CHEATCODES AND HINTS FOR KNOPPIX V7.5

These options (can be combined) work from the boot prompt:

  adriane                             Start blind-friendly, talking desktop
  debug                               Debug boot process step-by-step
  expert                              Interactive setup for experts
  knoppix                             Knoppix w/ 32bit Kernel
  knoppix64                           Knoppix w/ 64bit Kernel
  knoppix 2                           Runlevel 2, Textmode only
  knoppix init=/bin/bash              Start bash as process 1 instead of init

  knoppix lang=ch|cn|de|da|es|fr|it   specify language/keyboard
  knoppix lang=nl|pl|ru|sk|tr|tw|us   specify language/keyboard
  knoppix keyboard=us xkeyboard=us    Use different keyboard (text/X)
  knoppix utc                         Use Universal Time
  knoppix tz=Europe/Berlin            Use this timezone for TZ
                                      (default: tz=localtime)

  knoppix ide1=reset                  Try this if knoppix can't find the
                                      CD/DVD drive on old computers
  knoppix no{apic,lapic,acpi,apm}     Skip parts of HW-detection (1)
  knoppix no{hwsetup,udev,dhcp,fstab} Skip parts of HW-detection (2)
  knoppix no{pcmcia,sound,swap}       Skip parts of HW-detection (3)
  knoppix nousb                       Skip parts of HW-detection (4)
  knoppix nolapic                     Disable local APIC (differs from noapic)
  knoppix noideraid                   Disable IDE-Raiddisk detection
  knoppix pnpbios=off                 No PnP Bios initialization
  knoppix acpi=off                    Disable ACPI Bios completely
  knoppix acpi=noirq                  Disable ACPI IRC routing only
  knoppix acpi=force                  FORCE ACPI Bios initialization
  knoppix noacpid                     Do not start ACPI even daemon
  failsafe                            Boot with (almost) no HW-detection
  knoppix pci=irqmask=0x0e98          Try this, if PS/2 mouse doesn't work *)
  knoppix pci=bios                    Workaround for bad PCI controllers
  knoppix ide2=0x180 nopcmcia         Boot from PCMCIA-CD-Rom (some notebooks)
  knoppix mem=512M                    Specify Memory size in MByte
  knoppix wheelmouse                  Enable IMPS/2 protocol for wheelmice
  knoppix nowheelmouse                Force plain PS/2 protocol for PS/2-mouse

  knoppix desktop=kde|gnome|icewm     Use specified WM instead of LXDE (1)
  knoppix desktop=fluxbox|openbox     Use specified WM instead of LXDE (2)
  knoppix desktop=larswm|evilwm|twm   Use specified WM instead of LXDE (3)
  knoppix no3d                        Don't use compiz 3d fuctions
  knoppix 3d                          Try compiz even on slow cards w/o dri

  knoppix screen=1280x1024            Use specified Screen resolution for X
  knoppix hsync=95                    Use 95 kHz horizontal X refresh rate
  knoppix vsync=60                    Use 60 Hz vertical refresh rate for X
  knoppix xmodule=fbdev|vesa|svga     Use specified Xorg-Module (1)
  knoppix xmodule=nouveau|radeon      Use specified Xorg-Module (2)
  knoppix xmodule=intel|vmware|s3     Use specified Xorg-Module (3)
  knoppix norandr                     Disable Xorg RandR feature (may be
                                      useful if wrong resolution was detected)
  knoppix noddc                       Don't query monitor for resoution
  knoppix nocomposite                 Don't use Xorg Composite extension
  knoppix vga=normal                  No-framebuffer mode, but X
  knoppix nodrm                       Don't load graphics acceleration modules
  knoppix nofb                        Don't load framebuffer modules
  knoppix nomodeset                   Don't use Kernel Mode Settings for X
  fb1280x1024                         Use fixed framebuffer graphics (1)
  fb1024x768                          Use fixed framebuffer graphics (2)
  fb800x600                           Use fixed framebuffer graphics (3)
  fb640x480                           Use fixed framebuffer graphics (4)

  knoppix nonetworkmanager            Don't start network manager
  knoppix toram                       Copy to RAM and run from there
  knoppix tohd=/dev/sda1              Copy to Harddisk and run from there
  knoppix fromhd=/dev/sda1            Boot from previously copied CD-Image
  knoppix bootfrom=/dev/sda1/KNX.iso  Access image, boot from ISO-Image. ***)
  knoppix knoppix_dir=KNOPPIX         Directory to search for on the CD.
  knoppix knoppix_name=KNOPPIX        Cloop-File to search for on the CD.
  knoppix noswap                      Don't use existing swap partitions
  knoppix nozram                      Don't use zram compressed swap-in-ram
  knoppix forensic                    Don't use swap and mount read-only
  knoppix secure                      Disable root access
  knoppix mkimage                     Create persistent image as needed
  knoppix noimage                     Ignore persistent image or partition

  knoppix nfsdir=hostip:path          Use nfsdir as /mnt-system for TS client
  knoppix hostname=name               Set TS client hostname
  knoppix hostname=auto-mac           Set TS client hostname from MAC address
  knoppix hostname=auto-clock         Set TS client hostname from clock

  knoppix noeject                     Do NOT eject CD after halt
  knoppix noprompt                    Do NOT prompt to remove the CD
  knoppix testcd|testdvd              Check live medium for defects
  knoppix splash                      Use splash.ppm in initrd as boot pic
  knoppix trace                       create an open() trace in /open.trace

Hint: Using the default DE-bootimage, SYSLINUX boots with german keyboard layout. The ‘=’ letter is located at Shift-0 on this keyboard (just in case you want to change keyboard and language with lang=us). If you need to change the keyboard layout later in X, and can’t find a convenient tool in the preferences, use setxkbmap 'ca(multi)' in order to set up a new (multi-language canadian, in this example) keyboard layout

• Try knoppix pci=irqmask=0x0e98 if (you have an old notebook and) your PS/2 mouse doesn’t work, Possibly caused by a BIOS-flaw on your board, BIOS updates can sometimes help.

If your KNOPPIX CD produces strange noises during boot, or you see frequent errors like cloop: read error, or programs on your desktop are crashing randomly, then your CD image is probably defective or incomplete, or your CD-burner created a defective CD due to wrong writing speed or bad media. This is actually the most common error reported. Please boot with knoppix testcd to check if the CD or DVD is OK. Installing and starting Knoppix from flash disk is recommended and much faster than running from CD or DVD.

In case of a failing hardware autodetection, try booting with any of the no- options as shown in the table above, like in

  knoppix nodrm nomodeset no3d noaudio noapm noapic nolapic
     acpi=off pci=bios pnpbios=off nodma nopcmcia noscsi nousb ...

to skip some critical parts of the autodetection system.

The noswap and/or forensic boot option is useful for a forensic analysis without touching existing swap partitions.

Some Boards apparently don’t pass the proper memory size to the linux-kernel. It may cause the message `Panic: cannot mount root file system'' and the system hangs. Use knoppix mem=512M` to solve that problem if your system has 512MByte memory for example (caution: you MUST use a capital ''M here).

When installing to read/write media, such as flash disks (using flash-knoppix), you can add a swap file in order to replace missing physical RAM by persistent storage space. You can create this swap file like this from the running system:

  dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt-system/KNOPPIX/knoppix.swp
  mkswap /mnt-system/KNOPPIX/knoppix.swp
  swapon /mnt-system/KNOPPIX/knoppix.swp

Please be aware that swapping on flash media can be painfully slow, and is no perfect replacement for real RAM. The zram ram-compression feature (available from Knoppix 7.0.1) can extend the usable ram range to a certain degree.

If you need additional modules for starting controllers needed at boot time, just copy the corresponding *.ko files from /lib/modules/\* over to /modules in the initial ramdisk (remaster needed).

If you place an update*.zip or update*.tar.gz file on the medium holding the KNOPPIX data, it will be unpacked onto the overlayed filesystem before starting init, thus allowing quick reconfiguration of the system.

The file knoppix.sh, if residing in the main KNOPPIX directory, will be execuded after autoconfiguration and before starting the graphical desktop. It can be used in order to start additional services.

If you wish to remaster the CD, please don’t forget to specify

    -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
    -b boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin -c boot/isolinux/boot.cat

as option to mkisofs. Otherwise your CD or DVD won’t be bootable. The directory KNOPPIX, containig the compressed filesystem file KNOPPIX, must be located in the top level directory of the CD.

Caution: X-Screensaver: Don’t start xlock or any screensaver that requires a password. There are no default passwords on KNOPPIX, i.e. all accounts are LOCKED unless you explicitly set a password. See also README\_Security.txt about this issue. If you accidentially hit the screensaver button in KDE, switch to one of the textconsoles by Control-Alt-F1 and kill the screensaver (or just set a password for the knoppix user).

If you would like to edit your X-Server configuration manually (config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf), use knoppix 2 to boot into runlevel 2 (textmode only) and, after changing the X configuration, start the X environment with init 5. Note that you can always leave the graphical environment with init 2, and restart it later with init 5.