Category:Hard drive Installation

The main strength of Knoppix is its ability to be run from memory as a Live Linux CD. The advantage to this is that you can take the CD with you. However, it is possible to install Knoppix on a harddrive.

• You can do a HD installation with 'Preferences/ KNOPPIX HD Install' from the Knoppix CD/DVD in a free partiton you chose. It is a Debian-like installation with GRUB legacy as bootmanager.

• You can do a flash disk installation with 'Preferences/ Install KNOPPIX to flash disk' and do the installation to a flash device. Nowadays it is also called poor man installation.

• Some people select 'Preferences/ Install KNOPPIX to flash disk' and do the installation not on a flash device but on a partiton of a harddrive and call it "poor man harddrive installation". This installation uses Syslinx to boot with compressed KNOPPIX and uses persistent memory to preserve any changes.

• You can boot with the Knoppix-CD using the cheatcode:

knoppix tohd=<path to some hard disk>

(for example: knoppix tohd=/dev/sda2). Knoppix will create a folder called "KNOPPIX" in the partition you chose and you will be asked to create persistent memory. The disk partition used can be a Linux format such as ext3 but can also be fat32, but not ntfs. See also Cheat Codes.

To boot this basic poor man installation you need again a Knoppix CD or a boot-only Knoppix-CD; at boot prompt type:

knoppix fromhd=<path to the disk you used>.

If you decide to do a HD installation of Knoppix, please read HD_Install_Warning_not_to_do_it first.

If all you want to do is free up your CD drive, save data, make configuration and customisations, install new software packages, and have all these changes available from session to session, consider these Live CD Tips before resorting to a hard disk install.