Knoppix is great. Knoppix on a USB stick with persistent data is really neat. If you can dual-boot that is: in some places of work it is not considered polite.
If you can't dual boot, you can still run Knoppix in a Virtual Machine. It is not quite as portable but you can still take your persistent data with you. Or at least you used to be able to.
Prior to Knoppix 6 is was possible to save your persistent data to a device other than the one Knoppix is run from. Many people ran Knoppix from CD and saved their persistent data to a (small by today's standards) USB stick. This is no longer possible.
This is a problem for those running Knoppix 6 as a guest OS in a Virtual Machine (such as VirtualBox). Although you can access USB devices from within Virtual Machines, you cannot boot from them. It is possible to boot from a USB stick if it is defined as a 'rawdisk' (a special kind of virtual disk) but the 'rawdisk' may be read-only so you can't save any persistent data to it.
This is Windows®: under Windows® XP you can write to a 'rawdisk' used as a boot device but under Windows® 7 you can't. It's an security thing.
The simply way around this is to redirect the Knoppix boot using the fromhd= cheatcode.
To set it up, you arrange for the Virtual Machine to boot a Knoppix CD/DVD image and you connect your USB stick as a USB device. Boot up Knoppix and do an 'install to USB' onto the USB device.
To use it, you reboot the Virtual Machine and let it boot from the CD/DVD image but stop it at the boot prompt. Enter (depending on how many Virtual Disks the Virtual Machine has):
The Knoppix boot is redirected to the USB stick, to which you have read/write access, so Koppix can create and use a persistent store on the USB stick.Code:knoppix fromhd=/dev/sdb1
You need two copies of Knoppix to run just one. This has two minor inconveniences: it is just a little too easy to boot the wrong one and it isn't as portable as single copy on a USB stick.
The notes below describe how to do a manual 'install to USB' of just enough to be able to Knoppix on another device. This cuts the ~ 3.5 Gb needed for a full 'install to USB' down to less than 8 Mb. A Virtual Disk this small is easily backed up on the USB stick itself giving a transportable, if not portable, solution.
These notes were prepared with reference to the script /usr/bin/flash-knoppix from Knoppix 6.4.3.
1 . Add a new Virtual Disk to your Virtual Machine, Make it 'expandable' to a maximum size of 8 Mb. Arrange the Virtual Machine's device to boot Knoppix from a CD/DVD image and to have the new Virtual Disk as the IDE 'primary master'.
2. Boot Knoppix and open a console. Check /dev/sda exists and that /dev/sda1 doesn't (inspect the output of ls -l /dev/disk/by-id).
3. Create a single partition on /dev/sda that occupies the full disk. If you use cfdisk /dev/sda, the selection sequence is [New] / [Primary] / all / [Bootable] / [Write] / yes / [Quit].
4. Now enter the commands below as shown:
5. To make the mini boot disk automatically redirect the boot to the USB you need to edit syslinux/syslinux.cfg. Here's a suggestion:Code:# Write boot sector ms-sys -s /dev/sda # Make Linux read the partition table sudo blockdev --rereadpt /dev/sda # Create a vfat file system mkdosfs /dev/sda1 # Knoppix should automatically mount the new filesystem, if not ... sudo mkdir -p /media/sda1 sudo mount /dev/sda1 /media/sda1 # Install the boot loader syslinux /dev/sda1 # Copy boot files rsync -ax /mnt-system/boot /media/sda1 cd /media/sda1/boot # If you've copied from an 'install to USB', skip the rest mv -f {iso,sys}linux mv -f syslinux/{iso,sys}linux.cfg rm -f syslinux/isolinux.bin
Make sure you don't leave out the space before fromhd=.Code:sed -e '/APPEND ramdisk/s~$~ fromhd=/dev/sdc1~' -i syslinux/syslinux.cfg
This assumes /dev/sda will be the mini boot disk, /dev/sdb will be the main disk (with swap partition if nothing else) and the USB stick will show up as /dev/sdc.
6. Shut down the Virtual Machine. Change its configuration so that is doesn't boot the CD/DVD image. Add a second, larger, Virtual Disk for swap space and stuff. Make sure it isn't the IDE primary master.
7. Start the Virtual Machine again.
Lot SanDisk USB Flash Drive Cruzer Blade Glade Force Ultra Flair Luxe 3.0 3.1
$149.99
USB Flash Drive Memory Stick Pendrive Thumb Drive 4GB, 8GB, 32GB, 64GB 128GB LOT
$249.37
Type C USB 3.0 Flash Drive Thumb Drive Memory Stick for PC Laptop 1TB 2TB lot
$73.29
1TB/2TB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Thumb U Disk Memory Stick Pen PC Laptop Storage lot
$80.39
New TESLA OEM Model S,3,X,Y USB Flash Drive for Dashcam & Sentry Mode 128GB
$18.99
Sandisk 16GB 32GB 64GB 128GB Cruzer Blade Flash Drive Memory Stick USB Lot Pack
$4.99
2TB USB 3.0 Flash Drive Memory Photo Stick for iPhone Android iPad Type C 3 IN1
$16.72
Windows 10 64Bit Installation Kit Flash Drive, USB 16GB, Easy Installation
$10.99
Lot USB Flash Drive Memory Stick Pendrive Thumb Drive 2GB,4GB, 8G, 32G, 64G 128G
$217.13
SanDisk Cruzer Glide USB 3.0 16GB 32GB 64GB 128GB 256GB Flash Drive Memory Lot
$276.48