Using kvm to install Knoppix from ISO image to flash and HD, 7.6.1 example.

[Capricorny]

Installing a fully functioning live Debian 9.1.0 on the HP ProBook 450 G3 was a bit of a challenge, as the Intel 3165 wireless adapter required non-free + drivers + firmware. Using Debian 8.3.0 can not be recommended on this hardware without an upgrade from kernel 3.16 - Debian 9.X stretch uses 4.9 kernels.
So what I did, was placing the squashfs live file in one directory, creating a persistence file as described above on another, making av boot stanza for legacy grub, and then running the whole system under kvm on Knoppix 7.7.1 for setup, using

sudo kvm /dev/sda -m 2046 &

. But in this case, wired network did not work right out of the box under kvm (first time ever I have experienced this). The simple workaround I used, was that on every start I had to patch /etc/network/interfaces with the correct "eth0" version, in this case ens3 which I found from the output of

ifconfig -a

. I created a small script for this:

#!/bin/bash
echo 'auto ens3' >> /etc/network/interfaces
echo 'iface ens3 inet dhcp' >> /etc/network/interfaces
/etc/init.d/networking restart

Then wired ethernet worked, and I could do all the installs online in the virtual machine. Afterwards, I booted Debian 9.1 natively, and from the

iwconfig

output I found out what they had invented as a name for wlan0. Telling wicd about this, I got wireless up and running.

There are a few reasons I have to run "pure" Debian, but Knoppix has, again, turned out to be an almost indispensable tool to get a "poor man's install" of Debian up and running.

I still use old, legacy grub for booting - gives me very few problems. In Debian 9.1, kernel and initrd does not seem to be patched to accomodate non-free firmware and modules.