Basic Poor Mans


From Knoppix Documentation Wiki
Revision as of 23:37, 3 August 2005 by Grepper (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search

Steps:

  • 1. Partition as necessary. My personal recommendation is to partition now, just as you would for a full HD install or dual boot. That way, if or when you decide to make the switch to a HD install, you're halfway there already. Reserve at least a gig for the image partition (I'll call it hdb1), but make it more like 5-10 gig if you eventually want to make it a root partition for a hd install, and if you have room. As long as you are partitioning anyway, reserve 0.5 gig or more for linux swap, and create one or more partitions for data and programs, including the persistent home, however big you need or want (we'll call that hdb5 in the example). You may also want a FAT32 partition for sharing data between linux and Windows. I recommend Qtparted for easy graphical partitioning, which is already on the Knoppix disk. With the more recent versions, you CAN safely repartition an existing NTFS partition. If you want your persistent home (PH) as a partition, the script will format it to ext2 and wipe out everything currently on that partition in the process, so plan for that in advance. You can also save the PH as a file in an existing partition if you prefer.
  • 2. Boot the Knoppix CD, using the default configuration, or whatever cheatcodes you're accustomed to using. For example, you might use knoppix26 to load the 2.6 kernel. Find the storage device you want to use (not NTFS), and make it writable (see item #2 in the What You Need to Know section, above).
  • 3. Create a persistent home (PH). A persistent home is a location for saving files and programs. Think of it as a combination of "My Documents" and "Program Files" in Windows (in fact, you could create subdirectories with those functions, or even those names, if you want, but let's worry about that later). If you don't want to partition, just save your PH as a file wherever you like. Click the penguin icon on the toolbar, and click Configure. From there, you can see the links to set up a persistent home, and to save your configuration. Do the PH now picking a non-NTFS location if you save it as a file, or picking a partition to be reformatted using ext3 (e.g., I used my whole hdb5 partition, but I could have saved it as a file in that partition if I had existing data, or if I didn't want it reformatted), log off and restart. From now on, you will add a cheatcode to get Knoppix to recognize that home (in my case, home=/dev/hdb5 or home=scan).
  • 4. Boot the CD with whatever cheatcodes you used before, but include the following cheatcode as well - I'll use hdb1 as the example for where I want the OS folder located: tohd=/dev/hdb1/. So, if you created your persistent home at the hdb5 partition, your boot might look like this: knoppix26 home=/dev/hdb5 tohd=/dev/hdb1, or if you saved your PH as a file and didn't partition, it might be: knoppix26 home=scan tohd=/dev/hdb1. The boot process will copy the image there and continue booting off the CD. Log off and restart.
  • 5. This time, you want to restart and substitute the cheatcode fromhd=/dev/hdb1 for the tohd location you specified in step 3. For example, knoppix26 home=scan fromhd=/dev/hdb1. The boot process should now be a lot faster, and you can remove the CD until the next time you boot. If you haven't already saved your configuration, you can do so now. Save it wherever you like (not NTFS) - if you want to use the same location as your persistent home, go ahead. Following the example above, your cheatcode string might now be: knoppix26 home=/dev/hdb5 myconfig=/dev/hdb5 fromhd=/dev/hdb1, or knoppix26 home=scan myconfig=scan fromhd=/dev/hdb1. Add any other cheatcodes you want or need, as long as each is separated by a space. If you aren't familiar with saving a configuration, basically it allows you to change the default Knoppix configurations that come on the CD, so you can define your printer file, or change the background on your desktop, or add icons, and Knoppix will remember these customizations with each reboot, provided that you add the myconfig cheatcode when you boot.
  • 6. Now that you're all set up, you can easily find your saved documents in your home directory. You don't have to remember the details - just click the house icon in Konqueror.
  • 7. The easiest way to install programs is by using Klik. Open Konqueror (not Mozilla or any other browser), and type in the following URL: http://klik.berlios.de/ then follow the instructions to install Klik. You will see a number of programs available to you for automatic installation. If you don't see the one you want listed, you can try the following command (still experimental) klik://softwarename into the address block of Konqueror.