auto-mount /dev/xda1 at /somemountpoint on boot

[hal8000]

ok, I have done this, and it ALMOST works

#!/bin/bash
#find the "# Added by KNOPPIX" line
grep -A 1 "KNOPPIX" /etc/fstab | grep dev | cut -c1-9 > drivelist
# read a line at a time
cat drivelist | while read line;
do
        # increment a variable for sequential mount points
        let "a += 1"
        # make mountpoint
        mkdir -p "/scanmount/drive"$a
        # now mount that drive
        mount ${line} /scanmount/drive$a
done

the problem is knoppix needs a filesystem type, so now I have to get it to search the same file/line for the characters between the 2nd and 3rd blank space on the same line...

I wonder if there's simpler way to just get Knoppix to automount them, rather than listing noauto in fstab?

There probably is, this may work, automount every first and second partition, I've only shown sata drives but you'll get the idea.

#!/bin/bash
mkdir /mnt/winxp
mkdir /mnt/winxp2
mount -rw /dev/sda1 /mnt/winxp -t ntfs 2 > /dev/null
mount -rw /dev/sda2 /mnt/winxp -t ntfs 2 > /dev/null

You would have to install ntfs-3g to have read write permissions and extend the script
If the partition does not exist standard error is just redirected to /dev/null

You could even add it as a startup script to your run level and include it in
/etc/rc5.d/ or whatever runlevel youre starting at.