Saving state in Knoppix 6.4

[Charlie Foxtrot]

I've found several postings on how to do this, but they seem to only apply to older versions of Knoppix. How do I save my liveCD settings to thumbdrive with 6.4.4?

-Charlie

[Forester]

The short answer is you can't. If you look there are plenty of posts complaining about this.

The slightly longer answer is you are supposed to have a USB stick (thumbdrive) big enough to install Knoppix onto and have space left over for persistent storage. For the CD edition a 2 Gb thumb drive should do but for the DVD edition you'd need an 8 Gb thumb drive.

To install Knoppix onto USB go to the Main Menu > Preferences > Install KNOPPIX to flash disk. The first time you boot the USB installation you will be asked if you want persistent and how much.

If you really can't to this there are non-trivial ways around it.

[Charlie Foxtrot]

Thanks, but this old Dell 8200 isn't going to boot off a thumb drive.

Charlie

[Forester]

Thanks, but this old Dell 8200 isn't going to boot off a thumb drive.

That certainly qualifies as one of the special cases.

Here's the first workaround.

- install to USB
- reboot with both the CD and the USB 'plugged' in
- when the first (the vitruvian) penguin appears with the boot: prompt at the bottom enter ...

knoppix fromhd=/dev/sdb1

and the Knoppix image on the USB should be boot (instead of the image on the CD) and you should be asked if you want to create a persistent store.

If this works you will have to repeat the process each time you boot, which seems a bit naff I know, but avoiding having to type in the cheatcode is a little more involved.

If this doesn't work you may need to use a different letter than b with the cheatcode. I'm assuming you've only one harddrive that will be /dev/sda and only one thumb drive that will be /dev/sdb (the CD will /dev/sr0 I expect).


Hope this helps.

[knoppkicks]

No Forester,



This,
[QUOTE]knoppix fromhd=/dev/sdb1Is not working for the knoppix CD installed to my 2 gig usb flash drive.

Knoppix loads just fine off this 2 gig flash drive., but it fails to prompt me to create space for customization and there is no program to do this once Knoppix is loaded.

I really don't understand why this has to be so complicated and there isn't a "persistent image" creator program like the old knoppix 5.3.1

My problem seems to be that I had a failed opportunity for the remaining 1.2 gig to get formatted while loading this thumb drive for this first time, but it was taking too long and so I stopped midway because it was taking way too much time to format all that space.

This is getting way too complicated.

All I can think of doing is re-installing knoppix on the thumb drive all over again.

[Werner P. Schulz]

... with kn-bootcd you can create a CD which only start Isolinux. The init-script of Isolinux seeks for the next available compressed KNOPPIX and (if exist) knoppix-data.img.

If your USB-stick has no knoppix-data.img and there is enough free space, you will be prompted to create a persistent memory.

My problem seems to be that I had a failed opportunity for the remaining 1.2 gig to get formatted while loading this thumb drive for this first time, but it was taking too long and so I stopped midway because it was taking way too much time to format all that space.

Delete the corrupted, not formatted knoppix-data.img. Next time be patient!

Greetings Werner * http://www.wp-schulz.de/knoppix/summary.html
Own Rescue-CD with Knoppix (Knoppix V6.4.4 remaster)

[knoppkicks]

I took your advice and was patient allowing the the "install knoppix to flash drive" available in the LXDE menu of knoppix 6.4.3 CD version to run.

I managed to install correctly and save persistent preferences (a.k.a. "Saving State in Knoppix), but I think I should list some things that are very important:


1. It's probably better to completely wipe usb stick of all data with something other than simply the formatting feature in: The "install knoppix to flash drive" feature (available in the LXDE menu of knoppix 6.4.3 CD) which in my opinion is insufficient.

It seems this process is not accurately showing a completion dialogue box (a meter showing whether or not it's complete) and it tends to run in the background. I let the installation run and didn't touch my computer at least an hour after it started.

[knoppkicks]

Knoppix 6.4.3

I took your advice and was patient, but not without being very observant of important issues that need to be resolved:

- It seems the LXDE STARTMENU --->Preferences----> "install KNOPPIX to flash disk" selection needs improvement.

1. It does not adequetely format my usb flash drive. It had to be wiped completely using something like gparted or something else, and then formated.

2. It does not have a good completion dialogue box and seems to run in the background without reporting whether or not the knoppix installation is complete. I discovered this by assuming it was finished when there were no more dialogue boxes, but failing to boot the usb. Versus leaving my computer alone for a few hours after the installation started.

3. When finally booting from USB, the dialogue box prompting the user to type the memory allocated for "saving STATE" dissappears WAY TOO FAST, and once this is selected, this option never appears again when booting. How does one adjust the space or replace it altogether if the selected size is unsatisfactory? I imagine this would be frustrating to some people.

[Werner P. Schulz]

... all tested with CD 6.4.4: after start of "install KNOPPIX to flash disk" and your [Ok] the USB-Stick will be (quick-)formatted within 1 second. Writing data to stick needs time of ca 4-5 minutes; you'll see the progress in "%". After that you get for about 4 seconds the message, to unplug the stick and the window of flash-install disappears. That's all!

After booting with the stick and if there is no persistent memory, you get the prompt for creating it. You have time of 8 seconds to write size of memory. You'll get this message each time you boot the stick untill you create a persistent memory (or using cheatcode "noimage").

If you decide to create persistent memory, formatting needs a long time!!

Greetings Werner * http://www.wp-schulz.de/knoppix/summary.html
Own Rescue-CD with Knoppix (Knoppix V6.4.4 remaster)