The keyboard issue should not be too difficult to overcome: I'm Norwegian, and typing
Code:
keyboard=no
at boot gives me the right definition. When I save the configuration, such settings will be saved, too.

I'm running Knoppix 6.0.1 off a hard disk, but without any HD install. You boot from a USB stick, prepare a FAT32 partition somewhere on the drive, create a 4GB Knoppix persistent image on the USB stick, use apt-get or synaptic to install the programs lacking on the CD distro, and copy the whole KNOPPIX directory from the USB stick to the FAT32 partition. Next time you boot from the stick, Knoppix will find the image on the hard disk, and use that to run from. If you do lots of updating to the "install", you may want to copy KNOPPIX from the HD back to the stick now and then, for backup and better usability. (You can run the installed programs on ANY computer booting and running from the stick.)