I am trying to remaster Knoppix 5.3.0 in order to upgrade the audio software to be able to listen to most radio stations and to play downloaded audio streams.

That means upgrading most of the software in the "Multimedia" menu option.
I also want to upgrade the webbrowsers in Knoppix to eg. show maps provided as a result of a telephone number search (instead of showing only an empty square).
This often means an upgrade of the flash plug ins.

I have tried the upgrade process in three different surroundings, a "chrooted" source directory in preparation of the remaster, in a hd-install (the Knoppix CD-like option) environment and in a "fromhd" with a "persistent home image" environment.
The same thing happens again and again. This is what happens:
I do the software upgrade from KDE through Synaptic.
When the upgrade is done the programs start as expected.
When I restart Knoppix the problems however arrive.
Upon startup Knoppix now show a light blue display demanding a username and a login password.
I have tried to get around this anticipating the event and issuing a user "knoppix" password (sudo passwd knoppix) and also after the event "chrooting", setting a knoppix password.
When I have done this the light blue screen seems to seriously consider the password, then turn into a black screen with the familiar mouse pointer visible, but then reconsider and turn back to the light blue screen once more demanding a password.
I have not been able to find a way around this. I am also not eager to try issuing more user accounts. The problem does however not affect all upgrades.
I seem to be able to predict the trouble when "cups" functionality is involved. That is, when filenames containing the letter sequence "cups" occur in the upgrade process. When cups is not involved it is possible to restart knoppix without the impossible login demand. That means I am not able to upgrade Konqueror, Amarok, Kaffeine as an example but can upgrade Iceape, Iceweasel, Totem and Mplayer. I have only tried upgrading the audio software and the web browsers. Does anyone has an explanation to this odd behavior and hopefully also a solution.