Purpose:
Run KNOPPIX off the hard drive, which is much faster than running it off of the CD-ROM, without having to repartition the drive or learn how to use boot loaders.

Note:
This only works if you can boot to a DOS prompt, meaning you've got to be running DOS/Win3.x or Win9x. (Untested: This might work if you have Win2K/XP installed on a FAT32 partition, and boot from a Win98 boot disk, but I don't know.)

Credit for idea goes to:
http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/HdBasedHowTo

What you need:
WinImage
LOADLIN
(The LOADLIN docs are available in the full archive in the parent directory)
A zip extractor such as WinZip
Knoppix, burned to a CD-ROM
700+ MB free hard drive space
Knowledge of the "cheat-codes" you need to run Knoppix

HOW-TO:
1. Make a directory on your drive, say, C:\knoppix

2. Copy the ~700MB file X:\KNOPPIX\KNOPPIX (where X: is your CD-ROM drive) to C:\knoppix.

3. Use WinImage to open the X:\KNOPPIX\boot.img file (where X: is your CD-ROM drive). Extract the files "vmlinuz" and "miniroot.gz" to C:\knoppix.

4. Extract loadlin.exe (from the "loadlin.exe.gz" archive) to C:\knoppix (e.g. using WinZip).

5. Create a batch file, named something like "knoppix.bat", in C:\knoppix, containing:

rem Batch file to boot the KNOPPIX image from the hard drive using LOADLIN.
rem Put your Knoppix "cheat-codes" after the "ro" statement.
rem This batch file assumes you are running it from the same dir that
rem "vmlinuz" and "miniroot.gz" are saved in.
rem
loadlin vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 initrd=miniroot.gz ro

(You don't need to include any of the lines beginning with "rem".)

6. Put the "cheat-codes" (see "knoppix-cheatcodes.txt" on your Knoppix CD) after the "ro" statement. For example, my loadlin command reads:

loadlin vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb1 initrd=miniroot.gz ro 2 lang=us keyboard=us wheelmouse nousb home=/dev/hda1 myconfig=/dev/hdb2

(I use "2" to start Knoppix in text mode, because when run from the hard drive it sometimes has a hard time starting X windows automatically; and "nousb" to turn off probing for USB hardware, which has made Knoppix hang in the past.)

7. Boot to a DOS prompt. (In Win9x, you can use the "TweakUI" control panel, if you have it, to "always show boot menu," or you can press F8 when the computer displays "Starting Windows..." to bring up a boot menu.) Navigate to C:\knoppix, and type "knoppix" to run the batch file. The kernel will load, and Knoppix will find itself on your hard disk, and continue normally.

Limitations:
Knoppix thinks the partition you ran it from is the CD-ROM, even though it's not. Consequently, you won't be able to access your CD-ROM drive (at least, I can't - I haven't found a way to mount mine when running from the hard disk, and I have two of them).

Also, as far as configuration, persistent home directory, and swap files go, Knoppix will only use one partition for one of the above (even when run from CD). Meaning, you can't save your persistent home dir and your config files to the same partition. Now, when you run Knoppix off a partition, that means you can't load config files, a home dir, or a swap file from it. In my case, it doesn't matter, since I've got four partitions to play with, but for those with only one partition, you'll probably have to save/load your config files to/from a floppy.

Tested with:
Knoppix v3.2-2003-09-05-EN

Question:
Does it make any difference what "root=" is set to?