Just on your scheme,

3 Gb total for Linux. Not much. If you have a lot of ram, like around 1Gb, you will probably find that you don't use much swap, if any. I'd make a 400/500Mb swap at (3), then use (4) and (5) as a Linux filesystem partition. As you already have a 6Gb fat32 partition at the beginning, couldn't you use that to transfer files with. But then, i don't know a lot about HP systems. Do they use a hidden partition or some form of "disk overlay" technique. If so, make sure you have some means of replacing/fixing that, in case you ever should.

I think the "home=" switch allows you to point it to a directory on your hdd that will be a dedicated "home" directory, (environmen, configs).You will need to have something installed though, to use that. You can create a floppy image that can be loaded as part of the running ramdisk image, which can also become a dedicated (of soughts) "home" directory. But you are limited to what you can fit on a floppy. And you need to unpack the floppy image, then repack to do edits/additions to it.

I'm not sure if it would go ...

home=/dev/hdb6/home/blah

or

home=/home/blah

The later being a mounted OS running when you do the LiveCD. The docs on the cd should reveal the correct syntax though. And a search on "cheatcodes" brings up 4 pages, so it should be there somewhere

As you seem to have only a small amount of disk space to experment with, why not just get a second drive and devote that to Linux/knoppix. A dual boot isn't that hard to setup. As long as backups are made of your mbr etc, before changes are made, not much problem should arise. Most people get into problems by doing something incorrectly, then not having a working backup (boot floppy) to restore with.

Thats basically why i asked about a possible hidden first partition or a disk overly set up. I think "Del" do that sometimes, which can catch people unawares.


I wonder if you could use the 1Gb as a home partition. With out having to mount it any where. Though, i would think it would need to be associated with some Live Filesystem during a LiveCD run, to be visible. Mabe knoppix will mount it to its' ramdisk image ???



jm
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