Ok, so I thought my issue with using the home and config boot parameters together was somehow related to my attempts to use a PCMCIA device. So, I've carved out a 100 meg slice of my harddrive and now I'm trying to use hda2 as a home and to store the config.

Contrary to messages that pop up when you create the home directory and save the configuration, using those parameters together on the same device simply doesn't work. Boot messages say that /home/knoppix is mounted, then later the configuration is restored -- I haven't poked around too much, but I'm guessing that the device is unmounted following that final step.