Knoppix in a sculpture

[Alexxx]

I want to use Knoppix in a quite unusual setup:
the computer is the "brain" of a complex sculpture - its role to act according to a series of Perl scripts I've already coded...
This sculpture won't have anything else (visible) than an on/off switch.

I guess I'll have to remaster Knoppix so that:
1) boots level 3
2) mounts HD for data storing (ext3)
3) runs my scripts (from (/etc/rc3.d I guess)

This object will be powered on/off, always without warning, so ext3 is probably mandatory.

Now the questions:
a) do you see any problem with this scheme?
b) how can I be sure that the bootup won't ever hang at any level asking for root password if a filesystem error appears? I know it happens sometimes, don't know if it is fsck or else - can I disable it?

Thanks for your help

Alessandro

[paradocs]

Hi Alexxx,

KNOPPIX sounds like a reasonable choice for
you project.

Does the computer receive and save information
back for the sculpture and viewers? Is it saved
from boot to boot -- or, upon boot is the computer
always in the same initial state?

I do not see any problem if the boot up time is
rapid enough. All the hardware detection takes
time, but you may have to live with that since
optimizing a system for fast boot sounds pretty
advanced. Perhaps someone else has special
knowledge of this.

If you boot from CD or floppy assisted CD the
way or the number of times the system was
shut down can't mess up how the computed
restarts -- short of wearing it out.

If you don't collect data between boots you
do not need a hard drive. Your scripts and
KNOPPIX can be on one CD.

I work with no hard drive -- and burn and
reload my work from a second CDRW.
I do get nervous during thunder storms
since I do not have an uninterrupted power
supply.

Best Wishes
paradocs