CHEATCODES AND HINTS FOR KNOPPIX V5.0.1 ============================================================================== (last update: 12.05.2006) These options (can be combined) work from the ISOLINUX bootprompt: 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 gmt Use GMT-based time knoppix tz=Europe/Berlin Use this timezone for TZ knoppix desktop=fluxbox|gnome|icewm Use specified WM instead of KDE (1) knoppix desktop=kde|lg3d|larswm Use specified WM instead of KDE (2) knoppix desktop=openbox|twm Use specified WM instead of KDE (3) knoppix desktop=wmaker|xfce|xfce4 Use specified WM instead of KDE (4) knoppix screen=1280x1024 Use specified Screen resolution for X knoppix xvrefresh=60 (or vsync=60) Use 60 Hz vertical refresh rate for X knoppix xhrefresh=80 (or hsync=80) Use 80 kHz horizontal refresh rate for X knoppix xserver=XFree86|XF86_SVGA Use specified X-Server knoppix xmodule=ati|fbdev|i810|mga Use specified XFree4-Module (1) knoppix xmodule=nv|radeon|savage|s3 Use specified XFree4-Module (2) knoppix xmodule=radeon|svga|i810 Use specified XFree4-Module (3) knoppix 2 Runlevel 2, Textmode only knoppix floppyconfig Run "knoppix.sh" from a floppy knoppix myconf=/dev/sda1 Run "knoppix.sh" from a partition knoppix myconf=scan (or config=scan) Try to find "knoppix.sh" automatically knoppix home=/mnt/sda1/knoppix.img Mount loopback file as /home/knoppix knoppix home=scan Automatic search for knoppix homedir knoppix no{apic,agp,apm,audio,ddc} Skip parts of HW-detection (1) knoppix no{dhcp,fstab,firewire} Skip parts of HW-detection (2) knoppix no{pcmcia,scsi,swap,udev} Skip parts of HW-detection (3) knoppix nousb Skip parts of HW-detection (4) knoppix nousb2 Disable USB 2.x extension knoppix noideraid Disable IDE-Raiddisk detection knoppix pnpbios=off No PnP Bios initialization knoppix acpi=off Disable ACPI Bios completely knoppix acpi=force FORCE ACPI Bios initialization 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=128M Specify Memory size in MByte knoppix dma Enable DMA accelleration for ALL IDE-Drives knoppix noeject Do NOT eject CD after halt knoppix noprompt Do NOT prompt to remove the CD knoppix vga=normal No-framebuffer mode, but X knoppix blind Start Braille-Terminal (no X) knoppix brltty=type,port,table Parameters for Braille device knoppix wheelmouse Enable IMPS/2 protocol for wheelmice knoppix nowheelmouse Force plain PS/2 protocol for PS/2-mouse fb1280x1024 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (1) fb1024x768 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (2) fb800x600 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (3) knoppix keyboard=us xkeyboard=us Use different keyboard (text/X) knoppix splash Boot with fancy background splashscreen + animations + progress bar **) knoppix toram Copy CD to RAM and run from there knoppix tohd=/dev/hda1 Copy CD to HD partition and run from there knoppix fromhd Skip checking for Knoppix on CD-ROM knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda1 Boot from previously copied CD-Image knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hda1 Access Image then boot from previously copied CD-Image (enables booting from NTFS / ReiserFS) ***) knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hda1/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 testcd Check CD data integrity and md5sums expert Interactive setup for experts debug Debug boot process 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.) Sometimes, switching to the text console with Control-Alt-F1 and back to the X-screen with Control-F5 solves the problem without rebooting, since the X server reinitializes the mouse driver during that procedure. **) You can also have your own splash-screen in putting an executable shell- script to /cdrom/KNOPPIX/splash.sh. For an example how to do this see: /usr/bin/splash-knoppix.sh. (Feature added by Fabian Franz.) ***) Bootfrom needs access to a running Knoppix-System with the same Kernel as the Bootkernel, before it is able to mount the partition / ISO-Image. This should allow a poor mans install from NTFS-Partitions and makes it also possible to boot an ISO-Image directly. You can also use wildcards in the ISO-Filename, but it must be unique. So: If you have just one KNOPPIX.iso on /dev/hda1 you can access it as: bootfrom=/dev/hda1/K*.iso, but if there are several, you need to make clear, which one you want. (Feature added by Fabian Franz.) If your KNOPPIX CD makes 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, and/or even better, verify the MD5 checksums that are present on the mirrors before writing the CD. In some cases, defective IDE controllers cause this error if you have DMA enabled. Also, please read the KNOPPIX-FAQ. 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 acpi=off nodma nopcmcia noscsi nousb to skip some critical parts of the autodetection system. The "noswap" 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=128M" to solve that problem if your system has 128MByte memory for example (caution: you MUST use a capital "M" here). The "expert" mode provides a very simple interface to loading additional Kernel modules from floppy disks (ext2 or vfat), plus interactive configuration of mouse/keyboard/soundcard/xserver. "expert" mode supports the same boot options as "knoppix". The "floppyconfig" or "(my)config=/dev/partition" options allow you to reconfigure the system after autoconfiguration by running a bourne shell script called "knoppix.sh" from the root directory on the given device (or floppy). There is a GUI to create such a configuration floppy disk calles "saveconfig" (also located in the KDE menu under "KNOPPIX", but experts also know how to do this by creating their own shellscripts. From Version 2.1 and up, a file called "knoppix.sh", if located in the toplevel KNOPPIX directory on CD, will also be executed at startup. This makes ist easier to create customized versions without having to change anything on the compressed filesystem KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX. SCSI-Emulation is active for all CD-Roms (unless you switch it off by using the "atapicd" option), so IDE CD-Writers should work with the installed versions of cdrecord and cdrdao (or the graphical frontends thereof, k3b for example). If your BIOS does not support "no emulation boot" from CD, you can create two bootable floppy disks by issuing (from Knoppix running on a different machine) the command "mkbootfloppy", which will create a bootable Kernel-disk plus a disk containing the initial ramdisk, which will be prompted for at boottime. 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 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 (/etc/X11/XF86Config-4 for XFree86 V4.x), 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".
