Gilles,

Although I am not celebrating my victory from the knoppix web browser, it is a victory nonetheless, as I have successfully booted to Knoppix v3.6 kernel 2.4 from both the iso file located on my c NTFS drive and also from the knoppix file from the cd which I located on my FAT32 partition.

Here are the configurations for loadlin.exe:

file iso.txt contains the following all on one line:
linux24 nofirewire noscsi nodma vga=normal ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off nomce quiet bootfrom=/dev/hda1/BOOT/Knoppix.36/*.iso noprompt initrd=minirt~1.gz

This is the command to launch knoppix via loadlin, where iso.txt is the above file containing the arguments. Using the file, DOS will not limit so much the maximum length of the arguments.
c:\knoppix\loadlin.exe @iso.txt

for reference, here is boot.ini:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
C:\FDOSBOOT.BIN="FreeDOS Beta 9 Service Release 1"


In this configuration, the iso file was located on the ntfs partition. The linux24 and minirt24_ntfs.gz are located on the FAT32 partition. The system booted just fine, and it even recognized my external cd-r drive! both hda1 and hda2 were mounted. My cdrom drive was available for use and i could view files on both the internal cdrom and the cdr drives. in order to view files on hda2, I had to unmount the device, as it was also linked to the cd rom drive. By unmounting, that problem was corrected. I am assuming there is some sort of config file that I can edit to have it do that automatically. The only real problem was I could not write to the FAT32 partition. The NTFS partition is also write protected, but I think everyone is in agreement that it being read only is a good thing.

I wonder what would happen if I set the initrd=/dev/hda1/BOOT/knoppix.36/minirt24_ntfs.gz AND ALSO in place of linux24 put:
/dev/hda1/BOOT/knoppix.36/linux24
Do you think that the kernel and the minirt24_ntfs.gz file could possibly be run from the NTFS partition instead of the FAT32? Is there anything that could go wrong if I try it?? Could that possibly fix my problem with hda2??

Next, out of curiosity, I copied /knoppix/knoppix from the knoppix cd and tried the following using loopback.txt: (note that these are all on one line)
linux24 nofirewire noscsi nodma bootfrom=/dev/hda2/knoppix/knoppix ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init initrd=minirt~1.gz quiet lang=us vga=normal BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix

and run: loadlin.exe @loopback.txt

the changes are to the bootfrom cheatcode and the addition of BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix
Thus, I was also able to successfully boot from the knoppix file on FAT32. Everything was much the same, except this time the cdrom drive did not work at all; furthermore, I could only access hda2 from the desktop. In root, by typing ls in /mnt/hda2 it only showed an empty directory. I have not been able to experiment with booting the iso from the fat32 or by using the knoppix file in the ntfs partition due to the fact that I have very limited space on my machine as both partitions do not have enough disk space to have both the iso file and the knoppix file. Let me summarize in a table for clarification:

'bootfrom' .................................. 'cdrom' ............................................. 'hda2'

iso file in hda1 .........................accessible .......................read only after unmounting first

iso file in hda2 .............................NO ATTEMPT MADE YET

knoppix file in hda1 ....................... NO ATTEMPT MADE YET

knoppix file in hda2 .................... not accessible .................read only from desktop link

So for now I am going to concentrate on the first configuration: iso file in hda1, as this one does not appear to restrict my devices as much as booting the knoppix file in hda2. For now, I will assume that the restriction was more because of WHERE I was booting from rather than from WHICH FILE I was booting from.

In summary, it appears that I have successfully booted knoppix using Loadlin from FreeDOS instead of GRUB. From here on, I am guessing that gaining 'write' access to hda2(FAT32) will involve modifying cheatcodes and using the bash terminal rather than dealing with bootloader specifics. In addition, I am pleased to note that when running KNOPPIX from the hard drive, it is extremely fast in comparison to running from the CD.

Gilles, thank you once again for helping me navigate my way through the troubled waters of knoppix hard drive installs, dos installs, and bootloader configurations. If you have any further advice for fixing my hda2 read-write problem I would be glad to hear it. Plus, if I can be of any help with anything, let me know.

James