Cheat Codes


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Introduction

German Version: Cheat Codes Deutsch / French Version: Cheat Codes French / Versión español: Cheat Codes Spanish


Cheatcodes are used to pass options to KNOPPIX to help with getting it working on difficult hardware. You type them into the boot screen and press enter/return. The format is "kernel option option option ...". Usually "knoppix" is the right selection for the "kernel". You can type more than one cheatcode before pressing enter. Also note that some options can take on values.

Example: "knoppix xvrefresh=60 noscsi floppyconfig"


Options

lang=bg|be|ch|cn|cs|cz|da|de|dk|es|fi|fr|ie|it|ja|nl|pl|ru|sk|tr|tw|uk|us 
specify language/keyboard
You can go to the ISO 639 site to see the two-letters code meanings.
For example, typing knoppix lang=us you change the keyboard/language to US english.
If you don't change the keyboard, in the default DE-bootimage, Knoppix boots with the german keyboard layout (i.e. '=' letter is located at Shift-0 at this keyboard). Print the german keyboard layout for your reference.


keyboard=us 
specify only console keyboard


xkeyboard=us 
specify X keyboard


atapicd  
Do NOT use SCSI-Emulation for IDE CD-Roms - Knoppix V3.4 and later


desktop=fluxbox|icewm|larswm|twm|wmaker|xfce 
Use specified WM instead of KDE


screen=1280x1024 
Use specified Screen resolution for X


xvrefresh=60 or vsync=60 
Use 60 Hz vertical refresh rate for X


xhrefresh=80 or hsync=80 
Use 80 kHz horizontal refresh rate for X


xserver=XFree86|XF86_SVGA 
Use specified X-Server


xmodule=ati|radeon|fbdev|vesa|savage|s3|nv|i810|mga|svga|tseng 
Use specified XFree4-Module


wheelmouse 
The mouse is a wheelmouse - not needed since 2003-04-15


nowheelmouse 
Regular PS/2 mouse - 2003-04-15 and after.


Runlevel 0, Shutdown
Runlevel 1, Textmode, single user
Runlevel 2, Textmode only
Runlevel 3, Textmode only
Runlevel 4, Textmode only
Runlevel 5, Graphics mode, default
Runlevel 6, Reboot


myconfig=scan or floppyconfig or floppyconf (in recent versions) 
Run knoppix.sh from a floppy. The "floppyconfig" option allows you to reconfigure the system after autoconfig, or install your own config files, by mounting a floppy disk and running a bourne shell script called knoppix.sh from the root directory on this floppy. There is a GUI to create such a configuration floppy disk calles "saveconfig" (also located in the KDE menu under "KNOPPIX", but experts also know how to do this by creating their own shellscripts. The configuration with network and graphics setup are stored in configs.tbz. A file called knoppix.sh, if located in the toplevel KNOPPIX directory on CD, will also be executed at startup. This makes it easier to create customized versions without having to change anything on the compressed filesystem KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX.


myconf=/dev/sda1  
Run "knoppix.sh" from a partition - Knoppix V3.4


myconf=scan (or config=scan) 
Try to find "knoppix.sh" automatically - Knoppix V3.4


noapic noagp noapm nodma nomce nofirewire nopcmcia noscsi noswap nousb nosmp noaudio 
Skip parts of Hardware-detection, In case of a failing hardware autodetection, try booting with any of the "no-" options as shown in the table above, like in knoppix noagp noapm noapic nodma nopcmcia noscsi nousb to skip some critical parts of the autodetection system. The "noswap" option is useful for a forensic analysis without touching existing swap partitions.


nofstab 
By default Knoppix will look/scan the HDs to see if it contains partitions. If the HDs do have partitions, Knoppix will automatically build a '/etc/fstab' file and fill-in the appropriate partition entries and will also create the '/mnt/hdxx' mount points. The 'nofstab' cheat code prevents this look/scan and prevents the generation of the /etc/fstab and its mount points.


nohwsetup 
Skip hardware detection (does not run hwsetup)


no-hlt 
Do not perform hlt test. On some CPUs or with some power supplies the hlt test can cause the CPU to reset, so specifying this instruction will cause the system to ignore the hlt test and run at full power. Warning, this can cause your CPU to run hotter, and may defeat power saving measures.


pci=bios 
Workaround for bad PCI controllers


pci=biosirq 
Will force the use of the BIOS assigned Interrupt ReQuests on the PCI bus. Possible cure for non-functioning hardware. Very handy for unruly IRQ conflicts. Look at dmesg and cat /proc/pci to find out if you have any such troubles..


pci=irqmask=0x0e98 
Notebook if PS/2 mouse doesn't work, Try "knoppix pci=irqmask=0x0e98" if (you have a notebook and) your PS/2 mouse doesn't work. (Possibly caused by a BIOS-flaw on your board.)


ide2=0x180 nopcmia 
boot from PCMCIA-CD (Transmeta notebooks)


mem=128M 
Specify Memory size in MByte, Some Boards apparently don't pass the proper memory size to the linux-kernel. It may cause the message "Panic cannot mount root file system" and the system hangs. Use "knoppix mem=128M" to solve that problem if your system has 128MByte memory for example (caution you MUST use a capital "M" here). Stuff like mem=16320K also works.


noeject 
Do NOT eject CD after halt


noprompt 
Its especially useful in combination with noeject. With noprompt, Knopix won't eject the CD and ask for a keypress. It was a much asked feature some time ago. Version 2003-09-22 and later.


nodhcp 
skip dhcp/network broadcast detection


splash 
It shows the upper half of the KDE splash-screen, while booting up. You can press Esc anytime to see all the messages. Ever wanted to hide those cryptic messages? Version 2003-09-22 and later.
  • New in 3.4: Animations (see for yourself) and the ability to press any key.


modules-disk 
This cheatcode allows you to insert a floppy disk with additional modules, for example USB-stick or similar. Yes, its also possible with "expert", but there you lose the automatic configuration afterwards. Version 2003-09-22 and later.


toram 
Copy CD to RAM and run from there. Version 2003-09-05 and later.


tohd 
You can now do a "poor mans install" on vfat and ext2-Partitions with, knoppix tohd=/dev/hda1 Version 2003-09-22 and later.


fromhd 
With this cheatcode the CD-Roms are ignored, so you can finally boot your "poor mans install" with just the original cdrom. Version 2003-09-05 and later. note - Cheatcode "toram" and "fromhd" work now together. Usage fromhd=/dev/hda1.


boot=/dev/hda1
(after you load kernel and run ramdisk startup stuff (minirt.gz) however you may choose)
Then continue starting up from hda1/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX . This is an easy way to free up your CD drive--you don't even need the CD at all, to boot, if you boot using loadlin, and have the 'linux' file and 'minirt.gz' file being loaded from the hard drive with loadlin. just copy the cd compressed contents to the root directory of a partition. then load knoppix with loadlin or however, passing this code in addition to the others, as you start up.
This was tested to work on a fat32 partition, in knoppix 3.4. --gh78 May 20 2006


bootfrom=/dev/hda1 
Access Image then boot from previously copied CD-Image (enables booting from NTFS / ReiserFS) - Knoppix V3.4


bootfrom=/dev/hda1/KNX.iso 
Access image, boot from ISO-Image. - Knoppix V3.4
NOTE: bootfrom needs access to a running Knoppix-System with the same Kernel as the Bootkernel, before it is able to mount the partition / ISO-Image. This should allow a poor mans install from NTFS-Partitions and makes it also possible to boot an ISO-Image directly. You can also use wildcards in the ISO-Filename, but it must be unique. So: If you have just one KNOPPIX.iso on /dev/hda1 you can access it as: bootfrom=/dev/hda1/K*.iso, but if there are several, you need to make clear, which one you want. (Feature added by Fabian Franz.)
CAUTION: The 2.4 kernel that is in the KNOPPIX 3.4 CD does not support the ext3 filesystem so make sure that the ISO is stored in an ext2 filesystem.


gmt|utc 
Hardware clock is set to GMT/UTC


tz=Europe/Berlin 
Hardware clock is set to timezone Europe/Berlin


vga=normal 
No-framebuffer mode, but X


vga=ext 
50-line TEXT mode


dma 
enable DMA for all IDE drives


home=scan 
Set home directory. 'scan' will search for knoppix.img in the root of all partitions. To create a home directory, go K-menu -> Knoppix -> Configure -> Create persistant home directory. Be carefull when creating the home-dir, Do NOT use the entire partition unless you know what you are doing. Other options could be, home=/dev/hda1/knoppix.img home=/mnt/hda1/knoppix.img . If you are using a USB memory stick type home=/dev/sda1/knoppix.img but home=scan will probably do.


blind 
Start Braille-Terminal (no X)


brltty=type,port,table 
Parameters for Braille device.

For more information on brltty parameters see http://mielke.cc/brltty/guidelines.html

alsa 
Autoconfigure alsa for an pci-soundcard


alsa=es1938 
Configure alsa for the snd-es1938.o-module pci-soundcard


testcd 
Check CD data integrity, If your KNOPPIX CD makes strange noises during boot, or you see frequent errors like "cloop read error", or programs on your KDE desktop keep crashing randomly, then your CD image is probably defective or incomplete, or your CD-burner created a defective CD due to wrong writing speed or bad media. This is the most common error reported. Please boot with "knoppix testcd" to check if the CD is OK, and/or even better, verify the MD5 checksums that are present on the mirrors before writing the CD. Also, please read the KNOPPIX-FAQ.
CAUTION: testcd can take a long time and the screen saver often starts while the testcd check is running. Hit SHIFT or CTRL to turn off the screen saver and continue, there is likely no need to reset the system or burn another CD at this point.


pnpbios=off 
No PnP Bios initialization


acpi=off  
Disable ACPI Bios completely


knoppix_dir=KNOPPIX  
Directory to search for on the CD.


knoppix_name=KNOPPIX 
Cloop-File to search for on the CD.


-b 
"Emergency Mode", a quick-n-dirty boot, almost no HW detection, only 1 VT; hit enter at root-password prompt and start typing commands. Good if you just need to fdisk IDE devices, activate a different partition for booting, DD stuff, and you are planning on rebooting Real Fast after you're done. You can actually Alt-SysRQ-B safely ie. immediate reboot w/o worrying about shutting down nicely or anything, because nothing is mounted r/w at ALL - not even swap. Also works on other Linux distros.



Kernels

For a complete listing of the kernels and kernel labels, see the isolinux.cfg file on the CD.

knoppix or linux 
Default settings
# cat /proc/cmdline
ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791
initrd=minirt.gz nomce quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix BOOT_IMAGE=linux


knoppix26 or linux26 
Boot the 2.6 kernel for use with the new Knoppix 3.4 and 3.4 c't Edition.


knoppix-txt 
No framebuffer at startup
# cat /proc/cmdline
ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=normal
initrd=minirt.gz nomce quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix BOOT_IMAGE=linux


fb1280x1024 or fb1024x768 or fb800x600 
Use fixed framebuffer graphics
# cat /proc/cmdline
ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=794
xmodule=fbdev initrd=minirt.gz nomce quiet BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix BOOT_IMAGE=linux


failsafe 
Boot with (almost) no hardware detection
# cat /proc/cmdline                                              
ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us vga=normal atapicd
nosound noapic noacpi pnpbios=off acpi=off nofstab noscsi 
nodma noapm nousb nopcmcia nofirewire noagp nomce nodhcp 
xmodule=vesa initrd=minirt.gz BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix BOOT_IMAGE=linux


expert 
Interactive setup for experts, The "expert" mode provides a very simple and not yet well tested interface to loading additional Kernel modules from floppy disks (ext2 or vfat), plus interactive configuration of mouse/keyboard/soundcard/xserver. "expert" mode supports the same boot options as "knoppix".
# cat /proc/cmdline                                              
ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791
initrd=minirt.gz nomce BOOT_IMAGE=expert BOOT_IMAGE=linux


expert26 
The same as above only with 2.6 kernel - Knoppix V3.4


memtest 
Run memtest86 instead of Linux - Knoppix V3.4


debug 
Pauses at various stages in the boot and shutdown processes. Type 'exit' to move on to the next stage.
# cat /proc/cmdline
ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off
vga=normal initrd=minirt.gz debug BOOT_IMAGE=debug BOOT_IMAGE=linux
userdef 
useful kernel alias if you use knoppix-customize. Type 'man knoppix-customize' for more information. Very experimental.



Tips&Tricks

If you are unable to boot Knoppix (i.e. the screen goes blank, you see a kernel panic message, the screen flickers, you are dropped into a minimal shell, Knoppix simply freezes while booting, etc.), try these boot commands in order:

  1. boot: knoppix vga=0
  2. boot: knoppix acpi=off pnpbios=off noapic noapm Helpful for laptops
  3. boot: knoppix vga=0 debug -b 3 Using this boot command will cause Knoppix to pause at various stages in the boot process. Just type 'exit' at each shell prompt to move on to the next stage. You will know that you are at the final stage when typing 'exit' does not do anything. If you get that far, type 'init 5' to go into graphics mode.
  4. boot: failsafe debug -b 3 That will do the same as the previous boot command, except turn off most of the hardware detection.

If you still have issues, please post in the Hardware & Booting forum, tell us which of the above boot commands you tried, and how far in the boot process you were able to get.


Information for further troubleshooting:

Most of the boot options are parsed by different programs and scripts during the booting process, roughly in this order:

  • the isolinux bootloader
  • the linux kernel
  • /linuxrc , which can be found in /cdrom/boot/isolinux/miniroot.gz -> linuxrc
  • /etc/init.d/knoppix-autoconfig
  • /etc/init.d/xsession
  • /usr/sbin/mkxf86config
  • /etc/init.d/knoppix-halt
  • /etc/init.d/knoppix-reboot

For more information on passing boot parameters to the kernel, see 'man boot' and 'man bootparam'.


Updates

Updated for Knoppix 3.1 2003-01-05
Updated for Knoppix 3.2 
desktop=gnome is no longer available... (use Gnoppix).
Updated for Knoppix 3.8.2

Links