"Depending on how you installed it, knoppix should do some hardware detections.
But from the sounds of it you took the all Debain path."

My impression is that even in the "Beginner" (not sure about "Knoppix-style", haven't ever done that one) install it doesn't do the full hardware detection at subsequent boots after installation. It does not seem to alter existing /etc/modules and /etc/modules-(kernel version) files or /etc/X11/XF86Config and /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 files. But if you delete them, it will re-run autodetection.

That is, of course if it isn't a "Debian-style" install which doesn't do hardware autodetection.