Installing Scilab to HD when running CD

1) A simple downloadable as per current set up would be nice;

2) The newbie part: I recently tried to run Knoppix on my HP Omni 600. All went well. Then I thought I would download and install (on the HDD in the /home/knoppix directory) the Scilab package. I tried installing both the rpm and the tar.gz with no luck. In each case the laptop seemed to simply "lock up". So :

a) was what I was trying to do make sense? I have been through what I think were the pertinent parts of the FAQ and it isn't quite clear to me what I can do with the HDD; and

b) assuming I'm not out to lunch with a), what might be causing the problem? Are there logs created somewhere during a crash?

Again, if I'm off topic here just point me to the proper resource. TIA.

m