Bootable USB PXE Server
Reply With QuoteHello har31n6er, welcome to the Knoppix forums.
Can we do a quick sanity check here .....
... you've Knoppix but you haven't told us which ...
... you've installed it to USB using some fancy bit of Windows software from the Pendrive site rather than do it the Knoppix way ...
... you're not using a Knoppix persistent store because you had a bad experience with Ubuntu ...
... you're doing the terminal server stuff that, well, might well be classed as a minority sport ...
... you want to save your configuration for later use so you don't have to set every thing up manually ...
... that is you want your configuration to persist but without using persistent storage ...
... you're trying to figure out what has changed without using the neat features of the unionfs that make this dead easy ,,,
... you've got lost ...
You've done very well but the prize for the post that is least likely to get a reply still goes to the fella who posted http://www.knoppix.net/forum/threads...ti-Echos-P100D.
The trick with helping people on support forums (or support in general) is to put yourself in the other guy's boots and see it from his point of view. This is made all the more difficult when the person asking for help has gone off piste somewhere you've never been before.
You my friend took a left when you got off the lift and are skiing down the wrong side of the mountain.
Unable to understand where you are coming from, someone may, in desperation tell you what little they do know in the hope that it may help:
Not very helpful, I know. The best I can do is:I don't know what colour a PXE is but I learnt last week on this forum that a Leprechaun is a green gnome.
A valid point but, again, not very helpful.I know what you mean. I had a falling out with Ubuntu once. I don't remember the specifics either as it was a long time ago when I knew a lot less than I do know. Anyway, I got over it. Perhaps you should do the same.
The helpful point I am trying to make is that if you were to start again and try to do things the Knoppix way then folks on this forum might feel they understand your questions enough to try to answer them.
So you ready ?
Go to the Knoppix site (http://www.knoppix.net), not the Pendrive site, to get your Knoppix. I've nothing against Pendrive. I've used it myself. The installer you've used is bang up to date. Two months ago the Pendrive site's Knoppix pages carried age warnings as they were 3 or 4 years out of date.
Download the CD (iso file). I recommend using bit-torrent. Burn a CD (I know, its a pain but the bootiso= cheat code has been withdrawn). Use the Knoppix install to USB, which you will find under LXDE Main Menu > Preferences > Install KNOPPIX to flash disk.
Boot the USB stick. The first time around it will ask you if you want to create a persistent store. Create one. If, when you've got everything working, you still don't trust it, then would the time to get rid of it.
Once the desktop has come up, before you try to do any terminal server stuff, open a terminal console. Type in df -h. You'll get something like this:
The first entry (/mnt-system) is the file system you booted from (probably /dev/sdb1). The third entry (/KNOPPIX) is the 'read-only' Knoppix system you are running from. The next entry (/KNOPPIX-DATA) is where any files go that you (or Knoppix) add or change as you configure your terminal server. The entry after that is the UNIONFS that superposes KNOPPIX-DATA over KNOPPIX so you get the illusion of one large read/write file system.Code:knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/sdb3 6.9G 4.1G 2.5G 63% /mnt-system tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /ramdisk /dev/loop0 3.6G 3.6G 0 100% /KNOPPIX /dev/loop1 1008M 329M 680M 33% /KNOPPIX-DATA unionfs 1008M 329M 680M 33% /UNIONFS unionfs 1008M 329M 680M 33% /home tmpfs 10M 56K 10M 1% /UNIONFS/var/run tmpfs 10M 0 10M 0% /UNIONFS/var/lock tmpfs 100M 52K 100M 1% /UNIONFS/var/log tmpfs 2.0G 20K 2.0G 1% /tmp udev 20M 444K 20M 3% /dev tmpfs 2.0G 4.0K 2.0G 1% /dev/shm
So, no need for the find command. Just look at what's under /KNOPPIX-DATA.
If you have a look now, before you try configuring your terminal server you'll find that Knoppix has already changed some files under there. All the system configuration files are under /etc. You can ignore changes under /var (which change all the time anyway) and /home.
You'll find some files changed already under /etc. That's because Knoppix works around the world. If you were Hungarian, you would type:
in at the initial boot prompt. The lang=hu is what knoppix calls a cheat code. Knoppix would use this to set the keyboard (and a few other things) up the way a Hungarian would expect them. That's why files in /etc/default, /etc/sysconfig and a few others are changed and changed every time you boot knoppix. These are not relevant to your terminal sever configuration.Code:knoppix lang=hu
BTW, if you are tempted to try lang=uk as your cheat code (your use of the awful word awesome suggests not), make sure you also use the cheat code xkeyboard=gb.
Now, if you created a persistent store, then the file /mnt-system/KNOPPIX/knoppix-data.img is the backing store for /KNOPPIX-DATA. If you don't create a persistent store, then the backing store for /KNOPPIX-DATA is /ramdisk, the second entry above and you loose your configuration when you reboot. Try using the persistent store and if that doesn't work, come back with another question. If you, however, want to pass your eyes over the discussion in the thread http://www.knoppix.net/forum/threads...update*.tar.gz.
On your list of directories is /etc/network, but I notice that the file /etc/resolv.conf isn't. I'm beginning to stray into areas that I don't know so well, and I'll be burnt at the stack in cyber space for suggesting this, but the Network Manger may not be your friend. You find /etc/network/interface is basically empty. Any interface defined in there will not be touched by the Network Manager but the Network Manager will handle any interface that is not defined in there. You'll also find that /etc/resolv.conf is generated by the NetworkManger and not directly by your DHCP client. I seem to remember a PXE server is also the DHCP server for PXE clients so you may need greater control here.
The final scary bit is udev. This is a Linux thing, so don't go blaming Ubuntu or Knoppix but this may be what shafted you all those years ago.
When you plug in a USB stick, it is udev that configures it. When you boot a machine, it is also udev that configures the disk and the CD drive and the network. card It is udev that ensures that, if you have two CD drives, one is always /dev/cdrom0 and the other is always /dev/cdrom1 rather than tossing a coin as to which is which.
Same goes for network cards. You've got one, it will be eth0. Plug in a second, it will be eth1. Remove the first and the second will still be eth1. The same would have if instead of swapping network cards you move your Linux to another machine. I know, I did this. I screwed up the file system on one desktop so I simply copied the file system from the hard drive of another machine, Everything worked fine except the network - I had to run dhclient by hand for months before I figured out what was wrong. You plugging Ubuntu on a USB into different machine is very much the same thing. Nothing was corrupt. It just that udev moves in mysterious ways.
I've checked my (Debian, from which Knoppix is derived) desktop. The udev files in question are named 70-persistent-cd.rules and 70-persistent-net.rules. If checked my Knoppix. There are no such files so you should be OK. Knoppix Live is designed to be portable. Ubuntu Live is designed to demo Ubuntu before you install to hard drive. There is a world of difference.
Accepted. Remember KISS: Knoppix Is Simply Superb.Originally Posted by har31n6er
You go "Wow, how did he do that" and you can actually go and look and then change it the way you want it.
