linux26 was something I decided to try to see if it would work.
noscsi was to avoid a segmentation fault error i got when it started some scsi detection.
even with linux26 noscsi, I still cannot use usb on 3.4

The noddc is to turn off the monitor 'detection'. if it can't properly detect the monitor, it defaults to an ugly 640x480 which displays choppily on my laptop.
the screen=800x600 is to force it to use that screen resolution as it's a 16 bit resolution, opposed to an 8 bit resolution at 1024x768

nousb turns off all usb support. sucks if you got a usb keydrive to save data to.

using the knoppix kernel (2.4.something)
all I had to do was type
knoppix nousb and the switches for my video settings.

The hard drive install is a Debian Install. If you 'install 3.3 to the hard drive' then you've got Debina installed on the hard drive.