So...I decided to experiment with a Knoppix hard drive install because I exchange firewire hard drives and pcmcia memory cards often...and I love the way Knoppix handles hardware detection. I have been previously running Debian Sarge...so I am not unfamiliar with a Debian system.

The question I have pertains to an interest in what is happening during the boot process, rather than a complaint about what is taking so long.

I installed Knoppix as "Beginner" so that I could have multiple users, and still have the great hardware detection that I was looking for.

The system boots up...then the kdm starts. That is where things start to happen that I don't understand. I get the grey screen when the X server starts...and it stays there for what seems like an eternity before moving on to the login screen. The hard drive light is running solid during this time.

What exactly is going on here that is taking so long to process...and hitting the hard drive light so much? My guess is that it reconfigures all of the X config files and stuff on the fly. Does it do the actual hard drive detection stuff then also...such as creating desktop icons and mount points and writing the new fstab? Why do you suppose it takes longer to get running on the hard drive install than from the cd-rom? (By the way...I don't know for a fact that it takes longer...it just seems to me that it does.)

Just curious.