Quote Originally Posted by thegroover
I don't even understand how to get the file downloaded from my windows machine onto the linux one... This "Ramdisk" is a sort of area of the drive that I can execute things in? I have looked over the net for answers but I am just simply not understanding it.
To get the file you have downloaded from your windows partition to the running CD you will have to mount (make available for use) the windows partition. Here I will assume your windows is installed on the first partition on the first HD (drive C: ) and this is where the file is stored. eg:
Code:
sudo mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1
This would be done in a console window (click on the clam shell icon on the taskbar). Now that the partitions is available you would while still in the console:
Code:
sudo cp /mnt/hda1/path_to_file /ramdisk/home/knoppix/
which copies the file to the ramdisk now you will have to extract the contents of the archive with either ark which is in the utilities menu or with this command.
Code:
sudo tar -xvzf knx-hdinstall-0.38.tgz .
which extracts the file to the current directory (which unless you changed directories when you opened the console will be /ramdisk/home/knoppix to check pwd in the console and it will print the working directory) then to install:
Code:
sudo ./knx-hdinstall
this starts the install with the file you just extracted.

note: the install will fail unless you have already created two additional partitions on either your first (drive C: ) or another HD for a /swap and / partitions the /swap must be at least 128mb and the / at least 2.2gb or you can create the partitions with the cfdisk tool which will be run during the install but it is best to have created them first with a tool like Partition Magic from Powerquest and just quit from the cfdisk program making no changes and continue with the install using the already created partitions it will save a re-start of the computer for the changes to the HD to be recognized if you have a buggy IDE chipset.

additional note: Partition Magic is a commercial product and as such you will have to purchase a copy there is however an alternative you may want to try the latest version (2003-06-06) of regular Knoppix as it has QTParted which is similar in function to Partition Magic and completely free this would have the additional benifit of having the latest version of the software included and would save the multi-hundred MB download that it will take to upgrade the older versions included with KnoppixKDE.

Please, be patient with me as this is certainly not my area of expertise. My basic goal is to have a very close to Windows version of Linux that I can use for accounting and office applications to save myself the cost of paying for over priced Microsoft alternatives. I really like Knoppix KDE as I can navigate very comfortably in it but I don't want to run it off the CD every time.

Cheers, and thanks heaps for reading this post.
Were here to help ( it's all part of the plan global domination one user at a time ) your goal is definetely attainable it will however require some time and effort and asking a lot of questions I would suggest that you get in contact with humbug which is your local Linux (unix) users group.