Save boot options on USB pen drive?

[ssustudent01]

Is there a way to save the text I have to type on every computer reboot / move to another machine to my USB pen drive? I already have my home drive and config fles saved there, but I get tired of typing "knoppix lang=us home=/mnt/sda1 myconfig=/mnt/sda1 toram nopcmcia"

My laptop (at work) only has one bay for either a floppy OR a CD-ROM, not both. My machine at home is an XP box for pretty much games only. I don't have an extra hd floating around to install on either.

Thanks in advance!

[UnderScore]

I have discovered 2 paths, you can remaster a new ISO file, hexedit the Knoppix.iso file. I am also researching another path that will hopefully not require so much effort.

REMASTER
You can use the Documentation link at the top of the screen to read about remastering or you can view the HOWTO I wrote: http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13867. If you follow my HOWTO, you do not have to add/remove/update exactly as I did. A knwn issue with remastering is that if you do not add anything to the original Knoppix contents, the resulting ISO image is larger than 700MB and will not fit on a CDR. So you will however have to remove something so that the resulting ISO image fits on a CDR. I don't like or use emacs so I suggest removing emacs via the command:
apt-get remove emacs21 emacs21-bin-common emacs21-common emacsen-common gettext-el zile

During the remaster process, open up the remaster/boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg file in a text editor and notice the second line. It is the second line that controls the default bootup behavior.

1: DEFAULT linux24
2: APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=minirt24.gz nomce quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix
3: TIMEOUT 300

Edit line #2:

1: DEFAULT linux24
2: APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 initrd=minirt24.gz nomce quiet lang=us home=/mnt/sda1 myconfig=/mnt/sda1 toram nopcmcia BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix
3: TIMEOUT 300

Then save it and exit the editor. Finish remastering and create the ISO file. Burn and boot the new CDR. The PC will now default boot Knoppix with your setting.

HEXEDIT
To hexedit, I boot with Knoppix 3.7 and in this case, this particular PC does not like DMA nor does it like the hires console since the monitor gets all blurry. So my normal bootup is:

knoppix 2 nodma vga=normal

# mount -t ext3 /dev/hda6 /mnt/hda6
# cd /mnt/hda6/mnt/test

Download the KNOPPIX_3.7.iso image file. Then run hexedit the console based hex editor or you can use the KDE GUI khexedit. The following instructions are for the console based hex editor.

# hexedit KNOPPIX_3.7.iso
<Tab> to switch to ascii mode
<ctrl-s> to search
DEFAULT linux24
<Enter>

navigate to vga=791 and type nodma plus 2 spaces -> 'nodma '
<ctrl-x> to save and exit
Burn modified Knoppix.iso & boot off it. It worked! The PC will now default boot Knoppix with nodma and will boot in a normal vga console & not a hight res console.

I hope this helps.
James

[ssustudent01]

James,
Thanks for your suggestions! I think I will first take a look at the hexedit option. (Have taken several x86 and motorola assembly classes, so I'm fairly comfy starting at a row full of hex )

I was hoping to grab a copy of 3.8 before I actually tried to remaster a CD. However, I might just go ahead and try it.

Thanks so much!

[cyberoidx]

how do i do this without the iso? i mean, with the hdd install of knoppix? Is there any fiel to edit, or lilo?

[OErjan]

you can most likely put desired bootoptions in the textfile /etc/lilo.conf and rerun lilo to make them valid.

[cyberoidx]

rerun lilo, or make a new lio after making the change. Sorry if it is a dumb question, but i'm yet w8ing to do an HDD Knoppix install....

[OErjan]

just rerun, as root, that re reads the config file and upgdates settings.
that is , as root type lilo in a console window.