can not get poor mans install to boot

[mrbojangles]

If I understand your reply, the knoppix iso image is in ext2 file format. My hd file system is ext3. So the problem must be in how knoppix was installed? What I did was copy the contents of the iso file to the root of hda3 (the root of /home in opensuse) and made a knoppix entry in the grub boot loader. The error grub reported was that it could not find the file. I read later that the kernel and initrd files needs to be in a separate partition (root). Is that a workable solution to the poor mans install?

[kl522]

I read later that the kernel and initrd files needs to be in a separate partition (root).

The location of kernel and initrd is totally dependent on the boot loader. Different boot loader and file system layout may have different considerations. Note that this is not something which is imposed by knoppix. Just check how the opensuse is doing it now and do the same. Once you sorted out the booting ( linux and minirt.gz ), the rest is simple, as knoppix auto detect for presence of knoppix files.

[mrbojangles]

Here is my grub entry:

title Knoppix 6.2 dvd ISO scan ramdisk=32MB
kernel (hd0,2)/knoppix/linux ramdisk_size=100000 initrd=minirt.gz lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 nomce quiet fromhd=/dev/hda3/knoppix bootfrom=/knoppix/*.iso config=scan home=scan ramdisk=32768 noprompt
initrd (hd0,2)/knoppix/minirt.gz
boot

I have linux, minrt.gz and knoppix.iso in hda3

It can boot part way where it seems to be searching for usb and stops with:
could not mount disk to /mnt-system. Starting debugging shell.....

box is amd 3500+ 1gig ram opensuse 11.3

[kl522]

fromhd=/dev/hda3/knoppix bootfrom=/knoppix/*.iso config=scan home=scan

Firstly, the good news portion. You have done all that is required by the boot loader.
What you did not do correct is only the second part, the copying of knoppix files.

It appears to me that you are copying the raw image of knoppix as a *.iso. I read somewhere someone has modified the minirt.gz to get this configuration working, but that's a 60 over pages of posts which I don't have the patience to follow.

What you should have copied, is the 'KNOPPIX' directory, as it appeared to you when you mount the CD/DVD. The directory has a few important files, one of them is KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX, another is the folder KNOPPIX/modules, and a few htmls/pictures.

Also I have no idea of the significance of the cheatcode you used, as quoted above. Someone who is familiar with knoppix cheatcode can help explain that. But I think they are not necessary. You can remove them. As far as I know knoppix auto detects the presence of knoppix files, until someone proves me wrong that the autodetect is flawed.

[mrbojangles]

Ok, I cleaned up the cheatcodes and copied the knoppix/knoppix folder to the hard drive hda3. It looks like it does a scan over and over like this:
/dev/sda1
/dev/sda2
/dev/sda3
until it stops with: 'could not mount disk to /mnt-system. Starting debugging mode...'

I am confused between the fromhd= and bootfrom= cheatcodes. Do I need them? I feel that I am close to getting it to boot, but need some clues.