I am having a problem with saving to a hard drive.

Gritty Details: 13 years as a developer on too many different systems.
Prof. experience: 4 years on HPUnix, 6 years on C/C++, all of it stale
(3 yrs old)
Education: used "search" in Knoppix Forum to find every instance of
"persistent". Didn't understand the responses on half of
them, but read them anyway.

Machine: a boat-anchor I picked up for next-to-nothing
CPU: 800 MHz AMD Athlon
Mem: 320 Mbytes SDRAM, PC-100
Floppy: Generic
CD-ROM: Toshiba CD-ROM XM-6102B
Hitachi CDR-8430 -- has caused a lot of trouble. Spools
down after access, then programs fail because device is
not available, both from MS Windows and from Knoppix.
Video: 3dfx VooDoo3
NIC: 3Com Etherlink 10/100 PIC NIC 3c905-TX
SCSI: Win9X-ME Promise Ultra100 IDE Controller PDC20265
HD: 19.623 Gbytes IBM-DTLA-305020 Ultra DMA2

Partitions: (from QT-Parted)
1: Primary, type=vfat, size=4.87 Gbytes, boot for MS Windows 98
2: Primary, type=Linux-swap, size=760 Mbytes
3: Free space size=13.54 Gbytes

OS: Knoppix 4.02, dated 2005-09-23

FWIW: kernel: Linux 2.6.12
KDE: version 3.4.1

_______________________________


Goals:
1. Use HD files from Knoppix, well enough that I can show my poor
old gray-haired mother how to do it. So far, this is not looking good.
2. Do some high-precision cryptography computations with the GNU
GMP package. Also not very successful.

Initially, I downloaded Knoppix from this site. Burned to CD off my wife's
Windows XP-Pro machine. Have used the same CD throughout.

Boot-up from CD on ye olde boat-anchor: awesome. Love the Autobahn
graphics. I have been using Mandrake, and the boot was just lovely.

Saving anything, anytime, anywhere, was impossible. I had to read two
or three dozen posts before I found out that the HD has to be set to
r/w from read-only in TWO different places before you can use it
(Yes, I was shouting), and has to be done every time you log on.
Never did figure out how to save into anything except a vfat partition.

Fired up QT-Parted
Step 1: repartitioned the HD. Reduced Partition 1 to 4.87 Mbytes.
Step 2: created Linx-Swap partition, 760 Mbytes.

Step 3a: QT-Parted to create a jfs partition from the rest of it, 1,360
Mbytes. QT-Parted would not format it, immediately quit.

Step 3b: QT-Parted to erase the jfs partition and format as vfat, 1,360
Mbytes. Downloaded GPM onto a CD from the other machine.
Copied from CD into second vfat partion. Tried to "configure".
Failed.
GPM "configure" uses "hard links" during its set-up process.
Vfat file-system is incompatible with Unix-style hard links.

Step 3c: QT-Parted to erase the second vfat partion, left the remainder
of the HD "free". Tried to use Knoppix to create a persistent
"/home". Attempted
KNOPPIX->configure->Create persistent KNOPPIX disk image
"Knoppix-configure" cannot find the free portion of the HD.

Step 3d: used QT-Parted to create an ext3 partition, 1,360 Mbytes.
Knoppix->configure->Create persistent KNOPPIX disk image
"Knoppix-configure" will not go past the screen saying that I
need to have a partition with at least 2 Gbytes of free space,
and 128 Meg ram.

Step 3e: used QT-Parted to format the ext3 partition. Went to the HD
icon on the desktop. Mounted ext3 partition. Changed from
read-only to read/write. Toggled off the device read-only.
Tried to copy from CD, and from the vfat partition, into the
ext3 partition. "Copy" failed, with an error message that I
do not have authorization to change anything on the ext3
partition, not even from "root".

Step 3f: used QT-Parted to erase the ext3 partition, then created an
ext3 partition labeled "/", size=1000 Mbytes, and another ext3
partition labeled "/home", size=about 12 Gbytes, the rest
of it. "Knoppix-configure" will not go past the screen saying
that I need to have a partition with at least 2 Gbytes of free
space, and 128 Meg ram.

Step 3g: used QT-Parted to format the ext3 partitions.
"Knoppix-configure" will not go past the screen saying that I
need to have a partition with at least 2 Gbytes of free space,
and 128 Meg ram.
Went to the HD icon on the desktop. Mounted ext3 partition.
Changed from read-only to read/write. Toggled off the device
read-only. Tried to copy from CD, and from the vfat partition,
into the ext3 partition. "Copy" failed, with an error message
that I do not have authorization to change anything on the ext3
partition, not even from "root".

Step 3h: KNOPPIX->root shell
>knoppix-installer
...
...
will not go past screen saying I need 2 Gbytes in partition and
128 Meg ram.

Any ideas on what it is that I might be missing?

Please, in any responses, you will need to give me detailed instructions
if I have to enter anything from the "Konsole". My fingers have better
memory than anything. All my Unix manuals are packed away, and I
do not recall most of the commands.