flash-knoppix formatting the whole disk as FAT32 ...

[Albretch]

I installed knoppix 7.4.2 to a USB pen drive using flash-knoppix, which did format the whole (128Gb!) USB pen drive to FAT32, then the pen drive stopped working as a bootable device when I tried to set up other ntfs and ext4 partitions using gparted. I did go back and remove the other partitions and the pen drive worked fine again.
I have a laptop without a CD/DVD drive which hdd has a partition on which I "tohd" knoppix. I need to boot using a USB pen drive and then go "fromhd" so that I am able to take the pen drive out, but I still need to use my pen drive to install and save my own stuff, in case I need to.
Why does flash-knoppix need to format the whole drive as FAT32 instead of just using a previously formatted FAT32 partition with enough space?
Why is it that using gparted to resize partitions messes with the bootable pen drive?
Any suggestions?
lbrtchx
knoppix.net: flash-knoppix formatting the whole disk as FAT32 ...

[utu]

.
Knoppix 7.4 expects to see a first partition which is initially formatted to fat32 and large enough
to handle a ~4 Gb KNOPPIX file plus space for persistence either in the remainder of the initial
fat32 partition or in a reiserfs partition which Knoppix will create within the remainder of the
original first partition.

I think it is correct to say that Knoppix will not go outside the initial partition to do its thing.
By the same token, if it sees only one partition, it may at least offer to format the whole thing
for persistence and not leave anything for further partitioning.

[utu]

.
Knoppix 7.4 expects to see a first partition which is initially formatted to fat32 and large enough
to handle a ~4 Gb KNOPPIX file plus space for persistence either in the remainder of the initial
fat32 partition or in a reiserfs partition which Knoppix will create within the remainder of the
original first partition.

I think it is correct to say that Knoppix will not go outside the initial partition to do its thing.
By the same token, if it sees only one partition, it may at least offer to format the whole thing
for persistence and not leave anything for further partitioning.

I think you have the chance to specifiy how much space to allot to persistence in any event.

[superman]

Hi, there:

Why does flash-knoppix need to format the whole drive as FAT32 instead of just using a previously formatted FAT32 partition with enough space?

By any chance, had the option of setting up an overlay partition been chosen while installing KNOPPIX using the flash-knoppix script? If it isn't the case, the script can install the KNOPPIX on a FAT32 partition without re-partitioning and re-formatting the entire USB flash drive. If the partition on which the KNOPPIX is going to be installed isn't the first partition of the device and isn't in the vfat format, the script just quits without touching anything.

Why is it that using gparted to resize partitions messes with the bootable pen drive?

It's way too technical for my level to understand exactly which part of the ldlinux.sys file (stage2-part1 and/or stage2-part2 as mentioned on Arch's wiki regarding syslinux) has been altered during the resizing process. Re-installing syslinux shall bring the flash drive back to bootable.

... when I tried to set up other ntfs and ext4 partitions using gparted ...

Just out of curiosity, does the NTFS partition need to been seen in the Winodws Explorer?