Poor Man's Install Not Working in version 7-26 version

**bongski55** · 08-04-2003, 07:31 PM

Error is "cannot find file system" and reverting to very limited shell.
I wonder if it's only me?

**baldyeti** · 08-05-2003, 07:15 AM

works for me...

**bongski55** · 08-05-2003, 12:01 PM

Originally Posted by baldyeti

works for me...

Lucky you! May I ask how it is installed? Is it in a vfat partition or a linux partition? Mine is in a windows(vfat) partition which worked up until version 0606.

**baldyeti** · 08-05-2003, 04:50 PM

One thing: do you boot from diskette? Don't forget the July releases have the
newer kernel, so you'll need to upgrade your boot diskette, or the kernel image
that loadlinux launches (that's how I work)

My installation uses /dev/hda1 fat32

I routinely download new ISO's and just extract the big compressed image
to C:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX. Has worked for 5 or 6 releases so far.
I really enjoy such simple upgrades to the latest and greatest.
Combined with persistent home and configs, this is amazingly smooth.
If only the same kind of setup was safe with NTFS, it would allow many
people to try linux alongside WinXP....
Oh well, that'll come in time. Knoppix as it is is already a godsend!

Let us know whether the kernel bump was the issue.

**Dave_Bechtel** · 08-06-2003, 01:54 AM

> If only the same kind of setup was safe with NTFS, it would allow many people to try linux alongside WinXP....

--If only M$ didn't force such a godawful, incompatible filesystem to be the default... :P I recently helped a friend reinstall XP for a client and we switched her from NTFS to FAT32 - and it sped up the system! Also, now we can do linux-based backups and restores on her system.

Originally Posted by baldyeti

One thing: do you boot from diskette? Don't forget the July releases have the
newer kernel, so you'll need to upgrade your boot diskette, or the kernel image
that loadlinux launches (that's how I work)

My installation uses /dev/hda1 fat32

I routinely download new ISO's and just extract the big compressed image
to C:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX. Has worked for 5 or 6 releases so far.
I really enjoy such simple upgrades to the latest and greatest.
Combined with persistent home and configs, this is amazingly smooth.
If only the same kind of setup was safe with NTFS, it would allow many
people to try linux alongside WinXP....
Oh well, that'll come in time. Knoppix as it is is already a godsend!

Let us know whether the kernel bump was the issue.

**garyng** · 08-06-2003, 02:10 AM

linux does support NTFS(at least read and overwritten), just that the driver choosen in KNOPPIX(1.x) doesn't like cloop(at least the last time I check). If the newer 2.x NTFS driver is included, there is no problem putting the large clooped image on NTFS partition, I have been doing it since March and never burnt a KNOPPIX CD since then.

**bongski55** · 08-06-2003, 05:24 AM

Originally Posted by baldyeti

One thing: do you boot from diskette? Don't forget the July releases have the
newer kernel, so you'll need to upgrade your boot diskette, or the kernel image
that loadlinux launches (that's how I work)

My installation uses /dev/hda1 fat32

I routinely download new ISO's and just extract the big compressed image
to C:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX. Has worked for 5 or 6 releases so far.
I really enjoy such simple upgrades to the latest and greatest.
Combined with persistent home and configs, this is amazingly smooth.
If only the same kind of setup was safe with NTFS, it would allow many
people to try linux alongside WinXP....
Oh well, that'll come in time. Knoppix as it is is already a godsend!

Let us know whether the kernel bump was the issue.

I do not boot from diskette. I just copy the miniroot and the vmlinuz,together with the compressed file using winrar. I have been doing this since I 'discovered knoppix last april.Seldom burnt a cd everytime a new release comes out . I also use my poor man's install to install into hard disk.
Since I got this error I had to burn the latest to a cd but when I boot it I got this problem with my hard disk partitions not detected during boot up.
Luckily I still got a copy of the 0606 version so that is what I am using now both for hd install and the poor man's.
Incidentally the latest Morphix(0.4) also won't boot on my home pc but boots and runs okay on my office pc.
Common factor to morphix and latest knoppix is the 2.4.21 kernel. I believe all this problems are kernel related or hardware related or both.

**j.drake** · 08-06-2003, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by garyng

linux does support NTFS(at least read and overwritten), just that the driver choosen in KNOPPIX(1.x) doesn't like cloop(at least the last time I check). If the newer 2.x NTFS driver is included, there is no problem putting the large clooped image on NTFS partition, I have been doing it since March and never burnt a KNOPPIX CD since then.

Let me make sure I understand. NTFS is a non-issue with the newest versions of Knoppix??? If so, that's great news for me. I am very new to Linux, and one of the things that has made me rather nervous to fully implement Knoppix (or any other distro) is my reluctance to re-format or re-partition an NTFS drive that works reliably for me in WinXP, simply for the fun of learning about Linux. I don't know how many times I've read of the problems of Linux interfacing with an NTFS drive, particularly if that's where the MBR is.

For example, the following quotes from "Computer First Aid Using Knoppix" by Shock and Sullivan (don't have the link handy, but I linked from somewhere on the Knoppix site):

"3.6: Another Hard Drive or Partition

To recover data onto a hard disk, you will need to have either another hard drive or hard drive partition. The hard drive will need to be installed before starting Knoppix. NTFS (Windows 2000 or XP) formatted drives or partitions will not work. "

or

"C: Making a drive writable

You can not make an NTFS formatted drive writable (sometimes used for Windows NT, 2000, XP). "

or

"E: Saving Configuration

Saving configuration requires a floppy disk or a non-NTFS formatted drive."

Another site, IIRC, said something along the lines of "don't even think of saving to an NTFS disk."

Am I reading too much into your statement? Can I disregard the NTFS issue once and for all (since I am using the 7-26-03 release), or am I failing to grasp some important qualifications and limitations? Note that I have read data off of an NTFS drive, but I have not tried to save to one, nor have I been successful in getting Knoppix to recognize my main NTFS drive - at least not yet.

Oh, and Bongski, I apologize for the hijack, but I really wanted to clarify garyng's statement within its context.

**garyng** · 08-06-2003, 04:34 PM

I haven't downloaded the latest KNOPPIX so I don't know. I use a previous version of KNOPPIX but compiled my own kernel which I incorporate a new NTFS driver which I have no problem putting the big clooped KNOPPIX file on an NTFS partition(this cannot be done with the KNOPPIX kernel on the CD).

As for writing to NTFS partition, the new driver is quite stable in 'overwritten' but not freely write to NTFS partition. What it means is that I can say create a large file in window and then create a file system using the loopback driver on it, this is how KNOPPIX handle persistent home.

As for the MBR, I have it solved too(so long we are talking about NT/W2K/XP). I have patched an utility for GRUB which can be run under WIN32. What it means is that I don't have to touch any of the partition/MBR but can still install a copy of GRUB on a NTFS or FAT partition under Window and chain boot into it using the NT boot loader.

In this way, I can dual boot happily between various flavour of linux(all from GRUB) or XP without repartition my HD in anyway. I hate repartitioning which is why I went to such length to make sure KNOPPIX run happily on a M$ poisoned system(like the whole HD is formatted for NTFS).

**A. Jorge Garcia** · 08-06-2003, 05:32 PM

All:
Say it ain't so! I was going to do a poor man's install with the latest greatest KNOPPIX ISO this Sept when my new lab is installed....

Oh, you can druel now: 25 Pentium IV 2.4 Ghz, 778MB RAM, 120 GB HDD, I don't know the rest yet (sound, video, etc.) - but thank God I don't have to deal with those 2 labs anymore I had last year!!!

bong:
Well, the only time I've gotten an error like this in the past was because I had a bad copy of the KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX file or bad CD media or bad HDD media or an incomplete copy to the HDD (is your HDD full? is it too small?).

I have poor man installed all V3.1 releases of KNOPPIX and all V3.2 releases of KNOPPIX up to 2003.0606 without a problem. The only reason I've encountered these errors in the past is due to the fact that when I upgrade to a new release, I'm copying KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX to 50 PCs for my students' 2 computer science labs (so I do this alot) and I do so with very old (sometimes unreliable) hardware!

Also, you say that you've been able to poor man install MORPHIX too? I've never had success with that, how did you do it? Pray, tell, do!

j.drake: RED ALERT, CAUTION, BEWARE...
As to NTFS, I think that garyng's post spoke of updating the Linux NTFS drivers from the 1.x version that KNOPPIX uses to the newer 2.x driver. I imagine that means on a full hdinstall or a remaster, not the poor man's install. Right?

All:
BTW, the old script for a full Debian Linux install to a Linux partition was knx-hdinstall. Which directory was that in again?

Also, there's a newer script, right? What's it called, where do I find it and how do I use it??? If the poor man install won't work with the latest KNOPPIX ISO, I may have to break down and actually do a hdinstall.

TIA,