Advice Needed...

[nep2n]

Is there a way to install Knoppix 6.7.1 from the Live DVD to a specific partition on a USB drive (/dev/sdb7)? The "Install to HardDrive" menu option lets me select a USB partition & swap via Gparted to install to, but will only try to install to the hard drive. Ok, that's understandable. The "Install to Flash Drive" menu option won't allow a specific partition to install to, only the whole USB drive, as far as I can tell. Maybe I am missing some small detail?

Is there a way to get the 6.7.1 Live DVD to install to a specific USB partition? A command line in a Terminal or create/modify a script?

Thanks

P.S. -- I posted this thread 12 hours ago after I registered and it never showed up. Mod approval?

[klaus2008]

If you boot off the DVD and use the boot option tohd=/dev/sdb7 the system copies the whole KNOPPIX directory to the partition /dev/sdb7 and asks you for a size of the persistent image. Next time you boot off the DVD and use the boot option fromhd=/dev/sdb7 the system will find the KNOPPIX directory and use the persistent store you created.

This solution is based on a KNOPPIX boot CD or DVD of the same version as you used before. If you need to create a bootable USB HDD with KNOPPIX V6.7.1 then you have to install a boot loader like syslinux or grub on your external drive. You must copy the 'boot' directory of the Knoppix V6.7.1 CD or DVD to a partition that is accessible to the bootloader. Your boot loader needs a configuration file. If you use syslinux you can copy the file isolinux.cfg to syslinux.cfg and place that file in the proper place so that syslinux can read it. If your boot loader is grub then you have to translate the commands found in isolinux.cfg to grub's syntax.

Do not forget to mark the partition with the boot loader as bootable. You can use the program fdisk to do so.

If your drive is already bootable and equipped with a boot loader then you only have to add some lines to its configuration file. You should not alter the bootable flag in the partiton table of the external HDD and you do not need to install a second boot loader unless you want to use a chain-loader ability that your first boot loader might have.

I hope this helps.

[nep2n]

Thanks for the response.

If I use the boot options and copy /KNOPPIX, "asking me for the size of the persistent image" sounds like I am copying the ISO files and not replicating a regular install. Is this correct? I am trying to at least simulate a regular install to sdb7 and use sdb8 as the swap. This way I can keep it updated.

Maybe this will help explain my situation. I can always take three live dvd disks with me (2 live dvds, 1 live cd -- 3 different distributions), or because of ease of use I have an 8gb USB with the same distro ISOs on it. I would like the 3 distros on this high speed USB (30mb/s - 32gb) as regular installations so that I can keep it updated and add certain packages to certain distros, because each one does certain things better than the others. It is the custom ISO image format installs that I am inexperienced with.

I may be trying to do something that is not possible with the given software and setup without serious modification. But if this is workable, could you post the Grub section for the Knoppix boot commands and parameters, and then I should be able to use and edit that since I currently do not have a running multi-boot installation with Knoppix.

Thanks for your help.

[nep2n]

Update:
"tohd" doesn't work from the boot prompt. It only gives a "Kernel not found on <device>" and boots from the DVD. Using it in Terminal only jumps into the "Knoppix HD Install" 0wn script with the same problems. You can select the sdb partitions for install with Gparted and then "Auto Partition" and it fails and exits the install routine. It doesn't appear to be workable until the 0wn script is corrected or re-written. I didn't check to see if the "Flash Drive Install" script was the same or could be fixed or defined better.

Oh well I can live without it. I'll check for 6.7.2 and see if things get better. Thanks for the help anyhow.

[klaus2008]

Update:
"tohd" doesn't work from the boot prompt.

Did you issue

knoppix tohd=/dev/sdb7

at the boot prompt?

[nep2n]

Yes, I used the tohd grub boot option at first like you described, that's when I got the kernel not found on <device> error. Same thing with the fromhd just in case you typo'd. Then tried it from a shell prompt just in case again. Nothing worked.

The install to hard drive (0wn script) lets me select the partition to install to, and select sdb (default) to install grub to, then I get an error saying "there was an error" "the system may not be bootable", which of course it isn't, then the 0wn script fails.

I might be able repartition and reinstall everything, installing Knoppix first, so it will actually install grub new, but I am not about to waste my time doing that.

My suggestion is for Knoppix to use the Ubuntu installer. It sees the USB as another HD in which you can install to any partition and install grub to sda/b/c/etc, or the partition you installed to, and never skips a beat.