CHEATCODES AND HINTS FOR KNOPPIX V6.4 ============================================================================== (last update: 28.01.2011) These options (can be combined) work from the ISOLINUX bootprompt: ### General ### adriane Start blind-friendly, talking desktop debug Debug boot process step-by-step expert Interactive setup for experts knoppix (Default) Knoppix startup knoppix64 Knoppix w/ 64bit Kernel knoppix 2 Runlevel 2, Textmode only ### Language/Country ### 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) ### Hardware/Workarounds ### knoppix ide1=reset Try this if knoppix can't find the CD/DVD drive 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 ### Desktop ### 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 ### Graphics ### 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=ati|fbdev|intel|mga Use specified Xorg-Module (1) knoppix xmodule=nv|radeon|savage|s3 Use specified Xorg-Module (2) knoppix xmodule=vesa|svga|vmware 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 no3d|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) ### Configuration / Persistent image ### knoppix nonetworkmanager Don't start network manager knoppix home=/dev/sda1/knoppix.img Mount loopback file for overlay 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 forensic Don't use swap and mount read-only knoppix secure Disable root access knoppix noimage Do NOT use persistent image ### Knoppix Terminalserver/Client ### 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 ### Various ### knoppix noeject Do NOT eject CD after halt knoppix noprompt Do NOT prompt to remove the CD knoppix testcd|testdvd Check CD or DVD 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). *) Try "knoppix pci=irqmask=0x0e98" if (you have a notebook and) your PS/2 mouse doesn't work. (Possibly caused by a BIOS-flaw on your board, BIOS updates can help.) If your KNOPPIX CD produces strange noises during boot, or you see frequent errors like "cloop: read error", or programs on your KDE desktop keep 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 the most common error reported. Please boot with "knoppix testcd" to check if the CD is OK. In case of a failing hardware autodetection, try booting with any of the "no-" options as shown in the table above, like in knoppix noagp 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. --- 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".