knoppix 7.4.2 persistence

[rspiteri]

Your way to use a own cheatcode and test for it within a modified init (of minirt.gz) is a simple and nice solution.

Thanks for the feedback Werner P. Schulz, I appreciate...

@rajibando, perhaps you did not understand me well then. let me explain better...

1. I boot knoppix from my pendrive on every machine and NOT from the client's machine. That would not make sense since I need 4GB on disk on every machine then.
2. However I do not want to store all the different clients' modifications (keyboard settings, wifi settings etc) on my pendrive.
3. Therefore I create a knoppix-data.img file on each client's machine.
4. Finally I specify overlay=/dev/sda1 (where sda1 refers to the partition where the overlay file (knoppix-data.img) is found. (overlay is the new boot parameter I configured init to look for)
5. That's it. Like this, if I need to save few settings or make minor modifications for the future, I just create a 500MB overlay file and save all changes there.
6. If I do not want to save any settings or modifications on the client's machine, I just omit the overlay boot parameter and knoppix will boot normally in "read only" mode. My edited minirt.gz does not search for an img file on the client's machine unless the boot parameter is specified.

The solution you proposed also works but is very expensive in terms of the client's disk space.

[Werner P. Schulz]

1. I have knoppix on my usb to fix PCs ...
2. I do not always use the same PC and/or laptops since clients vary ..
..
4. .. if I could have a knoppix-data.img on every user's hard drive partition ..
.. Then once I boot knoppix from my usb, ..
.. looking for the img file and if found, it is used as the overlay file.

The solution does exactly what the OP wanted.

[rspiteri]

Indeed! If rspiteri's client is using Win7 with separated boot and system partitions, his client won't even realise the knoppix-data.img has been planted in the /dev/sda1 since the boot partition won't be shown in the Windows Explorer. Cheeky, cheeky...

well said superman

[macjoubert]

well said superman

I just registered to say THANK YOU - I was having the same problem and your steps really helped me.
The other guys suggestion was actually even more cumbersome than yours.

[rajibando]

... his client won't even realise the knoppix-data.img ...

Is it? Oh, then I am not aware of this, because I exclusively use Linux, and Wine, occasionally.
I use several versions of linux, and my MBR directs to Syslinux.
I can use both pen drive isolated (physically removing internal HDD), rename my HDD KNOPPIX KNOPPIX000 and boot from pendrive or boot from HDD with/without pendrive.
In my BIOS even with pen drive first, and HDD later in boot seq, Knoppix prefers the HDD version first I stand corrected, and I am sorry for the error. But I know I haven't confused you and rspiteri because you two are avid readers as well as programmers.
I will definitely need your help in future! I would very much wish that you'd remember the Social Contract.
And I would accept Mr. Schulz's opinion as final without dispute. I greatly respect and admire him as a benevolent person.
Very well, then. Let us focus elesewhere then

[szzsqing1]

Hallo rspiteri!

Sorry for my words, but I really do not understand your logic. You spent many time and did a lot of work for a bad solution.
Why I say this? For this:

You wrote: "Sometimes I need to install software specific to a certain situation. Example I install a program that I need to use in one place and not in another. So it is useless having all the programs I need in one overlay file."

OK, maybe you need some different software to install for different computers. But this must not be too much amount of data because Knoppix already has almost all software we may need. Yes, sometimes we need some specific software but anyway the size for these software together could not be very much. In the worst case 10 GB would be enough even if you install very big programs. Nowadays the USB sticks are very cheap: a 16 GB size USB stick is not expensive at all. And this size would be enough for Knoppix itself and a 10 GB persistence partition (also on USB stick). (But even if you need more space you can use an external HDD...) So, you could have all your software and configuration on one stick (always in your pocket) and do not need to bother with and touch client devices...
It is not a lot of simpler and more logic?

And that software and things on the overlay are not "heavy" (if a USB stick is full of stuffs still function as good as an empty one ) and "useless" anyway, even is you do not need them all, always. Think just about Knoppix: almost 10000 programs, and of course we need only a little part of them one time. But nobody thinks that the other part is useless and Knoppix should be splitted because contains "useless" software. Which today and here is "useless", maybe tomorrow and there will not be.

On the other hand, a big part of your img files' data is common to each one, since when using persistence a lot of data will be saved only because the config files had changed. This means that if you use 3 img files (A,B,C) instead of only 1 img file (D) (and D contains all the software that the three files contain separately), the amount of those 3 img files will be much more than the size of D. A + B + C > D So, using only 1 file is not only more effective but it is also more economic.

And you wrote: "it would be nice if I could have a knoppix-data.img on every user's hard drive partition with settings, data and software specific to the user/machine"

For a lot of settings you do not need img file, persistence. You can use cheatcodes for language, keyboard, timezone. Wifi data (names, passwords) are stored in little files, the amount of size for this is negligible. Linux is not like Windows, here you do not need specific software, drivers for different hardware. Particularly, Knoppix supports almost every hardware, so of course you do not need to install anything for this. Also Knoppix executes automatic hardware detection and system configuration at start, you do not need to save any hardware-specific setting. Linux is not Windows, and Knoppix is not an installed system but a live one with autoconfiguration...