Propblem: Poor Mans Install and persitent home on same parti

[Ingo]

Hi all,

I am using Knoppix 3.4 for a few weeks now. It works fine.
Now I tried a HD install (Poor Man Install) using the cheatcode tohd=/dev/hda5. hda5 is FAT32 formatted.
Rebooting from CD using fromhd=/dev/hda5 works fine. And I can also save my configurations on hda5 with the KNOPPIX tool.
But now I am trying to create a persistent home with the KNOPPIX tool and I end up with a error message "hda5 already mounted as /cdrom".

Now my question:
How can I store all my KNOPPIX stuff on *one* partition? This means the /KNOPPIX folder, the configuration files and the persistent home, so that I can boot from the CD using:
knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda5 home=/dev/hda5 myconfig=/dev/hda5

Regards
Ingo

[outanet]

as far as i am aware, a poormans install will render the partition it is sitting in as read only. In my experience, you may be able to save a config or a persistant home, but will not be able to update it.
try saving your home or config to either another partition or a zip drive or usb dongle or drive.

can anyone else confirm this?

[mzilikazi]

I've heard other people say that it isn't possible but it IS! or at least I have no problems keeping the KNOPPIX compressed file and a persistent home on the same partition however I use reiserfs not FAT32. Is there some reason you use FAT32? Here's my /boot/grub/menu.lst entry:

title BH09-KDE-STATIC /dev/hda7
kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us vga=791 nomce alsa xmodule=fbdev home=/dev/hda7 myconf=/dev/hda7 hdb=scsi
initrd (hd0,6)/boot/miniroot.gz

This is from Kanotix but it shouldn't make any difference.

[outanet]

well,, yes there is a reason, due to everybody else using a Micro$oft OS, there are many times where i have to share files between os's.
Does this mean that i could have a PMI and a Home on a single 1G reiserfs partition

[mzilikazi]

well,, yes there is a reason, due to everybody else using a Micro$oft OS, there are many times where i have to share files between os's.

I am enlightened. Perhaps another FAT32 partition could be shared by your OS's for file sharing only.

Does this mean that i could have a PMI and a Home on a single 1G reiserfs partition

Well that's what I have and it works w/ no problems.

[outanet]

Perhaps another FAT32 partition could be shared by your OS's for file sharing only.

well in this case, its another physical drive as i have boxes of drives less than 2gig which are perfectly ok, apart from being rather less endowed than the 300G/26head/2 squillion cylinder ones you can now get.
(pauses, then realises its geek humour.)

eventually I hope to use them in a cluster or minios /server setup

Ill play with this now,
but do you know which fs' work, or is it only vfat which doesnt?

[mzilikazi]

Well ext2 works, never tried ext3 and reiser4 is only experimental for any use so I have never tried it either. Also keep in mind that I use GRUB from MBR not the Knoppix cd to boot my so-called 'poormans' install. Not sure if that matters in the least.

[j.drake]

I've heard other people say that it isn't possible but it IS! or at least I have no problems keeping the KNOPPIX compressed file and a persistent home on the same partition.

I concur. I did that for a long time before someone told me I couldn't. I think the key is that you have to set up the PH in that partition while running the OS from CD. Once you do that, you can reboot with the knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda5 home=/dev/hda5 myconfig=/dev/hda5 boot line you desire.

That having been said, there were times when the PH definition would spontaneously "disappear" for reasons I cannot begin to explain (data was still in the partition, but not recognized as in my "home", and Klik-installed programs no longer worked). It didn't happen too often, but when it did I had to re-create the PH, erasing my old PH data in the process. YMMV. After it happened 4-5 times, I recognized that there was little value in having a linux installation that was less stable than WinME, so I partitioned and saved my PH elsewhere (also, I had been contemplating a hd install at the time, so I figured I might as well partition, but once I did, it worked reliably, so I blew off the HD install as unnecessary).

jd

[probono]

Hi all,

I am using an ext3 filesystem where I store both my poor man's and my data. The only trick is to have a knoppix.sh that calls

mount /cdrom -o remount,rw

Interestingly /cdrom is the poor man's boot device (while the real CD drive is /mnt/cdrom).

This is all one needs to know!

Greetings,
probono

[outanet]

many thanks for all the interested replys.

ok well after playing, I now have my K3.4PMI and PH on a 1.5G ext2 partition (sda1) as well as 30G fat32(sda2) and 350mb swap(sda3).

after boot i run my lil shell script which replaces httpd.conf(setting root as desktop/www and putting index.php as default), asks for passwd, and starts ssh, ftp, http, mysql and smb for web construction.

its working well so far, and I suppose I have the possibillity to save the knoppix.sh home file elsewhere incase it goes missing.

a little question thou, what config does the myconfig actually save, im guessing network which i dont need as it changes wherever i go , but what is in there which is not in the PH?