spottyrover: 1) yes by changing the write permission only your user can write to the file, but be sure to leave it so that everyone can read it.
2) I guess (I didn't write it) you would pass the "nofstab" command at the first boot prompt of knoppix (if you're running from bootable cd) ....if it's on your harddrive go into your /etc/lilo.conf and find the kernel you normally use (either 2.4.27 or 2.6.9 unless you added a new one yourself) and find the line in it's section that starts with "append" and add "nofstab" to it....then you must save the file and run "lilo" at the prompt.

heres a copy of my fstab (just for my extra drive that I want to be mounted):

/dev/hda3 /mnt/hda3 ext3 auto,users,exec 0 0

heres a copy of my /etc/lilo.conf (just the part with the kernel I use - which I added 2.6.10)...I added the "nofstab" just so you can see where it goes.....I do not normally have it and have never tried it....I'd try it with the boot cd to make sure it works first):

image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.10-1-686
label="Linux-2.6.10"
initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.10-1-686
append="nofstab ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off nomce atapicd alsa splash"
read-only


hope this helps
Cheers
Eugene