Quote Originally Posted by Ridgeburner
Well that's wrong it seems, b/c access is denied to the main /home directory, especially since it's all run off the CD I've tried everything, and (in this example) im install AIM onto knoppix, and it's set to install on the ./usr/lib and .usr/lib and so on, which is a directory stored on the knoppix CD. I've tried everything, I dont think it'll ever work.
As I said /home or /ramdisk/home is on the ramdisk and it is writable. You would have to make the program use ~/usr/lib (~ is short for your current users home directory). If aim will install like that you should be able to run it.

You should be able to copy the contents from a .deb file using mc (midnight commander) to your home directory and then add directories like ~/usr/lib ~/lib etc. to your path. The problem is most programs look for config files in /etc not ~/etc. (Please note I said most not all)

There are many other ways that you could add any program but they get more and more complex.