Saving config in 3.2

Printable View

03-23-2003, 03:09 AM
boehmb

Saving config in 3.2

I just downloaded Knoppix 3.2. It looks great and hase many more features over 3.1, but I can't seem to retrieve my config files after a save. I saved them to the floppy, but when booting, Knoppix can't find them. I've tried "knoppix myconfig=scan" and "knoppix myconfig=/mnt/auto/floppy" as it says to use after a config save to floppy. I also tried many other cheats to no avail. Also, Open Office is in German, even though I downloaded an "en" iso and use the lang=us startup cheat. Should I copy the files on the CD to the hard drive, along with the config files in the same directory, as I did with 3.1?
03-23-2003, 04:37 AM
audioaficionado

I don't know how you can save you're configs to a floppy. My config file is way over 1.44Mb. Try saving it to your HD or maybe a usb flash mem card. I cheat coded everything I needed at first and then saved my ~9Mb config file to my HD. Everytime I boot in, I only have to enter "knoppix myconfig=scan' and it includes all the other cheat codes as they're part of my configs. That includes browser bookmarks, wheelmouse, XFree86, skins for Mozilla, app customization files, etc. It all comes back except my wall paper. That's because knoppix won't auto mount the HD partitions so KDE can't fetch the wallpaper. But KDE still has the location mapped so you just manually load it after bootup through the desktop configuration menu.
03-23-2003, 05:56 AM
digsy

How can I save my config file to HD?
When I go to Start Applications > KNOPPIX > Configure > Save KNOPPIX Configuration, it doesn't list my HD.
It only lists my floppy.
03-23-2003, 09:51 AM
audioaficionado

Are any of your HD partitions showing on your desktop as icons? If not, then knoppix didn't detect your HD on boot.

If so, then mount the partition you want to save the config file on and try again. I get to choose any of my paritions including the floppy.

I'm using the very first released CeBIT rip which is the German (DE) version. Which one are you using and which mirror did you get it from?
03-23-2003, 02:26 PM
boehmb

saving config

Audioaficianado: I have my hard drive partitions listed in Knoppix (2 FAT32 physical drives, boot drive has Win98SE on it). I wish to run Knoppix 3.2 as I did 3.1, that is, off the hard drive as if it were the CD. Are you saying that if I copied the Knoppix CD to the hard drive and use a boot disk, as before, and save my config to the same partition, that with the "myconfig=scan" cheatcode, 3.2 will start with all my config info intact? I hope so. I cannot do a dual-boot thing on this computer and want to run knoppix as if it were on the CD... Thanks for your help.
03-23-2003, 04:13 PM
Jester^

I'm new to Knoppix and I'm trying to save my settings. Yesterday, after loading the 3.2a EN disk, I configured my wireless card, etc and did the saveconfig routine without difficulty (I thought).

Today, at the boot: prompt, I type 'knoppix lang=en myconfig=scan' and it starts to boot, however it stops during boot with:

Code:

Checking /mnt/ for KNOPPIX configuration files... Filesystem not autodetected, trying to mount /dev/ with AES256 encryption /dev/: Is a directory Mount failed, retry? [Y/n]

Hitting Y gives the same error, no shuts down.

The next time I tried the 'knoppix lang=en myconfig=/mnt/auto/floppy' but this yields:

Code:

Checking /mnt/auto/floppy for KNOPPIX configuration files... Filesystem not autodetected, trying to mount /dev/auto with AES256 encryption /dev/auto: No such file or directory Mount failed, retry? [Y/n]

Booting without the myconfig works fine. The floppy is mounted and contains boot, configs.tgz, dev, etc, knoppix.sh, lost+found, vmlinuz

What am I doing wrong?

Also, the system automatically mounts /dev/hda1 on /mnt/hda1. How would I go about using that space to save my config files? There is apparently no man entry for saveconfig and 'saveconfig [-? | --help] simply runs saveconfig.

Thank you

Edit addendum:

I remembered that the save location came up after the whatcha-wanna-backup screen, however only /mnt/floppy is shown there. Again /dev/hda1 is mounted by the system at boot. That'd be the ideal place for the config.
03-23-2003, 05:07 PM
audioaficionado

Re: saving config

Quote:

Originally Posted by boehmb

Audioaficianado: I have my hard drive partitions listed in Knoppix (2 FAT32 physical drives, boot drive has Win98SE on it). I wish to run Knoppix 3.2 as I did 3.1, that is, off the hard drive as if it were the CD. Are you saying that if I copied the Knoppix CD to the hard drive and use a boot disk, as before, and save my config to the same partition, that with the "myconfig=scan" cheatcode, 3.2 will start with all my config info intact? I hope so. I cannot do a dual-boot thing on this computer and want to run knoppix as if it were on the CD... Thanks for your help.

You want a hard drive install. I haven't tried that as I have a 'testing' debian HD install already. There's a script to initiate the HD install. Search this forum as there's a lot of how posts on the subject.
03-23-2003, 05:12 PM
boehmb

Saving config

Jester...I had the same messages and think there is a bug in the saveconfig routine. I tried every conceivable syntax to get Knoppix to read the config files to no avail. I think I'll wait until a bug-fix version is out before trying anymore...
03-23-2003, 05:24 PM
audioaficionado

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jester^

I'm new to Knoppix and I'm trying to save my settings. Yesterday, after loading the 3.2a EN disk, I configured my wireless card, etc and did the saveconfig routine without difficulty (I thought).

<snip>

Also, the system automatically mounts /dev/hda1 on /mnt/hda1. How would I go about using that space to save my config files? There is apparently no man entry for saveconfig and 'saveconfig [-? | --help] simply runs saveconfig.

Thank you

Edit addendum:

I remembered that the save location came up after the whatcha-wanna-backup screen, however only /mnt/floppy is shown there. Again /dev/hda1 is mounted by the system at boot. That'd be the ideal place for the config.

I don't think a average config file will ever fit on a floppy. Mine was easily over 9Mb. Now it's over 12Mb :lol: Try saving it to hda1. Any mounted partitions should be available when you go to K-menu/Knoppix/configure/save configs. Manually mount the hda1 first by right clicking and selecting 'mount' or just open it which also mounts it. The icon on your desktop just shows you it's been detected and entered in /etc/fstab but not mounted. If you still don't have the hda1 option button in the save config, it could be something wrong with the EN version. It works fine in the DE CeBIT rip version.
03-23-2003, 05:27 PM
Jester^

Okay, I will try manually mounting the drive first. I'm currently download 3.2b EN to see if that corrects this issue, and also the issue I'm having with Permanent Home (see other thread).

Thanks
03-23-2003, 05:34 PM
Jester^

Well, mounted the drive, read some text files off of it to ensure it was mounted. Then tried saveconfig and only /mnt/floppy shows up. I've even tried running saveconfig as root, without change.

3.2bEN just finished downloading, so I'm going to burn it and try it, although it sounds like the language thing was the only thing fixed.
03-23-2003, 05:43 PM
Jester^

Well, 3.2 doesn't fix that problem... ah well...

If anyone else figures it out, let me know.
03-23-2003, 05:51 PM
audioaficionado

Re: Saving config

Quote:

Originally Posted by boehmb

Jester...I had the same messages and think there is a bug in the saveconfig routine. I tried every conceivable syntax to get Knoppix to read the config files to no avail. I think I'll wait until a bug-fix version is out before trying anymore...

Maybe so :roll:

Try the CeBIT rip @ ftp://source.rfc822.org/pub/mirror/knoppix/

5ab8f8e1900cf20f4e667f7c17f4e976 knoppix-3.2-cebit-rip.iso

It worked great for me once I got XFree86 loaded instead of whatever default xserver gets loaded. Once I've cheat coded and configured to my heart's content, I've always been able to save the configs through the K-menu/Knoppix option. If I hose my Knoppix session, I just don't save anything and I reboot back to my last good config.

There's so many hardware and bios issues that it's impossible for Klaus to predict every thing that will happen on all the differant computers. Knoppix 3.1 12-12-2002 boots fine without any cheats for me but 3.2 won't unless I pick a differant xserver. That's why the config save feature is so great if you can get it to work. One cheat code instead of a whole string of 'em.
03-23-2003, 06:03 PM
audioaficionado

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jester^

Okay, I will try manually mounting the drive first. I'm currently download 3.2b EN to see if that corrects this issue, and also the issue I'm having with Permanent Home (see other thread).

Thanks

I think there's still a bug with PH and the save config used together. When I tried it, only PH loaded and without my saved configs. Knoppix needs to first load the configs and then mount the PH directory or lots of things get missed from the configs.

Try the CeBIT rip before you give up. It had to work as lots of people at CebIT were there to see it demonstrated. I imagine Klaus was pretty tired by the time he tweaked the EN versions.
03-23-2003, 08:58 PM
Jester^

I'm not giving up... The distro is too darn useful... Just having some technical difficulties getting things up and running. ;-)

I also noticed that with 3.2bEN OpenOffice still comes up in German. Makes things interesting.
03-23-2003, 10:41 PM
eco2geek

I'm having a problem both using my vfat partition (hda1) as a permanent home directory and saving the Knoppix config to it. When I start Knoppix with "home=/dev/hda1/knoppix.img" it gives me the same "filesystem not detected" error message as Jester^ noted. (Or should I be using "sda1" instead of "hda1"? It mentions sda1 in the cheatcodes.) I'll have to try the "home=scan" code and see if that works.

Also, there's sort of a terrifying moment in Knoppix's "save home to disk" routine where it asks you if you want it to reformat the entire partition you chose and use it as home. After you say "no" and tell it where to store its files, it still talks about formatting the partition. I'll have to write down the exact message. It might lead you to believe you just wiped out your existing partition.
03-24-2003, 12:35 AM
Jester^

Heck, I wish I could even get it to go that far with the Permanent Home feature... All mine does is show me the Usage page for the X command when I invoke it from the K menu.
03-24-2003, 01:15 AM
eco2geek

A solution

What I've found out is:

Knoppix only seems to want to load ONE thing - either swap, config, or home - from any one partition.

I already had a knoppix.swp (swap) file on hda1, which is why Knoppix would not load anything else from it. I already have a Linux swap file (hdb3), and Knoppix was already using it, so I deleted /hda1/knoppix.swp. Then I moved the Knoppix config files (knoppix.sh and configs.tbz) to hdb1, leaving only the persistent home directory (knoppix.img) on hda1.

So starting with:

knoppix home=/dev/hda1 myconfig=/dev/hdb1

works. I've yet to try the "scan" option. And it also would seem that having both config files and a persistent home directory is redundant. Maybe you only need the persistent home directory.
03-24-2003, 01:22 AM
Jester^

Well durn.. at least you can get it to save your config to a hard drive. Mine refuses to show hda1 in the saveconfig dialog.

Looking back at 3.1 though, I noticed that rather than myconfig, it used the keyword floppyconf to load the config file, so....

I fired it up, configured my wlan card, fired up saveconfig and saved it to a floppy, then rebooted and used 'knoppix floppyconf'. This time it started to work, however there is apparently some error in the wlan config file generated by the system. At least it didn't choke on /mnt/auto/floppy. I'd love to see what the error was, but it didn't end up in dmesg, and /var/log/messages is empty. Are system messages saved elsewhere?

Not sure what is going on... If everything didn't say 3.2 all over it, I'd think I had some funky 3.1 downloaded. I guess my next step is either to continue to config everything by hand each time, to get the CeBit disk, or to just wait for 3.2c or 3.3. :(

Thanks for all the input.
03-24-2003, 03:07 AM
Jester^

Alright, I give up for tonight...

I downloaded the CeBit rip, and still get the /mnt not mounted when using myconfig=scan (once I found out that the y and z keys are reversed, and that the '=' is moved).

I did make one forward step. /dev/hda1 is not listed a target because it's NTFS and as such is mount ro. I have a small 16MB USB Ram stick, but I'm not sure how to use parted to resize the dos partition on there. Wasn't sure if I could just save the config's along with the existing files.
03-24-2003, 12:05 PM
audioaficionado

KDE is all in English for me. I'll try the Open Office next time I'm in Knoppix.
03-30-2003, 12:21 PM
esku

Why are they saying it should be "knopppix myconfig=/mnt/auto/floppy"?

Simply: "knoppix myconfig=/dev/fd0" works fine with 3.2.
03-30-2003, 04:53 PM
Jester^

Not entirely sure. I'll have to give that a shot next time. Does /mnt/auto/floppy work for you?

I've not gotten any of the stated methods to work... Downloaded MDK 9.1 and put it on the laptop last night...
03-30-2003, 09:10 PM
esku

myconfig=/mnt/auto/floppy fails as does myconfig=scan
but as I said
myconfig=/dev/fd0 works ok with that CeBIT Knoppix.
03-31-2003, 12:49 AM
boehmb

saving config

"Knoppix floppyconfig" works in 3.2 just like 3.1. All my config files are on floppy now.
03-31-2003, 06:33 PM
esku

Someone, in a Finnish forum, concluded that in this respect, there are differences between 3.2-cebit, 3.2-en and 3.2-de.