Newbie question about HD install - Don't laugh

I've been using Knoppix for some time now and I absolutely love it. Now I plan to install it onto my HD. I'll tell you my plan and you tell me if it's good.

Here is my plan:

I have an unpartitioned NTFS HD running windows xp. I plan to make a 1-2GB FAT32 partition (Using partition manager?) and install knoppix on that partition.

Now, here's the thing,

how do I proceed after I made the partition?

And how do I make a dual boot between xp and knoppix?

Also, I will be able to write to the FAT32 partition with Knoppix correct?

Is this a bad plan?

You don't have to answer all the questions.

Thanks,

You might want to make your partition for linux 5Gigs. To install, boot Knoppix cd like usual and once it's loaded hit ctrl+Alt+F1. At the promp type knx-hdinstall or knoppix-installer for knoppix version 3.3 and just follow the walk through By answering some question.

Do I have to partition the HD myself before doing the knx-hdinstall

Is it ok if I don't have a floppy drive?

How do I dual boot to linux and xp?

I haven't attempted (yet) to install Knoppix on my HD but I've installed Linux before (particularly Red Hat Linux).

I am no Linux expert but if you choose to do a HD install on your FAT32 partition, it won't be a FAT32 partition anymore after the install...

Perhaps you should just resize/shrink the NTFS partition (using qtparted on the Knoppix CD) and then install Knoppix on the unpartitioned space...

This post http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4174 makes dual booting seem like a breeze... you should check it out...

I successfully created a ext2 partition and started installing.

But during copying from cd, it gives millions of errrors like "error -3 uncompressing block" and like "input/output" error. Is it my CD? But I run knoppix from this cd without any problems.

Help.

Thanks

Hi iamanewbie,

this could be a bad CD. Did you check the md5 bofore you burned it? Maybe this failure is on a pice of code you don't use from CD; but if you install, _every_ byte is touched. I had this error too on a CD from a friend.

Ciao Martin

P.S.: Please don't post twice for one Problem.

Ok i'm reburning the CD.

Another question I have is that one post on hdinstall says you have to be careful with the bootloader step of the linux install, what exactly do I have to be careful with? I want to be able to select linux and xp to boot whenever I start.

i have succesfuly installed knoppix like 8 times now the is how i did it

NOTE it is a good idea to make a windows boot disk befor you do this just incase ([ http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;314079 )

1) boot to windows XP or whatever and partition your harddrive (using something like partition magic) make a partition the size you what and a swap partition (i have a 5 GB linux ext2 partition and a 256 MB swap partition)

2) boot to the knoppix cd

3) bring up the knoppix root shell

4) type this command
sudo knx-hdinstall

5) answer the questions in the prompts then when you get to the part where it asks about formatting partitions you should be able to xout of it with no problems

6) answer more questions and install files

7) next you need to creat a boot floopy when it prompts you ( i would recomend it even if you are goin to use lilo

8) reboot and it should work

THanks for the suggestion. But I don't have a floppy drive and also I did the knx-hdinstall.

I wanted to use Grub loader so I said "No" to the linux's default loading. SO now it says installation complete, but I can only boot to windows xp (there's no load menu). What can I do with Grub under XP that would allow me to have a menu of linux and XP whenever I start my comp.?

Thanks,

hummm
if you boot to the knoppix cd you can modify files on the your linux partition so i would imagin you could install it that away. however i have never dealt with grub so i dont know much about it. just an idea to get u started.

cheers