i have the same problem
i need to cut knoppix to bash and maybe fluxbox and firefox no other software needed (especialy gnome kde text editors qt liblaries etc)

i've chosen knoppix because i need live cd linux based on deb packages with good hardware support and constant development

im trying to use DSL but it's on 2.4 kernel and some software was installed from source not from deb

isn't there a knoppix base version without most of the software installed ?
something similar to Debian Minimal CD where you can add all your packets to a small minimalistic base system