Knoppix-XP dual boot (was Re: [TriLUG] 1.2.3.4. I declare a distro war...)

[Mike M]

On Fri, Jun 04, 2004 at 07:05:29PM -0400, Jaimie Livingston wrote:
> I would be interested in that write up. I'm considering Knoppix on a scratch built desktop
> that I can't seem to get Fedora, Mandrake, or SuSE to install on. All three tend to lock
> the system hard during the hardware detection portion of the install, but Knoppix boots,
> loads, and runs beautifully. Go figure.

Odd that Fedora locks.  Knoppix hardware detection is based on kudzu.

(WARNING: familiarity with the Debian package system is required
for what follows)

I checked my notes
and they are not accurate.  I started cleaning up the
notes this AM but quickly realized that without actually running the 
install again, my notes would be useless. Besides, most of my notes
were about what to do _after_ XP and LInux were dual booting. Now I have
another project started (like I needed that :-)

The overall method was something like this:

1. boot Knoppix and use qparted to partition the disk; I made
   3 parts; one for each of: XP 20G, Knoppix 20G, unused 20G
   format the parts (IIRC)

Boot Knoppix 3.3
1. insert CD
2. start or restart
3. Watch bottom of boot screen for message: Press [F2] for SETUP, Press
[F12]
for boot device selection menu; press F12 as soon as you see this
message; it
may take you several iterations of steps 2 and 3
4. You should get the gray and blue Boot Menu; arrow down to "CD-ROM/DVD
Drive"; press Enter
5. KDE menu->KNOPPIX->Root Shell
6. in Root shell enter: qtparted
7. widen the qtparted dialog box

qtparted

(WARNING: numbers below are not sync'd to what I said above.)

1. click on /dev/hda1 in the Device box in the lefthand side of the GUI
dialog box
2. the system chews on the disk and then the partition info for this
device is
displayed in the righthand side of the GUI dialog box.
3. select partition 01 (the only one)
4. select "Resize" under the "Operations" menu
5. Enter 5726 MB in the New Size field of the Resize Partition dialog;
enter tab;
Free space after is now 51505.53 MB; Free space before is 0 MB
6. Click OK
7.Answer YES to are you sure?
8. Progres warning: The partition is fragmented. Try to defragment it,
or resize it
to 12315MB; press OK
9. do steps 3-4; Enter New Size of 12315 MB; Free space before is 0 MB
and Free
space after is 44916.53 MB; press OK; press OK to are you sure
10. Note the HD LED on steadily; press OK when progress indicator
reaches 100%
11. Note the righthand side of the qtparted dialog box now indicates two
partitions


2. Toshiba comes with a Ghostview OS disk for XP; it loads into whatever
   partition you choose; reload XP; use system management tools to
   verify partition scheme setup in 1.

3. boot Knoppix; use this method to load to HDD:

http://www.distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=review-knoppix

4. test LILO; hit "enter" to get menu

5. start the clean-up process; convert Knoppix to Debian Sid (google
   for more info; I didn't do it but have since learned that this is
   the Right Thing to do); I had 
   a problem with Knoppix loading a braille tty package; it caused
   ominous and continuous messages after bootup; the solution was to
   remove the braille tty package.

This might be useful; don't know if it's the best method:

Set time and timezone

1. as root user
2. ntpdate clock1.unc.edu
3. hwclock --systohc
4. tzselect (answer questions appropriately)
5. as user, edit .profile in user accounts and root accounts
6. add this line:

TZ='America/New_York'; export TZ

7. logout/login
8. use date command to verify results

Good luck.
-- 
Mike

Moving forward in pushing back the envelope of the corporate paradigm.