Hello all.
After being asked to fix a bunch of elderly machines, the main problem I faced is that many of them have very small harddrives, ie < 3GB, - many second hand machines suffer from this.
therefore I guess the best option would be to have a PMI booting from lilo, leaving as much of the rest of the drive as possible for user files.

I have found this current thread http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13805 which seems unresolved. I am surprised that now that Knoppix is so advanced, this matter has not been definitivley documented, or failing that an extra option to the knoppix installer capable of adding boot options such as vesa, home and config.

I have also seen posts on the VIA website of people not being able to cf boot on the new Via Eden M11 itx board due to a lack of supporting bios, and my idea is to resolve this by using a 64M IDE DOM flash module for lilo and kernel, booting to a PMI on a 1G cf card or microdrive in the attached slot. (a low power, non mechanical, completley silent option.)

I am interested in reserching this, so after recently purchasing the above components, I am working on this now, Any help would be greatly appriciated as although I have spent time working with knoppix since last year, im still low down on the learning curve (not very bright i guess).