A few years ago this forum was a thriving community with many different types of users
participating from the beginner to the developer. These days the number of new posts is
much smaller and the responses to user questions are coming from very few people
– mostly developers. It seems in the process we have lost knowledge from the past.
I keep seeing the odd post about users having problems installing Knoppix to USB/hard
drive with persistence. Recently, utu, a quite knowledgeable user, stated the need to
do a flash install but to hard disk and asked whether it was possible. Those few years
ago I used to respond regularly to posts pointing out that the 'poor man's' install was
possible and gave advice on how to do it.
I can tell utu and others who want to listen that yes, it is still possible and persistence
is even easier to set up now! I got tired of posting because of arguing about the warnings
the more knowledgeable users would keep coming up with – notably (a) You should not install
Knoppix to hard disk and (b) You shouldn't install/write to an NTFS partition. Well friends,
I've been doing it for years and still have not had a problem. First of all I would
definitely emphasise that Knoppix is a Live Linux and Klaus Knopper did not intend it to be
installed as a full Linux install. You can do it but it will ultimately give you problems
and the advice has always been to use Debian if you want to go this way.
That being said, Klaus provided all the cheat codes and scripts to do a 'poor man's' install.
He intends it to be done to flash drive but it can be done to hard drive – you just have to
set it up yourself! The 'poor man's' install, also called a frugal install, is just like
running the live DVD only the Knoppix files are loaded from the flash drive/hard drive.
This has two advantages – it is quicker and it frees up the DVD drive for other disks.
With a persistence file you have another advantage over the live DVD that any settings
changes you make are persistent across sessions so once done they will not have to be redone
every time you boot up Knoppix. A 'poor man's' install does not give you the ability to
upgrade Knoppix any more than the Live DVD does. You have what Klaus has provided – no more
– but that is pretty good in my opinion!
There are three parts to performing a 'poor man's' install. First, the medium which holds
the install must be capable of booting Knoppix. This shouldn't be a problem if you already
have a linux installation – you already have a boot loader capable of booting Knoppix.
I run Knoppix as a 'poor man's' install from a hard disk in a multi-boot environment with
Windows and Puppy Linux. This means I alter the Windows boot process so that I have the
choice of Windows or Linux. To do this I use grldr from the Legacy Grub boot loading system.
It is possible to use Grub 2 but it is too complicated for me! I have written instructions
for doing this with Windows 9x, Windows XP and Windows 7. You will find the instructions
starting here:
http://www.icpug.org.uk/national/lin...00-linnwin.htm
Please don't ask about Windows 8. Anybody who wants to run Linux should not be buying a
computer with Windows 8 installed!
The second part of setting up the 'poor man's install' is to copy 4 or 5 files from the
Knoppix Live DVD – minirt.gz; linux; linux64; KNOPPIX and KNOPPIX1 if it exists. I have
these files from the CeBIT 7.3.0 version of Knoppix copied to a directory
FrugalLinux\knoppix-730 on an NTFS partition (sda5). You should note that any other files
on this partition will NOT be accessible when running Knoppix – well I haven't found out
how to do it! I view it as a security measure.
The third part is to add the instructions for booting this particular Knoppix Linux into
your boot loader. The instructions linked to earlier give details of these instructions for
Knoppix 4.0.2 – well this was written in 2006! The idea is exactly the same for 7.3.0 but
there are slight variations. I use the isolinux.cfg file on the Live DVD as a guide and the
instructions for loading 32 bit Knoppix on my setup using Legacy Grub are:
Code:
title Knoppix 7.3.0 CeBIT DVD from NTFS sda5
kernel (hd0,4)/FrugalLinux/knoppix-730/linux knoppix nomce fromhd=/dev/sda5 \
knoppix_dir=/FrugalLinux/knoppix-730 knoppix_name=KNOPPIX lang=uk libata.force=noncq \
hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 tz=localtime apm=power-off
initrd (hd0,4)/FrugalLinux/knoppix-730/minirt.gz
boot
Your setup will probably be different in minor respects – certainly the lang=uk is specific
to running with a UK keyboard. Any cheatcodes you need follow the kernel specifier on line 2.
Having done that all you need to do is reboot your PC and choose Knoppix! I find that on the
first boot I am asked if I want a persistence file and, if so, I can choose its size and
whether encrypted. This is MUCH easier than the old versions of Knoppix prior to Knoppix 6.
I'm not sure if I get this because I am doing the install to an NTFS partition. One you have
set up the boot process once it is very easy to upgrade to a later version of Knoppix when it
appears. Simply Copy the 4 or 5 files for the new version to your hard drive and amend the
boot instructions – this usually is just a change of folder name. I tend to run old and new
versions together at first and then delete the old version when I am happy the new one is OK.
The process above is just one way of doing a 'poor man's' install. You can copy the iso rather
than the individual files to your hard drive but then if you are installing to an NTFS
partition you then have to use Rymbeke's modified minirt.gz file in the boot process. I'm only
knowledgeable on this specific method of dual booting with Windows.
The point I am making is that, yes it IS possible to boot from a hard drive and have persistence.
I just thought it was time to remind the community of this fact.
Originally Posted by ICPUG
A few years ago this forum was a thriving community with many different types of users
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