Can you guys think of any basic sanity check that would confirm I am not making any mistake?

**ruymbeke** · 03-02-2006, 08:11 PM

Originally Posted by Harry Kuhman

...making a script that couldn't tell the difference or worse would use the wrong one would not be considered a fix by many people.

My goal is not to hide a problem but to help the user to improve or fix a wrong setup:
as I have done it with the autosearch for alternate device with the same filename path for the iso
I would/will make it work AND with a red comment at boot time, I will urge the user
to update the kernel command line with the correct (suggested) kernel cheatcode.

Originally Posted by bandoba

...Now back to the problem - so the mystery is still there. Can you guys think of any basic sanity check that would confirm I am not making any mistake?

Could you please copy (not move) the iso file in the ntfs root, modify the menu.lst accordingly and try again ?
Thanks,
Gilles

**Harry Kuhman** · 03-02-2006, 08:22 PM

Originally Posted by ruymbeke

My goal is not to hide a problem but to help the user to improve or fix a wrong setup:
as I have done it with the autosearch for alternate device with the same filename path for the iso
I would/will make it work AND with a red comment at boot time, I will urge the user
to update the kernel command line with the correct (suggested) kernel cheatcode.

I'm glad that you are not planning on hiding the "problem". I wonder if it is wise to even make it work, but that's more of a personal choice. I would likely try to detect the case problem and if I saw it I would just tell that user that the expected directory or file is not present but warn them that you have found one that looks like the intended name but the case is wrong and let them correct it.

**ICPUG** · 03-03-2006, 01:43 AM

Bandoba

Thanks for your kind words about my summary.

Looking at your menu.lst file - there does not seem to be much wrong with it. My equivalent has an additional cheat code (dma), but I don't see why that is necessary. If Gilles latest suggestion does not work I suggest another two possibilities. Please bear in mind that I have no great knowledge of the inner workings of Knoppix. I am just pushing out ideas in the hope that one might work.

First, make the name of the ISO simpler - say knoppix.iso. I have a vague memory of someone writing here on the forum that it helped.

The second suggestion is a bit more drastic and shouldn't be necessary, because Gilles gets things working on the same machine that you have. Nevertheless, it may be worth a go. Instead of trying to get the ISO to work why not try with the cloop file that results when the ISO is burned to a CD. Instead of having the ISO file on the hard drive put the cloop file, which is called KNOPPIX, in its place. The stub required for menu.lst to call the cloop file will be something like:

title Knoppix 4.0.2 from NTFS sda1 cloop scan
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/knoppix.402/linux ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init nomce lang=us vga=791 noprompt apm=power-off fromhd=/dev/sda1 knoppix_dir=/boot/knoppix.402 knoppix_name=KNOPPIX
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/knoppix.402/minirt_usb4.gz
boot

The equivalent for my system works for me on my laptop.

Perhaps the sanity check you are asking for is a copy of Gilles menu.lst that works on his Thinkpad.

ICPUG

**bandoba** · 03-03-2006, 02:20 AM

ICPUG, thanks for the suggestions. I tried all the things you said and also tried copying iso file to root of NTFS. In all those cases, I got same error.

I then tried cloop file as you suggested and it worked!. There were some problems though like after booting the desktop background was different than normal which I see when I boot using ISO. But other than that it just seems to work like normal. Can you please explain what is this cloop file or may be point me to a page that already explains it?

Anyways, for now I have got it working and it runs amazingly fast on T43. Though not a must, I would still like to know why it didn't work for me using iso file.

Now the 2nd question

See once you answer people just demand more and more stuff. Can you guys take a look at this thread http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=23327. This is about a problem of not able to see hard disk partitions on one of my old machines. I would really appreciate any help on that issue.

Thanks once again. This is just great stuff.

**ICPUG** · 03-07-2006, 02:31 AM

Bandoba,

Glad to hear you finally got Knoppix to work from your hard drive with the cloop file.

The cloop file is basically the Knoppix system. The ISO is a disk image, but if you look at the disk it creates it is basically the cloop file, the isolinux boot system to start the cloop file and incidental files, such as various text and html help files.

It does not really matter whether you put the ISO or the cloop file on the hard drive. Obviously the ISO is more convenient because you do not have to burn any CDs. Also, it used to be the only thing that would work on some systems - those with Windows NT for instance. Quite why it does not work for you is a bit of a mystery. Not knowing how the bootfrom cheat code works, it is a bit hard to understand why it should work on some systems and not others. You are just as likely to find the next version of Knoppix will work with the ISO! Its annoying, but I have come to expect this now and as long as a solution can be found I live with it. I think the cloop file might provide a slightly faster system though. I did some tests on my Pentium 350MHz desktop with the time to load the Open Office wordprocessor and it was definitely advantageous to use the cloop file rather than the ISO.

If you want some more details of the technical side of cloop files have a look at the wikipedia entry for cloop at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloop.

I had a look at your other problem and I have made some comment on the other thread.

ICPUG

**bandoba** · 03-14-2006, 11:56 PM

Thanks ICPUG. Sorry for the late reply. Somehow I never received a notification that there was a new message on this thread. I will check the CLOOP file info and also your comments on other thread.

**ruymbeke** · 03-16-2006, 11:31 AM

Hello,
For who may still be interested in ISO boot, please find below the links to the boot ramdisks (minirt.gz) files
required to boot Knoppix 5.0 & Accelerated Knoppix 4.02 from the ISO cd/dvd file image on the hdd:
http://s94002264.onlinehome.us/grub/minirt_usb5.gz ===> for Knoppix 5.0
http://s94002264.onlinehome.us/grub/minirt_acc.gz ===> for Accelerated Knoppix 4.0.2
Cheers,
Gilles

PS: it looks like that I still have a bug with Knoppix 5.0 (No welcome voice & I cannot open a terminal...)