Knoppix 3.6 boot-from-floppy help.

[eco2geek]

Why not to use 2 or more floppies then? (sorry for my ignorance).

Because you'd have to somehow split the kernel binary ("linux26") up accross two floppies, then somehow put it back together in memory at boot time....which would be kind of complicated for bootloader software to do.

Fortunately, you can still run Knoppix with kernel 2.4, which is small enough to fit on a floppy. (Knoppix 3.4 uses kernel 2.4.26, and 3.6 uses kernel 2.4.27, so I'll put up boot floppies for 3.6 up on my website tonight...)

They ought to have the Knoppix 3.6/kernel 2.4 floppy images up on the Knoppix mirrors, if nothing else!

[maltrecho]

I've already got the images (for kernel 2.4) thanks to the code shah wrote and thanks to the other messages (you could upload them anyway for other users), but knoppix didn't let me make the boot disks for kernel 2.6 (even though I ran this version too) probably because of what you say.

Does this mean that in future versions of knoppix (with newer versions of the kernel) it will not be possible to boot the cd from floppies anymore?

I still think it's better this way rather than modifying Bios settings... and for example in my laptop I cannot get access to the Bios and the Cd-rom plugs via USB, so if I cannot use the floppies.... well... you know...

[eco2geek]

Does this mean that in future versions of knoppix (with newer versions of the kernel) it will not be possible to boot the cd from floppies anymore?

It sure looks that way! Someone else just mentioned that Fedora Core 2 no longer allows you to make boot floppies when you install it due to the same issue.

People have been talking about how 1.44MB floppy drives are useless for a while now, but until there's another reliable way to boot computers, they really aren't.

For those who need them, here's Knoppix 3.6 (& 3.7 PC-Welt edition) boot floppy images, using kernel 2.4:
http://www.angelfire.com/ultra/eco2g...6-floppy-1.img
http://www.angelfire.com/ultra/eco2g...6-floppy-2.img

[maltrecho]

Great stuff eco2geek! Thanks all.

[shah]

This is something that might be interesting for you all that using grub (I believe can used by lilo too) and don't want to poke your bios just to use your cdrom(ide) to boot knoppix.. It using combination of grub, memdisk and smart boot manager. I tried it and it work.
http://www.lrz-muenchen.de/~bernhard/grub-chain-cd.html


I wonder , is it possible with some twist if it can be used to boot using knoppix floppies image then make it boot other device, like usb cdrom which our friend here has difficulty.

[bobn]

The definitive solution to your problem is here:

http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/FaqBooting

The faq was updated. Just follow the step-by-step instructions!

Good luck!



.

The very first instruction FAILS. It says "copy boot.img from the CD. There is NO boot.img on the Knoppix 3.6 CD.

So could we have WORKING instructions, please?

[firebyrd10]

One more thing: how can I create images of the floppies?

Thanks for your time.

Rawrite can make images in windows and for linux just issue this command
dd if=/dev/fd0 dd of=/folder/floppy.img
Like stated before, you can also use rawrite to write images and to write in linux, basicly issue the above command backwards.

dd if=/folder/floppy.img of=/dev/fd0

I believe you could need root privalges to do the linux commands though.

[RoyalMail]

The 2.6.7 kernel that Knoppix 3.6 uses is too big to fit on a 1.44M floppy, even compressed. (The /usr/sbin/mkbootfloppy script errors out with kernel 2.6.7 because the floppy disk is full.)

Anyone remember if Knoppix 3.4 used the same 2.4.27 kernel that Knoppix 3.6 uses?

My version of Knoppix3.4 installed kernel 2.4.26 with 2.6.6 as an option.

Regds, RM

[RoyalMail]

People have been talking about how 1.44MB floppy drives are useless for a while now, but until there's another reliable way to boot computers, they really aren't.

Modern machines will boot from a USB thumb-drive, and others will boot from a CD.

Actually I must have missed something - why couldn't the OP boot from his CD? That's what Knoppix is supposed to be about isn't it?

Regds, RM.