How to boot knoppix with USB CDROM

**menisk** · 01-16-2004, 04:38 PM

I'd like to know if there is some trick to boot a knoppix system with a cdrom connected by usb 2.0 port.

I have buyed a X31 notebook by IBM ed it hasn't floppy only pen drive or usb cdrom...

I don't like too much the idea to extract the hd and install in another note.

Has somebody a good idea?

Thanks a lot

Menisk

**Hackito** · 01-16-2004, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by menisk

I'd like to know if there is some trick to boot a knoppix system with a cdrom connected by usb 2.0 port.

I have buyed a X31 notebook by IBM ed it hasn't floppy only pen drive or usb cdrom...

I don't like too much the idea to extract the hd and install in another note.

Has somebody a good idea?

Thanks a lot

Menisk

Yes you can boot from USB CDROM

You´ve to activate it in BIOS

Your CD should be a bootable CDROM

That's all

Hackito

**raykt** · 01-24-2004, 09:45 AM

I might be using too old a version of knoppix -
The boot load works, then knoppix (and similarly for redhat7.3) halts, as the OS hasn't yet defined the usb-devices, so it cannot see the cd-rom.

Is there a variant with USB(crom) support built in to the initial booted ramdisk image?

**wutwuzdat** · 01-26-2004, 02:18 AM

Originally Posted by raykt

I might be using too old a version of knoppix -
The boot load works, then knoppix (and similarly for redhat7.3) halts, as the OS hasn't yet defined the usb-devices, so it cannot see the cd-rom.

Is there a variant with USB(crom) support built in to the initial booted ramdisk image?

I have exactly the same problem (Thinkpad X31, external usb2 dvd-rw drive). Knoppix (and other live-cds) boot up ok until the point where it tries to mount the root filesystem. It just barfs at that point (error mounting /), drops to shell (ash) and I can't really proceed.

I was thinking I could copy the iso to the hard drive and use the new boot param but before I attempt to do so, does anyone foresee any problems because the hd is NTFS atm? If it doesn't work with NTFS, I will have to repartition and if I'm gonna do that I might as well as install gentoo. argh

Please help us.......

**ktheking** · 01-26-2004, 02:57 AM

People be very carefull with IBM laptops !
I know IBM got series of laptops that got default encrypted harddisks.
The encryption is hardware encoded. (a chip beside the ide-controller).
So be very carefull when testing knoppix (or any other livecd) on a IBM laptop. It IS NOT INCLUDED in the warranty if you f*** up you HDD !.

Maybe it's the case for this laptop ?

If you wanna persist try booting with a cheatcode that doesn't search and automount your HDD ?

**wutwuzdat** · 01-26-2004, 07:23 AM

Originally Posted by ktheking

People be very carefull with IBM laptops !
I know IBM got series of laptops that got default encrypted harddisks.
The encryption is hardware encoded. (a chip beside the ide-controller).
So be very carefull when testing knoppix (or any other livecd) on a IBM laptop. It IS NOT INCLUDED in the warranty if you f*** up you HDD !.

Maybe it's the case for this laptop ?

If you wanna persist try booting with a cheatcode that doesn't search and automount your HDD ?

First of all... the problem here is the inability read the CDROM... not the hd.

Anyway, there is nothing funny about the hd on the X31. I actually had gentoo running on this laptop for 3 months... Way back then I successfully did a network boot+install off my linux desktop through a lan; No cds required. Unfortunately, I had to format and put winxp back on for work related reasons, and now I'm in a foreign country without access to a linux box... I searched the forums and it looks like the default ISO is missing some usb/firewire storage modules...

I found instructions for building a custom knoppix ISO with the necessary usb modules but as my linux desktops are on the other side of the world at the moment, I can't make my own livecds.

I think I read somewhere that the next release of knoppix may have these modules but it won't be released until end of first quarter 2004....

**gowator** · 01-26-2004, 11:30 AM

Sure someone will point out if Im wrong BUT
Isnt this just a case of the USB modules not being present...

I was getting a friend to try with the same prob and although we didnt try yet shouldn't copy to HDD get round this....
i.e.
knoppix tohd=/dev/hda1 ??

then boot with fromhd and do the 'proper' install from there??

**oaaltone** · 02-04-2004, 01:42 AM

Originally Posted by wutwuzdat

I found instructions for building a custom knoppix ISO with the necessary usb modules but as my linux desktops are on the other side of the world at the moment, I can't make my own livecds.

I think I read somewhere that the next release of knoppix may have these modules but it won't be released until end of first quarter 2004....

I'm in the same boat. My Linux machine is gone, and I was hoping to use Knoppix on my X31. Booting off the USB CD-ROM works, of course, but it drops me to the limited shell due to the lack of USB modules.

If anyone can tell me how to build an .iso image of Knoppix from a Windows machine with the proper USB modules, I'd be more than grateful. (Or, if someone wants to make an .iso for me, I can grab it from them and host it for everyone.)

**garyng** · 02-05-2004, 08:07 AM

just copy the big 700M file from the CD to c:\knoppix\ so it becomes c:\knoppix\knoppix and boot with the CD-ROM.

I am assuming your c: is FAT, if it is NTFS this won't work(well may be it would work as the cloop may have been recoded to cope with NTFS, haven't tested that for a long time).

**oaaltone** · 02-05-2004, 01:34 PM

Originally Posted by garyng

just copy the big 700M file from the CD to c:\knoppix\ so it becomes c:\knoppix\knoppix and boot with the CD-ROM.

I am assuming your c: is FAT, if it is NTFS this won't work(well may be it would work as the cloop may have been recoded to cope with NTFS, haven't tested that for a long time).

I'm aware of this workaround, but was not aware that it would work with my NTFS partition. I will give it a shot later.