Can't get knoppix home=/dev/hdb4 to work

**thirdrock68** · 10-23-2005, 08:44 AM

Hello,

I was using 3.9 and I created a knoppix image on partition /dev/hdb4

I tried booting with the following
knoppix home=/dev/hdb4
knoppix home=/mnt/hdb4
knoppix home=/dev/hdb4/knoppix.img
knoppix home=/mnt/hdb4/knoppix.img
knoppix myconf=/mnt/hdb4
knoppix myconf=/mnt/mdb4/knoppix.img

And none of them used my image. Later I learned this was a bug in 3.9 so I downloaded a 4.0.2 iso, burned and booted, and then tried this
knoppix home=/dev/hdb4

with no success.

So before I reboot my machine 10 times trying the various combinations trying to get this to work, does anyone have any suggestions what I should do now before proceeding with the machine-gun approach.

Kind regards,
Ian Thompson

**rwcitek** · 10-25-2005, 08:00 AM

Hello and welcome to Knoppix.net.

We hope that you enjoy your use of Knoppix and hope you become an active member of the community. There's no membership fee. We just ask that you help us and others by becoming familiar with Knoppix, posting questions, and letting the rest of us know how things go. Also, I noticed that you joined recently and so was wondering if you wouldn't mind answering a few questions.

1. - How did you hear about Knoppix?
2. - How did you discover Knoppix.net?
3. - What other versions of Knoppix have you tried?
4. - What type of system are you running Knoppix on?
5. - What operating system is currently installed on that system?
6. - How long have you been using computers, or how familiar are you with computers?
7. - Have you used linux before? If so, how long?
8. - What do you hope to do with Knoppix or Linux?
9. - Are you familiar with a wiki? If so, have you used a wiki before, e.g wrote some content?

Originally Posted by thirdrock68

Does anyone have any suggestions what I should do now before proceeding with the machine-gun approach

What type of filesystem is on /dev/hdb4? I ask because only certain filesystems will be accepted for a persistent disk image (PDI). For example, if /dev/hdb4 is ext2 you won't be able to use a PDI. However, if you convert the ext2 to an ext3, you can. To convert, use this command:

Code:

tune2fs -O has_journal /dev/hdb4

Specifically, the filesystem on /dev/hdb4 must be one of the following: vfat, msdos, ntfs, ext3, reiserfs, xfs. I suspect that there is a bug in line 1059 of the /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig script, since it's rather odd specifying ext3 twice and omitting ext2:

Code:

    ext3|ext3|reiserfs|xfs) MOUNTOPTS="$MOUNTOPTS,noatime" ;;

Good luck and please do post back.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

**thirdrock68** · 10-25-2005, 08:26 AM

1. - How did you hear about Knoppix?
Various places. Slashdot, colleague at work.

2. - How did you discover Knoppix.net?
Searching for an answer to my question above with Google.

3. - What other versions of Knoppix have you tried?
3.9

4. - What type of system are you running Knoppix on?
AMD Athlon 2.4, 512G RAM, Radeon 9250 AGP, Soundblaster PCI

5. - What operating system is currently installed on that system?
Windows98 + WindowsNT

6. - How long have you been using computers, or how familiar are you with computers?
25 years. Fairly familiar.

7. - Have you used linux before? If so, how long?
Yes, many times. I use it until I meet an unresolvable issue, such as printing on my Lexmark Laser Printer (RedHat)

8. - What do you hope to do with Knoppix or Linux?
I want to run a server that cannot have the OS corrupt, that boots up fast, and shape shifts to accomodate new hardware. I want to run OpenVPN, VNC servers for numerous reasons. And I want to become familiar with the OS of the future (I believe).

9. - Are you familiar with a wiki? If so, have you used a wiki before, e.g wrote some content?
I am familiar with wikipedia. I have added a comment to a wikipedia article.

>>What type of filesystem is on /dev/hdb4?
It's ext2. Thanks for your suggestion, I will convert it to ext3

I'm keen to try reiserfs, but hear varying reports on it. What do you think? Give it a go?

**thirdrock68** · 10-25-2005, 10:34 AM

That should be 512Meg RAM, not 512G. I wish!

**rwcitek** · 10-25-2005, 03:36 PM

Originally Posted by thirdrock68

I'm keen to try reiserfs, but hear varying reports on it. What do you think? Give it a go?

I have used reiserfs, but prefer ext3. Not because ext3 is better that reiserfs, but because I'm more familiar with the tools. For example, I know of tools to read ext2/3 from within MS Windows. I don't know if such tools exist in reiserfs. They may, I just haven't had a reason to explore that possibility.

I have not heard anything bad about reiserfs. So, if you want to explore, I'd say go for it.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

**thirdrock68** · 10-27-2005, 01:32 AM

Having converted hdb4 to ext3, I tried the following boot settings
knoppix home=/dev/hdb4 (failed)
knoppix home=/mnt/hdb4 (failed)
knoppix home=/mnt/hdb4/knoppix.img (worked)

However, it now requires confirmation to use the image when it boots up.

Is there any way to force this? It means that I can't have an unattended start-up.

**rwcitek** · 10-27-2005, 01:55 AM

Glad to hear that it's working, sort of.

Originally Posted by thirdrock68

However, it now requires confirmation to use the image when it boots up.
Is there any way to force this? It means that I can't have an unattended start-up.

Not that I know of. I haven't had the chance to look at the code. But the place to start is knoppix-image. I'm hoping for an option to mount the image without question.

This brings up the question, is there a place where users can submit code changes, i.e. patches?

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org