hard drive partition required to run knoppix w/o live-cd?

[scruffyeagle]

this i am especially confused on

But if you like a 100% linux system. you will have to make changes on your hard disk. You can use qtparted to resize and create new partitions. It is very easy to do it.

i don't mind a little change on my hard disk as long as it's a matter of a simple partition, leaving windows intact, and nothing more.. which is why i am looking at a dual boot loader, but that's seeming like a bit more than i can chew at the moment..

is a dual boot loader necessary if you have windows and knoppix both installed to the hard drive? or does it just make switching between the two easier? how easy is it to switch with/without a dual boot loader, or is it even possible without one?

thanks for reading

Hi, ishiam!

I'll try to answer a few questions here. Please bear with me, if I get some of it wrong - I'm a newbie too, working on learning.

1) Knoppix off CD runs by decompressing the file as it functions; i.e., it seeks what it needs as it needs it, via decompressing on-the-spot. A full HD installation of Linux from the Knoppix installer installs a Debian Linux which lacks the Knoppix hardware search utilities during its boot-up. Being a true Debian system, it requires its own partitions to function. In order to live on the same HD w/ Windows, and have both OS's still available would definitely REQUIRE use of a dual-boot loader like LILO or GRUB. Installing a Debian system would wipe out the MBR, so there are things you need to do to prepare beforehand, making backup copies of the Windows boot-up stuff. I can't help you with exactly what though, because I've been working on learning via my backup computer - and, dedicated it to only Linux; i.e., I haven't had to deal with it.

2) You can do an installation which copies the Knoppix image off CD onto the HD, and runs it from the HD as if from CD. There's even a way to do it without use of a boot-loader. (I've read this in other posts, although I don't fully understand it.) Basically, it would work via starting up Windows and then running Knoppix from within Windows. What it would do after that, I really can't describe; i.e., I can't describe what I don't fully understand.

So, when you read someone talking about a "100%" Linux, or a "Debian install", the difference is really issues re. hardware detection during boot-up.

QPARTED is a Linux program that's available from within the desktop environment. I don't know if it's available from command line interface, but I suspect not. It's found via the "K" menu. One of the items on the "K" menu has QPARTED listed on its pop-out submenu.

Yes, you would need to use some other program for repartitioning your hard drive. Use of QPARTED would end up invalidating the HD recordkeeping that Windows does, and Windows would almost certainly crash thereafter. If you use something like Partition Magic, I do know that you need to properly defragment your HD first - gotta move all the files out of the area you intend to remove from the clutches of Windows. Making a new partition wipes out any data which had been sitting there before the partition was made; i.e., writing the new partition's structure over-writes any previous magnetic marks in that physical space on the drive.

Hope this helped!

Scruffy