knoppix remastered

I finally succeeded in remastering knoppix. I setup an ext2fs on a loopback device and I was able to then follow all the instructions in the O'Reilly "knoppix hacks" book and in the knoppix wiki page.

knoppix remaster

A while back I tried to create my own version of knoppix but couldn't do it. I have done a bit of research and found that I needed to use an ext2 file system instead of the ext3 file system that has become standard for most major distributions. I used tune2fs to convert my ext3 to an ext2 file system and it all worked fine. The process took over 4 hours on my dinky computer, but by following the instructions in the o'reilly book knoppix hacks, I was able to make an isoimage. I then used the tune2fs utility to revert back to ext3fs and everything seems to be working ok.

I am a bit leary of screwing around with my file system structure so the next time I think I will try a loop back file (mounted as a device). This should work ok but I can be sure only by trying.

In any case, I now know that I can create a custom knoppix disk. I suspect that the same basic process can be used to remaster other isolinux based live cd's.

knoppix: tool to help learn Linux

I have a friend who is trying to learn Linux and he has been using Knoppix 3.7. My friend is not ready to reformat his hard drive and switch to Linux - he needs to feel really comfortable about Linux and the application environment. Therefore he is trying out Linux and major applications such as Open Office usign Knoppix.

Knoppix 3.7 uses Linux 2.6 and has very good dtection of hardware and networks. It detects my friend's xDSL router connection as well as usb devices, etc. We did have a bit of a time figuring out how to save configuration settings onto a floppy disk (we had to read the instructions) but once we did, it worked fine.

flash memory drives

A few days ago, at Micro Center, I saw 20gb, 40gb, and 60gb fash memory drives (USB 2.0) for sale. The 60gb drive was $300. I think flash memory drives running off the usb port are going to have a big impact, but I am not sure what this impact will look like.