The problems found by many in setting localisation on Knoppix may stem from the GRUB installed by the program used to create the live USB. GRUB works fine on an HD install because it is installed by Knoppix and follows the rules as given in this thread ... viz: modify the "kernel" line in menu.lst and reboot ... works for me. However, I used Unetbootin on a Kubuntu system to install the 32-bit Knoppix on a 2Gb USB. The entries in the file /boot/grub/menu.lst on the resulting live USB are for a read-only boot and the same in single user mode. The active lines in the file are:

default 0

color cyan/blue white/blue

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 3.0.4
root (/dev/sda,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.0.4 root=/dev/sda1 ro

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 3.0.4 (single-user mode)
root (/dev/sda,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.0.4 root=/dev/sda1 ro single

but none of these settings apply and editing them for language and timezone thus has no effect, because Unetbootin installed a GRUB which presents a very pretty boot menu, on a graded shiny silvery-purple background, that has options for:

Default
adriane
adrian64
knoppix
knoppix64
debug
debug64
grub
fb1024x768
fb1280x1024
fb800x600
fb640x480
memtest
dos
failsafe

I presume it picked up all these options from the Knoppix ISO. The "Default" option has a boot instruction:

/ubnkern initrd=/ubninit ramdisk_size=100000 lang=en vt.default_utf8=0 apm=power-off nomce libata.force=noneq hpsa.hpsa_allo_any=1 loglevel=1 tz=localtime

which works, whilst the "knoppix" option uses:

/boot/isolinux/linux initrd=/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz ramdisk_size=100000 lang=en vt.default_utf8=0 apm=power-off nomce libata.force=noneq hpsa.hpsa_allo_any=1 loglevel=1 tz=localtime

(note the extra space in front of "nomce", presume this is a typo, it has no effect). The "grub" option tries to start from the HD and fails, all the 64-bit options barf as do "memtest" and "dos". I have not tried "adriane", but all the rest use the same boot command as "knoppix" with version specific extras. Both the "Default" and "knoppix" options will start the live USB.

There is an option to use "tab" to edit a boot command at the boot menu, and if I use this to change the language (lang=uk) and timezone (tz=Europe/London), the live USB will boot accordingly. The changes are not permanent and have to be reapplied on each boot.

The live USB boots with the "/boot/vmlinuz-3.0.4" that is in Knoppix 6.7.1. I have not found either /ubnkern or /boot/isolinux/... on the live USB, so presumably Unetbootin have the appropriate translation hidden somewhere. I have yet to work out how to permanently modify the Unetbootin boot menu commands. Using commands on a terminal screen on the live USB to update or install the GRUB dictated by the /boot/grub/menu.lst file have no effect ... which may well be a good thing since both mount the root file system as read-only.

I have tried several other live USB creator programs, from Linux and Windows, and each seems to install its own GRUB, not the one supplied with Knoppix, which may explain the frustrating situations in this and other threads where localising the boot proves so problematic.