test drive knoppix without burning CD?

[tealeaf]

Let's say you run out of blank CDs after downloading a new iso and you have knoppix hd installed.
You can mount -t iso9660 and insmod cloop the new file.
But where do you go from there to trying it out???

[spurious]

This is called a "poor man's install". See: http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/HdBasedHowTo

Practically: after you mount your Knoppix ISO image copy the contents of to a partition (eg. hda2) that is around 800 MB in size.

Create a boot floppy from the KNOPPIX/boot.img (dd if=/KNOPPIX/boot.img of=/dev/fd0). When you boot, use boot option fromhd=/dev/hda2

[Superstoned]

does anyone know wheter it is possible to upgrade/install software on a poorman's install?

tnx!

[tealeaf]

Can one avoid the tedium of copying 700MB?

[oscar]

does anyone know wheter it is possible to upgrade/install software on a poorman's install?

tnx!

no. it is much like running knoppix from cd.

[oscar]

Can one avoid the tedium of copying 700MB?

yes...why not?


There is something named wmware and virtualpc. They both are virtual computers capable of loading ISO images as they were real CDs

[tealeaf]

uh.. they don't come with the knoppix CD.
Anyway, surely would it be labour saving on the long run if one was to use a script perhaps to pivot_root from the present rootfs to the new /dev/cloop?

[tealeaf]

just got a new idea. How about a boot floppy that uses the iso straight as is? think about it, put the floppy in, a couple of lines of scripting to download the iso and restart the PC...

[garyng]

Can one avoid the tedium of copying 700MB?

yes...why not?


There is something named wmware and virtualpc. They both are virtual computers capable of loading ISO images as they were real CDs

I have tried a 'poorman's HD install' without peeking into the ISO and grab the clooped file, sort of 'poorman's vmware'. The idea is to instead of the following sequence(which is what KNOPPIX used) :

mount /dev/cdrom or /dev/hd?? then search for the clooped file

do the following :

mount /dev/hd?? and search for the ISO image, once found loop mount that through /dev/loop? and search again for the clooped image under the loopmounted directory and the rest is the same as KNOPPIX.

To do this, one obviously needs to change the linuxrc as well as the miniroot(need loop.o there).

[tealeaf]

Thanks garyng

Your suggestion sounds quite logical and straightforward. I'll give it a go it this weekend.