Hi !

got the same error. After trying to format the first fs (/dev/hdb2) whole harddisk got locked. I rebooted knoppix from CD and formatted the next step by step (/dev/hdb3 and /deb/hdb4).

Workaround:
set partitions by qparted or other partitioning-program (PQMagic) without fotmatting, reboot knoppix CD, start root shell and format the partitions using "sudo mkswap /dev/hdb1" and the filesystems by "sudo mkfs.ext3 /dev/hdb2" etc (replace hdb1 / hdb2 by your harddrive requirements !)
Works for me.

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Update:

Hmmm - seems, that knoppix-inst.sh doesn't like ext3, the partitioning with ext2 works well with qtparted. Will try some more and give feedback in a while.