Boot Iso File From Usb; Knoppix Linux Iso. Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community. You are currently viewing. Tried again simply extracting the ISO and dragging the files and it looks like it should boot, but it won't. This is on Knoppix 7.2.0 DVD (not CD or bootonly).
< Knowing Knoppix
- 1Knoppix for the first time
- 1.3Starting Knoppix
- 1.4The first stage
- 1.4.2Help at the boot prompt
- 1.5The second stage
Knoppix for the first time[edit]
“The most important design issue… is that Linux is supposed to be fun.” -- Linus Torvalds
Overview[edit]
The purpose of this section is to get you started into Knoppix for the very first time. This section skips nearly all of the options for starting Knoppix. The options for starting Knoppix are explained later.
Hardware requirements[edit]
The recommended hardware is as follows:
- Pentium I 350 MHz processor (recommended minimum).
- 128 Mb RAM.
- Either: IDE or SCSI bootable CD-ROM or DVD drive
- Or: 3.5' floppy drive plus non-bootable CD-ROM or DVD drive.
- SVGA compatible graphics card (most cards supported).
- Monitor capable of 800x600 pixel resolution.
- Serial mouse, or PS/2 mouse, or USB mouse.
Starting Knoppix[edit]
There are two stages to starting Knoppix:
The first stage[edit]
The first stage is to get to the boot prompt. The boot prompt lets you customise the Knoppix startup process. For example, you can specify at the boot prompt what screen resolution you want Knoppix to use. To reach the boot prompt, you use either the CD/DVD or the floppy disk. What about some instructions for use with USB???
The second stage[edit]
The second stage is to run Knoppix itself. This requires the CD/DVD. Knoppix follows the instructions given at the boot prompt to complete the startup process.
The first stage[edit]
Getting to the boot prompt[edit]
To get to the boot prompt, follow these steps:
- If the computer is already on, insert the Knoppix CD/DVD. If the CD/DVD drive is set to auto-run, information explaining about Knoppix will appear. Restart the computer.
- If the computer is off, turn it on, then immediately insert the Knoppix CD/DVD. To play for time, press the Pause/Break key immediately after turning your computer on. On many PCs and laptops, this will pause the BIOS, giving you more time to insert the CD/DVD. Then press the Pause/Break key again to resume startup.
- Most newer computers will automatically check for a bootable CD/DVD in the first drive. The Knoppix boot prompt should then appear. The boot prompt is the last three lines at the bottom of the screen. If your computer can't display the white and blue Knoppix logo, you will get a blue background instead.
- On some computers, you must press a key for the “boot device menu”. The boot device menu is used to tell the computer which drive to boot from. A prompt saying which key will display the boot menu will appear on the screen just after you turn the computer on. For example, on some Dell desktop PCs, press F12 when prompted, press the Down Arrow key until “Boot from IDE-CDROM” is highlighted, then press Enter.
- At the boot prompt, press Enter to boot Knoppix accepting all the defaults (including the German keyboard/language.) If you do nothing for 60 seconds, Knoppix boots automatically. To boot Knoppix with another keyboard/language, see the section “Which language?” below.
Help at the boot prompt[edit]
Press F2 for the help screen. The help screen is a summary of the boot prompt options. Pressing F2 or any other key cancels the timer, so Knoppix will not automatically boot.
Quick help[edit]
Question: How do I get out of the boot prompt?
Take the disc out of the drive, then restart your computer.
Take the disc out of the drive, then restart your computer.
Question: How do I use the boot floppy?
Turn off the computer. Insert the Knoppix boot floppy disk. Turn the computer back on. The computer should boot from the floppy drive. Then the Knoppix boot prompt should appear.
Turn off the computer. Insert the Knoppix boot floppy disk. Turn the computer back on. The computer should boot from the floppy drive. Then the Knoppix boot prompt should appear.
If that doesn't work, enter your computer's Basic In/Out System (BIOS) setup. The key to press that takes you into the BIOS setup is usually shown on the screen just after you turn the computer on. Visit the boot priority screen (it may have another name such as boot device menu). Set the BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD or floppy drive before the hard disk drive. If unsure, check with your motherboard or computer manufacturer.
Question: The computer has two CD-ROM drives. Why does the Knoppix disc boot in one drive but not the other?
Some BIOSes can only boot the first CD-ROM/DVD drive. To work around the problem, start up from the Knoppix boot floppy disk. Then you can put the Knoppix CD/DVD in either CD-ROM/DVD drive. If you are really determined, switch the CD-ROM/DVD drive order so the drive you want to boot from is the first drive.
Some BIOSes can only boot the first CD-ROM/DVD drive. To work around the problem, start up from the Knoppix boot floppy disk. Then you can put the Knoppix CD/DVD in either CD-ROM/DVD drive. If you are really determined, switch the CD-ROM/DVD drive order so the drive you want to boot from is the first drive.
The second stage[edit]
Starting Knoppix proper[edit]
To start Knoppix with the United Kingdom keyboard/language:
- Type this at the boot prompt:
knoppix lang=uk
- Press the Enter key on the keyboard.
- Knoppix will begin loading with the UK keyboard/language.
Which keyboard/language?[edit]
The most important option at the boot prompt is the keyboard/language. More correctly, the keyboard/language option sets the locale. A locale is a collection of regional settings including keyboard layout, language, time format, date format, currency format and paper size. Some language translations may be incomplete.
The locale options are named using the International Standards Organisation two-letter country codes (ISO 3166 and ISO 639). The locale options are:
Code | Keyboard/language |
---|---|
de | German (default) |
be | Belgian |
bg | Bulgarian |
ch | Swiss |
cn | Simplified Chinese |
cs or cz | Czech |
dk or da | Dansk |
es | Spanish |
fi | Finnish (incomplete) |
fr | French |
he or il | Hebrew |
it | Italian |
jp | Japanese (limited) |
nl | Dutch |
pl | Polish |
ru | Russian |
sl | Slovenian |
tr | Turkish |
tw | Traditional Chinese |
uk | United Kingdom |
us | United States |
Automatic hardware detection[edit]
Knoppix will then try to detect the various items of hardware in your computer. How long it takes depends upon the speed of your machine. Here are some examples to give you an idea of what to expect:
Processor | RAM | CD-ROM speed | Time needed |
---|---|---|---|
Intel Pentium 4 (2.6 GHz) | 512 Mb | 48x | 40 seconds |
AMD Duron (1 GHz) | 256 Mb | 32x | 45 seconds |
AMD Athlon (600 MHz) | 128 Mb | 24x | 1 min 30 seconds |
The X Window System[edit]
Next, it will briefly say “INIT: Entering runlevel 5” and then Knoppix will try to start the X Window System. The X Window System is the graphics display.
If you have a supported graphics card, you will see a black cross on a grey stippled background. This means the X Window System started successfully.
The K Desktop Environment[edit]
Knoppix will begin loading the K Desktop Environment. KDE runs on top of the X Window System. The progress of loading KDE will be shown in the middle of the screen. When KDE has finished loading, the welcome page will be loaded.
When the welcome page appears, congratulations! You have started Linux, the X Window System, and the K Desktop Environment successfully.
Quick help[edit]
Question: Why does KDE come up in German?
You need to specify the keyboard/language at the boot prompt. For example, for the UK locale, enter
You need to specify the keyboard/language at the boot prompt. For example, for the UK locale, enter
knoppix lang=uk
at the boot prompt.Question: It says 'cloop: read error', what does that mean?
There is a problem reading the Knoppix CD. You either have a faulty CD-ROM drive or a damaged CD. To test the Knoppix CD, enter at the boot prompt:
There is a problem reading the Knoppix CD. You either have a faulty CD-ROM drive or a damaged CD. To test the Knoppix CD, enter at the boot prompt:
This will make Knoppix check the media for errors. If you know that the Knoppix CD is good, this error usually means a faulty CD-ROM drive.
Question: I get a blank screen when the X Window System comes up, why?
Knoppix is trying to use a screen resolution that your monitor doesn't support. For example, Knoppix may have detected your graphics card is capable of 1024x768 pixel resolution, but your monitor can't cope with that. Try setting a lower resolution at the boot prompt. For example, enter:
Knoppix is trying to use a screen resolution that your monitor doesn't support. For example, Knoppix may have detected your graphics card is capable of 1024x768 pixel resolution, but your monitor can't cope with that. Try setting a lower resolution at the boot prompt. For example, enter:
This will make Knoppix use a screen resolution of 800 by 600 pixels when it starts the X Window System.
Question: Why does the screen go blank when the kernel boots?
This problem usually occurs with low cost TFT (flat screen) monitors. The kernel is using a framebuffer console, but the monitor is incompatible with it. Turn off the framebuffer console. At the boot prompt, use the option “vga=normal”. For example, type:
This problem usually occurs with low cost TFT (flat screen) monitors. The kernel is using a framebuffer console, but the monitor is incompatible with it. Turn off the framebuffer console. At the boot prompt, use the option “vga=normal”. For example, type:
This will turn off the framebuffer console and the penguin logo.
Question: Why doesn't the mouse work?
This could mean you are trying to use a PS/2 mouse in a 9-pin serial port through a PS/2-to-serial adapter. Some PS/2 mice do not work when plugged into a 9-pin serial port. Try a real serial mouse.
This could mean you are trying to use a PS/2 mouse in a 9-pin serial port through a PS/2-to-serial adapter. Some PS/2 mice do not work when plugged into a 9-pin serial port. Try a real serial mouse.
Question: It says “Initrd extends beyond end of memory”.
Your motherboard is reporting the RAM size incorrectly. Specify the amount of physical RAM in your computer at the boot prompt. For example, if you have 128 Mb of RAM, enter at the boot prompt:
Your motherboard is reporting the RAM size incorrectly. Specify the amount of physical RAM in your computer at the boot prompt. For example, if you have 128 Mb of RAM, enter at the boot prompt:
Question: It says “Could not find the KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry. Dropping you to a (very limited) shell.”
Try booting with:
Try booting with:
If that doesn't work, it means your PCMCIA CD-ROM drive is not supported. There is a workaround. In Windows, copy the directory called “KNOPPIX” from the Knoppix CD to the root of a local FAT formatted hard drive partition (eg: drive “C:”). The copy will take some time to complete. Then start Knoppix and specify the partition that you copied the KNOPPIX directory to, using the “fromhd=” boot parameter. For example, boot with:
If Windows is not available, use a single-floppy Linux such as “tomsrtbt” to do the copy, however that is beyond the scope of this book.
Getting out[edit]
Now that you've got Knoppix up and running, feel free to have a poke around. Everything is read-only, so you're unlikely to do any harm to your computer. To exit Knoppix:
- Click the “K” menu in the bottom left corner.
- Click “Logout”.
- Knoppix will begin shutting down.
- The Knoppix CD will be ejected.
- Remove the CD and close the tray.
- Press Enter on the keyboard.
- Knoppix will attempt to turn off the computer automatically. If it doesn't turn off automatically, it is now safe to turn off the computer yourself using the power button.
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< Knowing Knoppix
- “There is only one satisfying way to boot a computer.” -- J. H. Goldfuss
- 3If you only have a single CD drive
- 5More hardware options
Overview[edit]
This section explains the bootup options for Knoppix. Use these options to fine-tune Knoppix for your hardware and speed it up.
Enabling DMA[edit]
The first and foremost way to make Knoppix run faster that almost everyone can use is to enable DMA. It stands for Direct Memory Access. It improves the speed of hard disk drives and it can also help CD-ROM drives. DMA is not supported on all computers, so Knoppix turns it off by default. To enable DMA, add 'dma' to your boot command, for example:
To test the speed of the hard disk drive, click the Knoppix menu, choose “Root Shell” and enter:
Replace “hda” with the device name of your hard drive appropriately. After a pause of about 3 seconds, you will get a little report that will tell you how fast your hard drive reads data. DMA makes a pretty big difference. For example, look at these sample test results:
Drive | Without DMA | With DMA |
---|---|---|
Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM IDE | 8.5 MB/sec | 26.8 Mb/sec |
If you only have a single CD drive[edit]
Knoppix takes over your CD drive and you can't eject it during your session. What if you want to use the CD drive for something else? For example, you may want to create CDs using a CD-ReWritable drive. If you only have one CD drive, this will be a problem.
Luckily, there is a solution. It is possible to run Knoppix from a hard drive or RAM, freeing up the CD drive for other tasks.
Transferring to a hard disk partition[edit]
Transferring to a hard disk partition means copying the CD contents onto a hard disk. This is called “copying the CD image”. Once this is done, Knoppix starts in the normal way but from the hard drive instead the CD-ROM drive.
This gives improved performance, because hard disk drives are generally much faster than CD-ROM drives. It also frees up your CD-ROM drive for other tasks. It does not affect the existing files on the hard drive. All it does is use up hard drive space, which can be reclaimed later.
To transfer to a hard disk partition, you need:
- An MS-DOS-, FAT-, or Linux-formatted hard disk partition.
NTFS (native Windows NT/2000/XP) partitions cannot be used. - At least 700 Mb free space on the partition.
At the boot prompt, enter this command. Replace “device” with the device name of the hard disk partition that you want to use.
For example, suppose you have Windows 98. You probably have Windows installed on the first partition of the primary master IDE drive. In this case, use:
Knoppix will start from CD, copy itself to the specified device and then continue loading from there. You can then take the Knoppix CD out of the drive.
Re-using an existing image[edit]
You only need to copy the CD image to the hard disk once. Next time, you can read back from the hard disk, without having to copy the CD image again.
At the boot prompt, enter this command. Replace “device” with the device name of the hard disk partition where the Knoppix CD image is located.
For example:
Knoppix will start from CD, pick up the CD image from the specified device and continue loading. You can then take the Knoppix CD out of the drive.
Deleting the image[edit]
In Windows, remove the “KNOPPIX” directory from the hard drive using Windows Explorer. This will give back the hard drive space occupied by the CD image.
Transferring to RAM[edit]
If you have 828 Mb or more of RAM, you can copy the Knoppix CD image to RAM. After an initial wait, transferring to RAM gives dramatically improved performance, and the Knoppix CD is not needed. You need 828 Mb of RAM because the first 700 Mb is used for the CD image. The remaining 128 Mb is used for the system and applications.
At the boot prompt, enter this command:
Knoppix will start from CD, transfer the CD image to RAM, and continue loading. Once transfer to RAM has completed, you can take the Knoppix CD out of the drive.
More hardware options[edit]
These options let you fine-tune Knoppix for your particular hardware. They can be combined in any order. For example, to start Knoppix with the US language/keyboard, a wheel mouse, a screen resolution of 800x600 and Direct Memory Access (DMA) enabled for hard drives, type this at the boot prompt:
Knoppix assumes you have a laptop. It starts up with PCMCIA (credit card adapter) interface support enabled by default. If you have a desktop computer, rather than a laptop, you can improve performance slightly by typing the “nopcmcia” option at the boot prompt. For example, to start the computer with the US locale, a wheel mouse, a screen resolution of 1024x768, and no PCMCIA:
Other options[edit]
noswap
— The system won't use the hard disk for swapping. This is useful for when the hard disk is out of order, or if a user wishes to prevent an existing hard drive from a potentially heavy workload. This move would then make Knoppix only use RAM memory. With Knoppix 6 and 7, the minimum required RAM with the CD version to run graphical apps is 1 gigabyte. This allows to simultaneously run X, up to five tabs in Iceweasel, and one module of LibreOffice. 2 Gb of RAM is recommended, and should be the minimum amount with DVD versions of Knoppix 7 and greater.no3d
— Switches off fancy graphics.psmouse.proto=imps
— This reports the pointer device as animps
mouse. It can be used, if work with certain Synaptics touchpads is erratic, but does not solve the issue.
If you have less than 128 Mb RAM[edit]
After loading the kernel and the base system, Knoppix looks to see how much RAM is left. The kernel and the base system takes about 20 Mb of RAM. The remainder is called free RAM, or available RAM.
Knoppix checks to see if there is a Linux swap partition available. You may have a swap partition if you have previously installed Linux on the hard disk. If so, Knoppix will use the existing swap partition automatically.
If there is less than 80,000 Kb free RAM, Knoppix will prompt you to create a swap file. A swap file lets you use part of the hard disk as if it were RAM.
This trick lets you run Knoppix in full, even when you have less than 128 Mb RAM. For example, it is possible to run Knoppix successfully on a computer with only 64 Mb of RAM. However, you pay a performance penalty, because swap is much slower than physical RAM.
To create a swap file, you need a hard disk with at least one partition that is formatted with the FAT filesystem. NTFS formatted partitions cannot be used.
- Start Knoppix in the usual way.
- You will get a message that says, “There are only X Kb of RAM available in your computer”.
- Press Enter.
- Knoppix will search for an available FAT formatted partition. If there is more than one, Knoppix will choose the last available partition. You will be asked if you want to create a swap file on the partition that Knoppix has selected.
- Using the arrow keys on the keyboard, choose “Yes”, then press Enter.
- You will be asked how big a swap file you want to create. You need a swap file that is large enough to take the free RAM + swap file total to at least 80,000 Kb.
- Type the size of the swap file you wish to create. In this example, it says there is 49,152 Kb of physical RAM free. The suggested swap file size of 60 Mb will bring the free total to 108 Mb.
- Press Enter.
- Wait for a moment while Knoppix creates the swap file.
- Press Enter to continue loading Knoppix.
- Tip
- Next time you start Knoppix, it will detect and use the swap file automatically.
- To remove the swap file and reclaim the disk space it occupies, exit Knoppix, start Windows, then delete the file called “knoppix.swp” using Windows Explorer.
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