Installing Knoppix on an External HDD????

**chiefreborn** · 05-12-2005, 09:54 PM

I have a 120GB external HDD and only have a couple gigs left on my laptops internal HDD. Is there a way to install Knoppix on my external without resizing or creating a new partition? It is FAT32 so it should work fine. It doesn't have any operating systems installed on it so far, just files. Any help would be appreciated. (Note: I am a total noob when it comes to Linux, I know most of the basics, and have some experience with a bash shell, but thats about it)

chiefreborn

**UnderScore** · 05-12-2005, 10:02 PM

A hard drive installed Linux system needs to use a linux filesystem. Yes FAT32 is read & write supported in linux. Yes NTFS is read (write is kinda dangerous) under linux. But a linux system must use a linux filesystem just as a windows system must use a windows (FAT32 or NTFS) filesystem.

That said, now you can place a ISO image of a Linux LiveCD like Knoppix on a FAT32 or linux filesystem. Then (off the top of my head, I do not know how to do it, but I know it can be done) tell the system to boot _to_ the ISO image as if it were a CD. Obviously this is not true HD installed system. If you are interested in this then you can search the forums or perhaps someone more knowledgeable will be able to help you.

I hope this helps.
James

**chiefreborn** · 05-12-2005, 10:15 PM

Hmmm...I am trying to find a way to install it to the HDD, I would rather not boot from the .iso because a person I know did that and had problems writing files to his HDD through Knoppix after that. (I don't know if he ever got it fixed either)

**UnderScore** · 05-12-2005, 11:38 PM

Originally Posted by chiefreborn

Hmmm...I am trying to find a way to install it to the HDD, I would rather not boot from the .iso because a person I know did that and had problems writing files to his HDD through Knoppix after that. (I don't know if he ever got it fixed either)

OK.
All that leaves you with is doing what you said you do not want to do. I don't know of any way to install Knoppix on an external HD without resizing or creating a new partition for it.

**chiefreborn** · 05-12-2005, 11:50 PM

What about VMware? Do you know anything about that? Any tutorials or documents would help.

**UnderScore** · 05-13-2005, 05:17 AM

Originally Posted by chiefreborn

What about VMware? Do you know anything about that? Any tutorials or documents would help.

Sure. Go download the VMWare Workstation 5 trial. When you go to create a new VM, set the type of guest OS to Debian if it exists. If not set it to Linux 2.6 kernel. Set it to use virtual IDE drives instead of SCSI. Use a bridged network. If you don't need sound or USB in out linux VM then remove that. Give it as much RAM as you can free up. Since running a VM is quite intensive, you will want to follow similar 'gaming' style performace tips. Disable antivirus. Limit the number of running programs: If you don't need IM, email & IRC open, then closing those will free up RAM & CPU cycles. Oh, and scandisk & defrag the FAT32 drive. Then before you create the VM HD install. Pre-allocate the VM HD files. This also helps speed up disk I/O.