Can I use it to test out a evaluation software that has expired ?

[John Lukar <jlukar@gmail.com>]

I installed a software product that had a 30 day expiration time
limit.  So now 30 days have gone by and I have not been able to
properly evaluate it before forking over $600.

I asked for another month worth of extension from the sales guy and he
turned me down, even after I explained to him why I could not properly
evaulate it in such short period of time.

I didn't see why another month of extension should do any harm but such is life.

I tried to reinstall another eval version, but the software is smart
enough to know there was a prior install eventhough I tried to delete
all previous traces of the product.  Of course the software required
root password, so it has written something somewhere on the file
system and I can't figure out where.

So my question is:

- is it possible to use Knoppix to emulate a new OS install and hence
run the product again ?

The product is a downloadabe tar ball that runs and installs itself to
the file system(It is Java GUI product).  But wondering if there is
way to emulate the filesystem so to get the product  "virtually"
installed and use without it knowing there was a prior install.

My native OS is Debian Linux with 2.6.8 kernel, if that really matters.

regards
John.