Hi,

GOAL:
while using Knoppix 4.0.2 (for some, to me odd, reason 5.0.1 is not recognizing my NIC) I need to run firefox and thunderbird from a mounted ext3 partition and make them nicely play together.
I had installed Debian GNU/Linux in this ext3 partition using Knoppix and debootstrap as explained in http://www.inittab.de/manuals/debootstrap.html
.
PROBLEM:
I did installed firefox and thunderbird by downloading the ".gzip" files and they run apparently fine,

sh-3.00# ./firefox -V
Mozilla Firefox 1.5, Copyright (c) 1998 - 2005 mozilla.org
sh-3.00# ./firefox
...

but are creating their configuration files work directories and such within knoppix's /ramdisk/home/root/ directory,

sh-3.00# cd /mnt/hda3/usr/local/firefox/firefox-1.5
sh-3.00# ./firefox
.
// __ after creating a directory
/home/root/.mozilla/firefox
.
// __ containing
sh-3.00# ls -l
total 4
drwx------ 6 root root 480 Jul 11 19:59 c4d6loze.default
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 94 Jul 11 19:59 profiles.ini

// __
sh-3.00# find . -type f -exec grep -l "mymailserver" {} \;
./we5k2mj9.default/prefs.js
./we5k2mj9.default/panacea.dat
./we5k2mj9.default/Mail/Local Folders/Inbox

// __ all data is in "ramdisk;home/root/.we5k2mj9.default/prefs.js"
sh-3.00# cat "./we5k2mj9.default/prefs.js"
# Mozilla User Preferences

/* Do not edit this file.
*
* If you make changes to this file while the application is running,
* the changes will be overwritten when the application exits.
*
* To make a manual change to preferences, you can visit the URL about:config
* For more information, see http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html#prefs
*/

user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.addon-background-update-timer", 1152661364);
user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.background-update-timer", 1152661363);
user_pref("extensions.lastAppVersion", "1.5.0.4");
user_pref("mail.account.account1.server", "server1");
user_pref("mail.account.account2.identities", "id1");
user_pref("mail.account.account2.server", "server2");
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.accounts", "account1,account2");
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.defaultaccount", "account2");
user_pref("mail.accountmanager.localfoldersserver" , "server1");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.draft_folder", "mailbox://nobody@Local%20Folders/Drafts");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.drafts_folder_picker_ mode", "0");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.fcc_folder", "mailbox://nobody@Local%20Folders/Sent");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.fcc_folder_picker_mod e", "0");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.fullName", "myaccount");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.smtpServer", "smtp1");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.tmpl_folder_picker_mo de", "0");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.useremail", "[email protected]");
user_pref("mail.identity.id1.valid", true);
user_pref("mail.root.none", "/home/root/.thunderbird/we5k2mj9.default/Mail");
user_pref("mail.root.none-rel", "[ProfD]Mail");
user_pref("mail.root.pop3", "/home/root/.thunderbird/we5k2mj9.default/Mail");
user_pref("mail.root.pop3-rel", "[ProfD]Mail");
user_pref("mail.server.server1.directory", "/home/root/.thunderbird/we5k2mj9.default/Mail/Local Folders");
user_pref("mail.server.server1.directory-rel", "[ProfD]Mail/Local Folders");
user_pref("mail.server.server1.hostname", "Local Folders");
user_pref("mail.server.server1.name", "Local Folders");
user_pref("mail.server.server1.type", "none");
user_pref("mail.server.server1.userName", "nobody");
user_pref("mail.server.server2.defer_get_new_mail" , true);
user_pref("mail.server.server2.deferred_to_account ", "account1");
user_pref("mail.server.server2.directory", "/home/root/.thunderbird/we5k2mj9.default/Mail/pop.mymailserver.com");
user_pref("mail.server.server2.directory-rel", "[ProfD]Mail/pop.mymailserver.com");
user_pref("mail.server.server2.download_on_biff", true);
user_pref("mail.server.server2.hostname", "pop.mymailserver.com");
user_pref("mail.server.server2.login_at_startup", true);
user_pref("mail.server.server2.name", "[email protected]");
user_pref("mail.server.server2.type", "pop3");
user_pref("mail.server.server2.userName", "myaccount");
user_pref("mail.smtp.defaultserver", "smtp1");
user_pref("mail.smtpserver.smtp1.hostname", "smtp.mymailserver.com");
user_pref("mail.smtpserver.smtp1.username", "myaccount");
user_pref("mail.smtpservers", "smtp1");
user_pref("mailnews.quotingPrefs.version", 1);
user_pref("mailnews.ui.threadpane.version", 5);
sh-3.00#


// __
so each time I run them I have to set up everything again and all files from the mailbox directories are lost if I don't pick and save the data
.
If I try to chroot into this partition I get:

sh-3.00# chroot /mnt/hda3
sh-2.05b# cd /usr/local/mozilla-thunderbird/thunderbird
sh-2.05b# ./thunderbird
./thunderbird-bin: error while loading shared libraries: libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

sh-2.05b# cd /usr/local/firefox/firefox-1.5
sh-2.05b# pwd
/usr/local/firefox/firefox-1.5
sh-2.05b# ./firefox
./firefox-bin: error while loading shared libraries: libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

How could you run both applications from a chroot environment and make them nicely play together?
.
Thanks
Albretch