Poor Man's Install Not Working in version 7-26 version

[Stephen]

BTW, the old script for a full Debian Linux install to a Linux partition was knx-hdinstall. Which directory was that in again?

Also, there's a newer script, right? What's it called, where do I find it and how do I use it??? If the poor man install won't work with the latest KNOPPIX ISO, I may have to break down and actually do a hdinstall.

TIA,

The new script is called knoppix-installer to use it you would just open a console window and put sudo in front of it then follow the normal steps to install the system. With it you can save the configuration used for the install to a file to use on different machines. Also there is a .knofig file that is created when you save the configuration that has options in it to seperate out the directories like /home, /usr if you want to put them on seperate partitions. I think the knx-hdinstall and the new installer are in /usr/bin but I'm not sure using locate knx-hdinstall or whereis you should be able to find them.

[Dave_Bechtel]

--Actually they should be in /usr/local/bin.

BTW, the old script for a full Debian Linux install to a Linux partition was knx-hdinstall. Which directory was that in again?

Also, there's a newer script, right? What's it called, where do I find it and how do I use it??? If the poor man install won't work with the latest KNOPPIX ISO, I may have to break down and actually do a hdinstall.

TIA,

The new script is called knoppix-installer to use it you would just open a console window and put sudo in front of it then follow the normal steps to install the system. With it you can save the configuration used for the install to a file to use on different machines. Also there is a .knofig file that is created when you save the configuration that has options in it to seperate out the directories like /home, /usr if you want to put them on seperate partitions. I think the knx-hdinstall and the new installer are in /usr/bin but I'm not sure using locate knx-hdinstall or whereis you should be able to find them.

[garyng]

j.drake: RED ALERT, CAUTION, BEWARE...
As to NTFS, I think that garyng's post spoke of updating the Linux NTFS drivers from the 1.x version that KNOPPIX uses to the newer 2.x driver. I imagine that means on a full hdinstall or a remaster, not the poor man's install. Right?

No. not hdinstall or remaster. What I did was the following :

1. create a loopback file system on a local drive
2. store the newly compiled modules here(/lib/modules/*)
3. copy the ntfs.o driver to the initrd
4. make change to linuxrc to load the ntfs driver, loopback driver
5. before linuxrc get into the actual init process, mount --bind my own module tree

In this way, I have been using my customized kernel for serveral version of KNOPPIX(the big clooped image) without remastering. In fact, I keep multiple copy of it so I can switch between them easily as there may be surprise from version to version(something work, something broken etc.)

Of course if there is only NTFS partition, the situation would be a bit complicated as it is not safe to create new files under linux on NTFS, an intermediate storage is needed. A USB CF reader(or floppy if the size is not too large) can serve this purpose as I can just copy the things that I made under linux to the CF(which is FAT) and copy them over to the NTFS partition under XP. But this needs to be done only once in a while, just the vmlinuz(should I choose to compile a new one) or may be the initrd(if I want to change the booting stuff).

[bongski55]

Hi Jorge,
Thanks for replying(At Last). I was really hoping for you to answer because I think you are the most experirence poor man's install user. I am just disappointed that you have not tried the latest version. Here are my answers:
1. I don't think my cd is defective. It works as a live cd. The problem on a live cd is that it does not detect my hd partitions. In the text that are displayed at boot time there is supposed to be a line stating " hda1 hda2<hda5 hda6 hda7 hda8>" .On using knoppix 0726 I only get "hda1 hda2<> " which indicated that hda2 (the logical partition) has no partition at all.
I forgot to mention that when I tried to upgrade my kernel to 2.3.21 I also get this partition table problem. So I believe thi s is a kernel problem.

I have also tried the "upgrade script " (upgrade from 0606 to 726-see the home page this forum)and the resulting ISO also has this partition problem.

2. No I have not 'poor man's installed' Morphix since I cannot boot the latest version. Version b was installed to my home pc but have already removed it.

3. There are complaints in this forum about the latest install script showing only partition and quit as the choices. I think the reason is this partition not detected problem.

[baldyeti]

BTW, the old script for a full Debian Linux install to a Linux partition was knx-hdinstall. Which directory was that in again?

Also, there's a newer script, right?

I think that's respectively
/usr/local/bin/knx-hdinstall
and
/usr/local/sbin/knoppix-installer

[rf_homer]

j.drake: RED ALERT, CAUTION, BEWARE...
As to NTFS, I think that garyng's post spoke of updating the Linux NTFS drivers from the 1.x version that KNOPPIX uses to the newer 2.x driver. I imagine that means on a full hdinstall or a remaster, not the poor man's install. Right?

No. not hdinstall or remaster. What I did was the following :

1. create a loopback file system on a local drive
2. store the newly compiled modules here(/lib/modules/*)
3. copy the ntfs.o driver to the initrd
4. make change to linuxrc to load the ntfs driver, loopback driver
5. before linuxrc get into the actual init process, mount --bind my own module tree

This is very cool. However it is also slightly above the skill level of many users that I think would have use for this idea. I think I could re-create this, but I'm not sure how much it would take for me to do this right. Is there any way we could get you to post the boot.img that you created with this method? Or if you don't have anywhere to post it but don't mind sharing, could you send it to me and I will put it out with a location for others to take it.

On a side note garyng, I have to say I am impressed with the level of support you are giving the english speaking side of knoppix.

[baldyeti]

Let me make sure I understand.
NTFS is a non-issue with the newest versions of Knoppix???

Woah, careful there!
I can't speak for gary of course, but I'd still rather keep my NTFS partition(s)
safely mounted as read-only. What people seem to have had success with, though,
is freeing some diskspace with qtparted. So if you want to try the poor man's install,
I'd suggest you free a gigabyte at the end of your disk, then turn that into a
800 Mb fat32 unit for holding a copy of a knoppix cd, plus another unit of
200Mb for a persistent home.
You'll need to boot off a loadlin diskette. I think A.Jorge explains the process in a FAQ,
or you can find the thread we had about it a few months back.

Call me paranoid if you like but I don't think putting the valuable data people
keep on non-linux partitions at risk would do any good to knoppix's reputation.
If you want to share more data between your OS's, just allocate more fat32 space.

[baldyeti]

No. not hdinstall or remaster. What I did was the following :

1. create a loopback file system on a local drive
2. store the newly compiled modules here(/lib/modules/*)
3. copy the ntfs.o driver to the initrd
4. make change to linuxrc to load the ntfs driver, loopback driver
5. before linuxrc get into the actual init process, mount --bind my own module tree

Very clever. But Gary: does it require the NTFS parttion to be mounted RW?
If so, that's way too dangerous for general release, IMO. What would happen
when an unsuspecting user drags a file in konqueror to his NTFS unit?

[rf_homer]

Very clever. But Gary: does it require the NTFS parttion to be mounted RW?
If so, that's way too dangerous for general release, IMO. What would happen
when an unsuspecting user drags a file in konqueror to his NTFS unit?

Since he is just using it to mount the loop 700Meg Knoppix file, I am assuming that he is mounting it read-only, just like any other normal Knoppix boot. He just added the drivers so that the r-o NTFS works, where the boot image normally can't. This way he has a faster 'cdrom type' image off the HD. I want this so that I can use a cdburner, which is the only cdrom without having to mess with the existing setup.

I wish this would become part of the base knoppix boot.img files, but I'd be happy to host this file if Gary is willing to share it.

[garyng]

no need to mount RW, RO is enough as I don't need to write to it. Even if I need to mount RW, there is a way to 'shield' it from casual use. Just mount --bind another mount point on to the orginal one.

mount /dev/hda5 /mnt/ntfs
mount /mnt/ntfs/knoppix /mnt/knoppix -o loop
mount --bind /mnt/shield /mnt/ntfs

in this way, /mnt/htfs no long see the NTFS partition, it is not umounted, just shielded.