HOWTO: Install V3.7 WITHOUT CD/FLOPPY +AUTO STARTUP WIRELESS

:D


I managed to perform the install with Knoppix V3.7 (found a CD drive and Network card swap trick on install), then apply ndiswrapper for wireless conection, then apply the commands to the boot startup scripts. I have written up my steps and the dited version is listed below:

Knoppix V3.7 Install on Sony N505X and Wireless Network Card install using NDISwrapper. Single partition system (No Windows).


Synopsise
This document details the installation of Knoppix V3.7 from CD to the Hard drive on the Sony N505X. This process is not straight forward due to the CD-ROM drive being connected via a PCMCIA connection with ATAPI interface within the Sony BIOS. Note the Sony N505X has an external USB floppy drive and external CD-ROM drive via the PCMCIA port. Using the “nopcmcia” cheat code option disables future use of the PCMCIA connections for any device. This document details the installation of the Netgear WG511T wireless PCMCIA card using the Ndiswrapper option in Knoppix and enabling the wireless connection at bootup of Knoppix V3.7. The Netgear WG511T will be connecting to a Netgear WGT624 router (v3 hardware) using DHCP to provide IP addresses.


Installation Steps
Note
Make sure all personal data has been backed up or you understand you position with the system you will be performing the steps with.
When specifying commands I have placed a “#” to specify the Linux command prompt.

Note
When performing a Linux installation (of any flavour) with an external PCMCIA device you need to provide the Linux boot option “ide2=0x180,0x386 nopcmcia”. This disables the pcmcia detection on the Linux install. One observation discovered with Knoppix is that is remembers the boot line command options after a hard drive install. So my theory of installing Knoppix onto the hard drive, removing the CD-ROM drive and placing a network card fails. Red Hat V9 does not perform the same behaviour. With Red Hat V9 I did manage to install from the CD-ROM drive and then successfully place a network card into the laptop. However I was unable to successfully enable wireless connectivity via madwifi or ndiswrapper so moved over to Knoppix. For more information of my findings with Red Hat V9 please review the Notes section at the end of this file.

After a considerable amount of time searching for a workaround with enabling pcmcia detection with Knoppix (manual changes in system files unsuccessful) I could not find a solution and reverted back to moving the Knoppix files onto a partition on the hard drive and then booting from the floppy boot disk specifying to boot from the hard drive partition. Unfortunately with a USB floppy the Knoppix boot process could not find the floppy controller and fails reading the second floppy (also tested unsuccessful with tomsrtbt www.tux.org). I had to revert back to booting with the CD-ROM drive but not specify the boot cheat codes. After testing various boot up methods I managed boot using the CD-ROM drive and get the Knoppix install to run from the hard drive partition AND perform PCMCIA detection. This is listed further down in the install steps.

1. Create partitions to perform install from hard drive and for the install partition. If you want to be through boot with a Win 98 boot disk and remove all partitions with fdisk before Knoppix boot.
a. At Knoppix boot : knoppix lang=en ide2=0x180,0x386 nopcmcia
b. Once all loaded, open terminal
c. Type # sudo qtparted

Note:
With an empty hard drive, qtparted shows /dev/hda-1, free, size of hard drive as a line. Select the option in the left window to view the line. This line is removed when you select the remainder of the hard drive for a partition.
If you were to install Knoppix single system without the difficulties of CD-ROM and PCMCIA you can create 2 partitions:
/dev/hda1, linux-swap, primary, double of RAM memory
/dev/hda2, ext3, primary, rest of hard drive (default /dev/hda-1 removed)

If you want to perform the install from a hard drive partition you need to work in reverse so you need to know the size of your hard drive and amount of RAM memory in the machine. This is because we want to place the Knoppix files on the last partition, use it for install and then delete the partition so you can resize your main partition. Remember you CANNOT resize partitions to the left. For my example the hard drive is 30Gb and I have 128Mb RAM so my linux swap will be 2 x 128Mb = 256Mb:
/dev/hda1, primary, ext3, size 28.744Gb, 0Mb – 28.744Gb
/dev/hda2, primary, linux-swap, size 256Mb, 28.744Gb – 29Gb
/dev/hda3, primary, ext3, size 1Gb, 29Gb – 30Gb

d. Commit changes. Select /dev/hda3 partition and select operations, format. If you cannot format, reboot with boot CD and try again.
e. After the format, select the commit button again. Then exit out of qtparted.

Note:
I have seen some behaviour with qtparted where after the delete operation of a partition you are not able to resize or create further partitions. The solution was to perform a reboot of the system to enable the resize and create options. Also qtparted recognises FAT32 and NTFS partitions and is a great tools to use on Windows Servers systems for troubleshooting).


2. To be through reboot system and boot again via the CD with:
: knoppix lang=en ide2=0x180,0x386 nopcmcia

3. Now to copy Knoppix files from CD.
a. Open Terminal type # sudo passwd, enter new passwd
b. Type # mount /dev/hda3 mnt
c. Launch File Manager Super User Mode in K, System, More Apps. In location box type “file:/cdrom/”
d. Launch second File Manager Super User Mode in K, System, More Apps. In location box type “file:/mnt/”. This is the 1Gb partition
e. Use the copy and paste method to copy files from “file:/cdrom/” over to “file:/mnt/”. Transfer size is about 700Mb.

4. Shut down system.

5. Boot the system using the Boot CD.

6. At the boot prompt type : Knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hda3
IMPORTANT
In order for the Knoppix system to detect PCMCIA devices and start Card Manager you need to remove the PCMCIA adapter for the CD-ROM device and insert the PCMCIA network adapter AFTER the last full stop of the message “loading minirt24…………………” and BEFORE the message “Scanning for devices”. There should be enough time for the change to happen comfortably. After the change check the message logs for pcmcia detection, that the install found the pcmcia device and Card Manager is loaded. In my particular case I inserted a 3COM PCMCIA Ethernet card to use for downloading the relevant files to install the Netgear WG511T card.

7. Once Knoppix is launched, open Terminal, type # sudo knoppix-installer

8. Select “1. Configure Installation”, beginner, Multi-User system with hardware detection (preferred way), next.

9. Select /dev/hda1 as partition to install Knoppix to. (The first partition), next

10. Enter name of person who will the system or name of System administrator.

11. Enter username for that person. Displays default for you.

12. Enter password for that person.

13. Enter password for the system administrator.

14. Enter hostname, name of machine on the network.

15. Where to install Boot Loader. If the system is single user select MBR (as in this case). If the system is multi boot with Linux and Windows select the relevant/root partition.

16. Select “Start Install”, then OK, Review the installation configuration, make changes if necessary, then select Next.

17. The install process will begin and should take about an hour of formatting and installing. As you have booted from another partition - /dev/hda3 you can continue using Knoppix applications whilst the install proceeds.

18. Enter a floppy disk into the floppy drive to create a bootable floppy. In my particular install I skipped this process as the system had no floppy drive connected.

19. You will now be taken back to the Terminal window. Reboot the system.

20. At the boot options screen select Linux. You should see three options of linux, Linux 2.4 and Linux 2.6.

21. There are two options to get the .INF and .SYS files needed by ndiswrapper.

a. Perform install in Windows off the Netgear CD provided with the WG511T. This creates a temp folder where the NETW511.INF and WG511ND5.SYS files reside. You need to copy this onto floppy, CD, memory stick onto the KNoppix system.

b. Via Internet using non-wireless network card. Confirm and if necessary setup Network settings within Knoppix, Network/Internet, Network Card Configuration. If using DHCP select Yes and the connection should be set up. If there is no DHCP provide details manually.

22. For the WG511T we need to download the NETW511.INF file (Netgear do not provide single files. I have been informed by Netgear support that if you perform the install procedure using the .EXE file the install creates a temp folder with the .INF file so you could search on the Windows system for the file. Searching on google I found a link - www.kerstenalheit.de/download. Download the file WG511SCU.ZIP. In this ZIP you will have NETW511.INF and WG511ND5.SYS. Download to a new folder, e.g “wireless” in your home directory. Do not use spaces as this could confuse ndiswrapper. Use File Manager Super User Mode to right click on the zip file and select Extract. Extract to a sub folder – WG511SCU.

Note:
TURN-OFF all encryption and protection schemes on the router. Ndiswrapper can be tempermental. The idea is to get the wireless connection working first and then to enable encryption and security. In my particular testing I had to perform a hard reset of the Netgear WGT624 router in order to get the wireless link to work in Linux. In all circumstances make a note of the router settings – SSID/ESSID, channel, DHCP enabled. In addition once initial wireless connection is enabled we will need the encryption key and MAC address of wireless card to enabled access control in the WGT624.

23. If using non-wireless network card, to be through, shut down the system, remove the non-wireless network card, insert the wireless network card, reboot.

24. There are two options to enable the .INF file using ndiswrapper:

a. Automated. Select Knoppix, Network/internet, ndiswrapper Configuration. Read the details and select OK.
i. Browse to the .INF file - /home/wireless/WG511SCU/WG511SCU/Driver/netw511.INF
ii. Receive following message:
1. Result: The ndiswrapper module has been loaded but there is no new device. Perhaps ndiswrapper is not working with your driver file.
iii. Select OK.
b. Manual. Launch Terminal as root.
Type # ndiswrapper -i /home/wireless/WG511SCU/WG511SCU/driver/netw511.inf

25. Launch Terminal as root.
NOTE:
Knoppix registered the Netgear WG511T card as ath0 for this install. For my particular testing config, the router ESSID was MAX, the channel was 11, DHCP was enabled. Before the hard reset of the router I was receiving “operation failed” message after the “pump –i ath0” command. I noted the two green lights on the card trying to communicate with the router but then would receive the message.

Type # modprobe ndiswrapper
Type # iwconfig ath0 essid MAX
Type # iwconfig ath0 channel 11
Type # ifconfig ath0 up
Type # pump -i ath0

After the pump command I received a successful wireless connection.

26. Optional. Now to enable encryption. Type # ifconfig ath0 down.

27. On router enable WEP encryption to your specification and make a note of the key 1.

28. In Knoppix Terminal window Type # iwconfig ath0 key <your key value>. Then type # ifconfig ath0 up. You should receive successful connection.

29. Optional. Now to turn on access control. On router, within wireless Advanced options add the MAC address of the Netgear WG511T wireless card and provide a name. Enable access control. Apply new settings. Note that the wireless card will lose the connection for a few seconds when the router applies the new changes and the connection should be back online.

30. On a reboot of the Knoppix system the wireless network setting commands will be lost so if you want the commands entered in the steps above to run on every boot we need to apply them to the initialisation scripts. In Linux this is not a straight forward process and it is best to read up on how Linux determines which scripts are run on the boot up process. I found a great article at http://. I have also placed the details below in Notes. The process:

a. Using File Manager Super User Mode create a text file called “wireless” in /etc/init.d
b. Open the file for editing with Kate and enter the commands into the file. In my particular test environment I entered:
Modprobe ndiswrapper
Iwconfig ath0 essid MAX
Iwconfig ath0 channel 11
Iwconfig ath0 key <your key value>
Ifconfig ath0 up
Pump –I ath0
c. Save file and exit out of Kate.
d. In terminal move to the /etc/init.d folder
e. Type # chmod 755 wireless (make the file executable)
f. Type # update-rc.d wireless defaults 19
g. You should see messages from Linux reporting the linking of the file “wireless” to all the run levels.
h. Reboot the system and note that the commands are executed at startup.

Acknowledgements:
Over the course of my research and troubleshooting some of the details provided were from google searches and I wanted to provide further links for anyone who would like to continue further research:
Great article by Guitar_Geek on Wireless installs - http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtop...light=wireless

Great article by UnderScore on boot up process –
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtop...295&highlight=

http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-customizing.en.html

http://www.knoppix.net/ (knoppix Home)

http://pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net/

http://www.digitalhermit.com/linux/K....html#BUILDING

http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/p...x.php/HomePage

http://sourceforge.net/

http://www.keithmitchell.co.uk/vaio/srx51.html (Red Hat V9 install on Sony Vaio SRX-51P/A)




NOTES
Network restart command - # /etc/init.d/network restart

The CD-ROM (CD-51) drive is found in Knoppix when booting from CD with the “ide2=0x180,0x386 nopcmia” boot option.

Steps to enable USB Floppy:
# mkdir /mnt/usbfd
# mount –t auto /dev/sda /mnt/usbfd
modify /etc/fstab and include – mount /mnt/usbfd

To make changes as super user in Knoppix:
Select File Manager in Super User Mode in K, System, More Apps

Root password after CD boot of Knoppix:
You need to apply a new password:
Open Terminal, type # sudo passwd, enter new passwd then use.