Automatic $HOME on USB drive?

[ggravier]

Knoppix is fantastic. I love it. One thing I would find even better is if, at boot time, it found a USB drive with a certain directory inside (say : /home ) then it could automatically mount that in place of the standard user's $HOME directory. That way, I could carry Knoppix CD and my USB$HOME with me and have all my working environment, data files included, fitting in my pocket!

[silvestrij]

I haven't personally had a chance to play with this, but this should be pretty much what you're looking for:
http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/PersistentHomeHowTo

I definitely need to free up a little extra space on my USB key :).

[lunat1k]

I've just figured this one out. You can create a "Persistent Home" for knoppix on a USB flash drive/key.

-The USB Key should be in when Knoppix is booted to be sure it is recognized
*"lsusb" is a useful command to see what's recognized

-It will be accessible via /dev/sda if it is one big partition, or /dev/sda1 if the drive is partitioned (example; Format is /dev/sdLN where L is a different letter per device and N is per partition on that device)

-via the KDE Gui:
K button -> KNOPPIX -> Configure -> Create a persistent KNOPPIX home directory

-Don't try to format the key, it is already formatted in fat or fat32.

-Knoppix creates a "knoppix.img" file for the amount of space you specified, which it uses as a virtual home drive.

You can now boot knoppix with the home=scan arg to use it.

Caveats:
-The persistent home tool likes to access partitions, so you may want to partition your USB key into 2 or more partitions using the vendor supplied utility, even if one is only 1MB and the other is the rest of the space.

-KDE places icons for recognized storage devices on the desktop, it gets confused when there are no partitions (in my exp. at least) and shows you all 4 possible partitions, although none are really accessible

-You may have to try manually mouting the possible devices and then using "df -k" to find the size/numbering of your partitions:
example: mount -t vfat /dev/sda /mnt/mountpointyoucreated
example: mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/mountpointyoucreated
example: mount -t vfat /dev/sda2 /mnt/mountpointyoucreated

[arkaine23]

Once you create a persistent home on a usb pen, all you need is the home=scan cheatcode.

I have set this cheatcode in the default boot options of my remaster. I also set the default resolution to 1024x768. So I can just boot normally, and if a persistent home is on a usb pen or on the hard drive, it will find it and use it without any input on my part.

[Hasse]

How about making home=scan and myconf=scan default option at boot time? It will take a few sec extra to boot, but makes life simpler for newbies.

[arkaine23]

Sorry, I should have elaborated... The default boot options on my remaster are currently home=scan myconf=scan screen=1024x768

I've also adjusted the knoppix-autoconfig script to no longer propmt a user to retry or abort detection of a persistent home using aes256 encryption for when a persistent home is not found. Also, a vncserver runs at startup (becuase I often run my remaster on boxes without cases, hard drives, monitors, et al. So I can sit on my mian box and then vnc to an overclockix box by its IP.

You'll be prompted to enter a vnc password during the boot sequence.

[calbee]

but how to make home=scan and screen=1024x768 default operation without cheat code? :?: