Re: [debian-knoppix] cheat code that allows hd based knoppix from original CDROM
Dear Dennis,
what you are asking seems pretty much the "anchor" feature that
has been present in DemoLinux since the very beginning (see www.demolinux.org):
the idea is that you throw an anchor on a hard disk with some information,
and next time you boot the CD, the anchor is found, startup is blazing
fast and you find all your data sitting there.
This allows you to run in a hybrid mode by interposing a layer between
the CD and the RAM, that we call "plume" (feather) wrt the "plomb" (lead)
represented by the CD-Rom. This feather can be small (10Mb) or as large
as you want, and depending on its size, it may allow you to install new
packages that will only reside in the feather.
The technology behind this valuable idea is not too complex, but the
creation of the feather is time consuming (beware of simple assertions
like "I just want /home and /etc in it": you will soon find out the
picture is less clear-cut). Current versions of DemoLinux perform
feather creation at cd creation time, but one may imagine to do it
at installation (anchoring) time.
Anyway, DemoLinux has not been very active lately on hardware detection
and the like, so next version will very likely be based on many Knoppix
packages. It is only fair then to take and reuse DemoLinux's anchoring
code/logic and put it into Knoppix.
I'll try to rewrite the code as cleanly as possible and let you know on the list
as soon as it's stable enough to be worth testing
--Roberto
>>>>> "Dennis" == Dennis Ng <ngcc_hk@yahoo.com> writes:
Dennis> Thanks, chris and Donn Washburn. Perhaps I would like to clear my
Dennis> intention.
Dennis> My point is a expansion of knoppix purpose - instead of a demo
Dennis> cdrom, it=20 will be a proper and perhaps to be one of the best
Dennis> distributation way=20 around to use Linux. Other than Mandrake, it
Dennis> is the only distribution I=20 have successful use for the last one
Dennis> decade. (I did try s--ware one). For= =20 those of us that have to
Dennis> use windows for some works but like to dual boot=20 to updated linux
Dennis> from time to time, that seems it is very close to be there= =20 but
Dennis> just not. It has a possibility to work like Virtual PC i.e. all
Dennis> major= =20 files externalised and live in another PC. You do not
Dennis> need to mesh around= =20 with MBR and you can copy this files across
Dennis> easily to different systems.
Dennis> Let us start from what should be in the fat32 hard drive you may
Dennis> understand= me.
Dennis> In the exterme wish what one want is simply
Dennis> a fat32 partition (windos c:) or this is not possible another
Dennis> partition a knoppix swap file in this partition a knoppix home file
Dennis> (.img) in this partition again the /knoppix in this partition as
Dennis> well a cdrom
Dennis> boot with a cheatcode say =3Dtw for language thing, home=3D/...=
Dennis> myconfig=3D/...=20 cdromfile=3D/... ... and then use the knoppix. I
Dennis> can copy easily those= files=20 to anywhere I want (I have a
Dennis> portable hard disk) or I can backup easily=20 using the crdom as
Dennis> well. Perfect. The cheatcode proposed here is simply=20 one step
Dennis> towards things that people seemed to work on.
Dennis> Other than obviously no idea to add cheatcode, I can reach the point
Dennis> so far= to
Dennis> a fat32 partition (windos d:) a knoppix swap file under d: a
Dennis> /knoppix under d: no cdrom use floppy to boot (my portable has to
Dennis> hotswap the floppy or cdrom)
Dennis> The issue is
Dennis> a) The solution above is already documented in hdbased but I miss it
Dennis> first= =20 round as the whole page above is very hard to follow.
Dennis> Still, the need of=20 floppy in all cases sesms not unnecessary as
Dennis> everyone that run knoppix=20 would have cdrom. Insist on floppy
Dennis> would mean that I cannot use my=20 cdrom. Using Lilo helps but it
Dennis> touches upon MBR. BTW, the network based= =20 approach is not in
Dennis> the minimist spirit as it require one more CPU.
Dennis> b) For the persistent home, it does not work so far . I have used
Dennis> a=20 knoppix menu to create the knoppix.img. The script came up
Dennis> with an error= =20 message of "THE KNOPPIX configuation could NOT be
Dennis> saved: /usr/sbin/mkpersistenthome: line 231:rsync: command not
Dennis> found". Struggle=20 still what is meant by that. At the end of the
Dennis> day may have to set up the= =20 7g linux partition to do the knoppix
Dennis> cloning. But I still think that such= =20 hard work is not
Dennis> necessary.
Dennis> Overall speaking, it just seem it is there and I have to work a bit
Dennis> harder= =20 to make knoppix very user friendly distribution. You
Dennis> simply do not have to= =20 wait few hours for a new disrtibution
Dennis> compile and run on a new machine.
Dennis> Dennis
Dennis> At 03:31 =A4U=A4=C8 2003/4/20 +0200, Chris Liechti wrote:
>> Dennis Ng wrote:
>>> One suggestion would be for one to use a cheatcode to tell the system to
>>> look for /KNOPPIX on the hard disk instead of on the CD-ROM.
>> the knoppix bootfloppy does this already automaticaly (from CD or from
>> floppy)
>>
>> > That would
>>> eliminate the need of all these steps. The implicit hardware
>>> requirement i.e. a floppy, a CDROM and a hard disk to build the hard
>>> disk solution is also not necessary.
>> you can simply copy /KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX to your harddrive and either use the
>> bootfloppy or boot from the CD and eject it shortly before it tries to
>> autodetect the KNOPPIX image. (this is sometimes also refered as "poor
>> man's install")
>>
>> i think what you want is already possible ;-)
>>
>> you can also put the image on a server and use network boot. that can be
>> done either with the terminal-server on a running knoppix or with GRUB (i
>> recently posted a small howto in this list). the network boot eliminates
>> all hardware requirements, except a CPU, 128MB RAM and a network card and
>> gfx card+monitor, of course...
>>
>> chris
--
--Roberto Di Cosmo
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