Mounting a USB key. IDEA for some real smart Knoppix guru

**braverma_jom** · 01-20-2005, 10:33 PM

It would be so sweet if there was a script that us knoppix newbies could run that would allow us to mount a USB key or a hard drive.

How about it? We could store the script on the key then run it and have access to our drive.

Jon

Please, I'm beginning to feel ripped off for what I paid for Knoppix (that's sarcasm there).
But come on, someone has had to have done this already.

**Markus** · 01-20-2005, 10:43 PM

Umm, how would you run the script from the key before mounting the key? Or did I misunderstand something?

**greenfly** · 01-20-2005, 10:55 PM

Maybe I don't understand your idea, but I'm not sure what's so difficult about the way Knoppix already does it--click on the hard drive icon to mount it, right click and select "unmount" to unmount it, and right click and choose Actions->Change read/write mode to make it writeable.

**braverma_jom** · 01-23-2005, 03:42 AM

I'm sorry I meant having r/w access to the drive not just mounting it.

Thanks Greenfly. Would you believe that I had missed that it is that simple?

Jon

**gnarvaja** · 01-31-2005, 06:22 AM

Originally Posted by braverma_jom

I'm sorry I meant having r/w access to the drive not just mounting it.

Thanks Greenfly. Would you believe that I had missed that it is that simple?

Jon

1. Make sure no utility is pointing to anything in the USB
2. Unmount the USB drive as before (right click -> unmount), unless it is already unmounted.
3. Right click -> Device Tab -> Make sure you check the RW option, press OK (it is quite simple actually

)
4. Right click -> Mount or double click

That should do it. For security reasons, Knoppix mounts all drives as RO, it is up to the user, who knows where to let Knoppix Write, to make the devices RW. Remember that if you do that on a NTFS partition you are on your own.

Hope this helps,

G

**emmbec** · 01-31-2005, 07:51 AM

I tryed what you sayed before, but I can't write to the HD. I am using a live CD to do this, I even tryed doing it with the console and in SU mode. Is there any other way???

**foamrotreturns** · 02-03-2005, 11:47 AM

here's how i got mine to work:
$ mkdir /mnt/usb
plug in the device
$ mount -t vfat /dev/uba1 /mnt/usb
root should have write access to the drive now.

**rgarden** · 03-21-2005, 04:34 AM

I'm not sure what this post is about, but I'm going to assume that a USB Key is a memory card that fits into a USB port. I already have a USB memory card on my pc with my knoppix configuration settings on it . I copied the contents of the 3.7 live cd into a folder on my Windows (Fat32) 2000 hard drive using the Knoppix TOHD /dev/hda1 cheatcode. I then set up a 4.3GB secondary IDE drive and use 2 partitions on that for my persistent home directory (/dev/hdc1) and my swap file(dev/hdc2) . The USB drive shows up on my desktop as /dev/sda1.

I put the Knoppix cd into the cd drive, at the boot prompt type "knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda1 home=/dev/hdc1 myconf=/dev/sda1" and as soon as the kernel boots, I take the CD out of the cd rom drive and I'm up and running. If I want to boot into Win 2000, I just take the knoppix cd out and boot from hd.

To give the USB drive read/write privlidges, all I did was right click on the device icon, click on the permissions tab, and uncheck the RO box. Since I boot from the cd, I have no sign on security the way I would if I used the install to HD options, but I've never really been stuck . I downloaded Firefox 1.0 onto my /dev/hdc1 , installed it to my desktop, and use it all the time. I can't wait to get knoppix 3.8 so that it will be part of the core system.
If I change my desktop settings, or my Firefox bookmarks, I select Knoppix/Configure/Save Knoppix Settings, save everthing I can, and at the locations prompt, I check the box for Sda1 and I'm done.

I can even take the cd and the usb card to a friend's windows PC, throw in the Knoppix cd, boot as Knoppix myconf=/dev/sda1, and get the same desktop I have at home (assuming of course the target PC sees my usb card as sda1).

**mr_ed** · 03-21-2005, 04:52 AM

But come on, someone has had to have done this already.

See http://www.damnsmalllinux.org for keychain USB drives that will boot your machine directly into Linux (if your BIOS supports it - mine doesn't seem to) or runs Linux from within Windows (using qemu).

So yeah, people have been working on it.

-- Ed