Hardware reconfiguration on hd install

[Ham_Radio]

Hi there,
I'd like to install Knoppix (knoppix-installer, option "1" - Debian like) on an usb disk.
Will I loose all the hardware reconfiguration that the Knoppix CD performs at boot?
Could this usb disk be able to boot and configure the hardware just the way a normal Knoppix CD can?
Thanks for answering.

[foamrotreturns]

Whenever you install Knoppix or any other Debian variant to your hard disk, it becomes Debian for all intents and purposes, and will not re-configure devices on boot. If you're trying to have it boot from USB just like it would from CD, you should look into the USB booting Live Linux distros. There are several of them that work quite well.

[Harry Kuhman]

Whenever you install Knoppix or any other Debian variant to your hard disk, it becomes Debian for all intents and purposes, and will not re-configure devices on boot.

It is certainly true that "installed" Knoppix will not reconfigure itself at boot (an exception is the "poor man's install") but is is not true that Knoppix becomes Debian for all intents and purposes. Knoppix is a mix of different Ddebian versions that are tested to work fine on the Live CD but break if you install more software or update the current software, very unDebian like. And there are lots of problems with things like Internet access when the Live disc is "installed", again very unDebian like.

[Ham_Radio]

Ok, but is there an howto or some documentation explaining how Knoppix make its famous hardware configuration on boot, and perhaps how to export those scripts/programs to another Linux distribution?
I'd be happy just to make a valid /etc/X11/xorg.conf the way Knoppix does...

[nad]

Linux is a monolithic kernel. This means that support for any available driver is included in the kernel source code. Nearly all drivers use kernel space. Depending on your kernel compile, drivers are either built in, available as loadable kernel modules or not built. Generic installer kernels necessarily include support for a wide range of devices. Kernels are no longer limited in size due to the size of boot media. Installed kernels such as that used by knoppix are therefore quite slow to boot but forgiving of some esoteric hardware. YMMV.

The result of this is that a GNU/Linux system configures itself at every boot, within the parameters of any configuration files. It is not like another operating system that includes only the drivers for installed hardware at installation time.

Knoppix is not debian. As far as generating a valid X configuration file, just try the command: xf86config or dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 . The first is a script supplied by xfree86.org the second is supplied by the package maintainer for the debian package. The point being that neither is exclusive to knoppix.