CHEATCODES AND HINTS FOR KNOPPIX V8.x ============================================================================== (last update: 10.01.2021) These options (can be combined) work from the boot prompt: ### General ### 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 ### 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 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 nopulseaudio Disable pulseaudio sound daemon (use alsa) knoppix nostartsound Disable initial sound check ### 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 knoppix 3d Try compiz even on slow cards w/o dri ### 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=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) ### Configuration / Persistent image ### 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 image Use persistent image even in VM ### 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 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. Starting from version 8.0, the KNOPPIX iso files are hybrid images that can not only be burned on CD/DVD, bit also directly copied bitwise (use dd or diskimager) to flash or harddisks in order to create a bootable medium. However, because of the used iso9660 file system, the first partition will remain read-only, so files like the boot options list cannot be changed easily. The KNOPPIX flash installer "flash-knoppix" can be used in order to create a USB flash pen with fully writable partitions, like before. --- 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".