Would I be correct in thinking that these boot options/cheatcodes are only effective when a properly configured memory stick is plugged in?

I've used every combination of the home=scan home=/dev/sda1/knoppix.img and myconf=scan, myconf=/dev/sda1.....

Most freeze after /est/fstab is configured....both home=scan myconf=scan
and home=scan myconf=/dev/sda1 resulted in

Checking /mnt/ for knoppix configuration...
Filesystem not auto detected, trying to mount /dev/ with AES256 encryption
/dev/: Is a directory
Mount failed, retry? [y/n]

Then it froze...