Knoppix to Your Harddisk

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__   _
  -o)/ /  (_)__  __ ____  __      Lisa Winterstien
  /\\ /__/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ /      www.lazygirl.net
 _\_v __/_/_//_/\_,_/ /_/\_\
                                                                         v0.21
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Fri Nov 19 10:27:25 CST 2004 based on guide by David McNab;  updated to latest
Additional information provided by Derek B. Winterstien; updated 04/06/2006
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What is a knoppix harddrive install? Knoppix was made as a live cd linux demo which was at first not necessarily intended for harddrive installation. Yet it's debian without the complication of debian, so people want it on their harddrive. Installing knoppix on the harddrive is a fast way to get debian as the traditional debian installer is unpleasant for many.

:::rewrite start begin:::

new installer for knoppix

  • note: tested with Knoppix live cd version 3.6

To get Knoppix installed onto your hard drive:

1. Boot the Knoppix CD.

2. Wait till the system is fully launched, including the KDE desktop

3. Press CTRL-ALT-F1, to get a root console. You should see a shell prompt - If not, press the Enter key once to bring up the prompt.

4. Now type: knoppix-installer

5. Follow the guided installation menus. This will include:

a. Create partition, 2.5GB or greater for Linux (cfdisk)
b. Create partition, 128MB or greater for Swap (cfdisk)
  • recommend creating a primary of 70mb for the /boot in the first 1024 cylinder limit, create an extended with a swap partition of approx 768mb and the rest in the extended for the / root.
c. There are three types of installation:
(1) Beginner - [recommended] multi user hw auto detect & debian like
(2) Knoppix - just like cd, single user, ssh disabled by default
(3) Debian - much like debian, manual install, manual hw, long
d. Wait while knoppix copies files for installation.
e. Installation completes after prompt to make floopy boot disk
f. You will be returned to the root shell prompt

:::rewrite ends:::

(the above was all I needed to get past it. below I consider incindental. ) I will add some additional comments at the end. -Lisa

  • 'Mounting' the Linux partition as root
  • Initialising the swap partition
  • Copying all the required files (automatically)
  • Setting up networking
  • Setting passwords
  • Setting up the bootloader (Note: take care with this stage - it
  • could render your system incapable of booting into Windows. If you
  • really need Windows, then it might be a good idea to set up GRUB
  • Bootloader with a 'chainloader' entry, so that you can dual boot.
  • Working this out is an exercise left to the reader - there are too
  • many possible scenarios for me to cover in this short guide. Also
  • see man grub and the files in /usr/share/doc/grub)
  • Rebooting (without the CD)

7. When you've rebooted Knoppix from your hard disk, click on the KDE Control Centre icon in the launcher at the bottom of the screen (icon of a colour monitor with a card in front of it)

8. Within the Control Center, click on Personliche Einstellungen

9. Click on Land und Sprache

10. Choose the locale and language of your choice

11. Click on Andwenden at bottom of that window

12. Close and restart the Control Center

13. Click on Peripherals, then Keyboard, and choose your preferred keyboard layout (which will probably be US.English. Click OK and close the window

14. Press CTRL-ALT-F2 to get to the root console, and log in as root (using the password you chose when you ran the installer)

15. (Optional) - type apt-get update (followed by ENTER). This will update your list of available packages, and takes about 5-10 minutes.

16. Hey, presto, you've got a fully installed GNU/Linux desktop


From here on in, you'll probably want to fine-tune a few things, set up themes, backgrounds etc. But most of the hard work is already done for you!


additional comments: Once in KDE I disabled the language selection tool by removing the other languages (removed German and French) so there was only English. I had to pass a kernel parameter to get vga above 1024x768 for the screensize. Modified Lilo also so it didn't hang on the console mode during boot. I will show those modifications here at a later time.


FrameBuffer Console: Enabled by default is framebuffer console on a Knoppix Debian installation via this line 'vga=790' as a kernel paramater located in your bootloader configuration. On boot if you receive the error "You passed an undefined mode number" then simply remove the vga= kernel parameter for regular text console, or try another VESA mode number. 773 is a good start. reference: framebuffer-console.txt for more information.


X11 High Res Display: For a laptop installation there may be additional configuration necessary to enable above 800x600 resolution. For details reference: xwindows.txt for more information.

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