CHEATCODES AND HINTS FOR KNOPPIX V3.2 ============================================================================== (last update: 16.05.2003) These options (can be combined) work from the SYSLINUX bootprompt: knoppix lang=cn|de|da|es|fr|it|nl specify language/keyboard knoppix lang=pl|ru|sk|tr|tw|us specify language/keyboard knoppix alsa (or alsa=es1938) Use ALSA sound driver (at your own risk) knoppix desktop=fluxbox|icewm Use specified WM instead of KDE knoppix desktop=kde|larswm|twm Use specified WM instead of KDE knoppix desktop=wmaker|xfce Use specified WM instead of KDE 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 60 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 Try to find "knoppix.sh" automatically knoppix home=/dev/sda1/knoppix.img Mount loopback file as /home/knoppix knoppix home=scan Try to find knoppix homedir automatic. knoppix no{apic,agp,apm,audio,ddc} Skip parts of HW-detection (1) knoppix no{firewire,pcmcia,scsi} Skip parts of HW-detection (2) knoppix no{swap,usb} Skip parts of HW-detection (3) failsafe Boot with (almost) no HW-detection knoppix pci=irqmask=0x0e98 Notebooks, if PS/2 mouse doesn't work knoppix pci=bios Workaround for bad PCI controllers knoppix ide2=0x180 nopcmcia Boot from PCMCIA-CD (transmeta notebooks) knoppix mem=128M Specify Memory size in MByte knoppix dma Enable DMA for ALL IDE-Drives knoppix noeject Do NOT eject CD after halt knoppix-txt No framebuffer at startup 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 fb1024x768 Use fixed framebuffer graphics fb800x600 Use fixed framebuffer graphics knoppix keyboard=us xkeyboard=us Use different keyboard (text/X) knoppix testcd Check CD data integrity and md5sums expert Interactive setup for experts 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 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. 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 noddc noapm noapic 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). 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.) The "expert" mode provides a very simple and not yet well tested 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 "myconfig=/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. Starting from Version 2.0, SCSI-Emulation is active for all CD-Roms, so IDE CD-Writers should work with the installed versions of cdrecord and cdrdao (or the graphical frontends thereof, cdbakeoven, xcdroast and gcombust). If your BIOS does not support el torito booting from CD, you can create a bootable floppy disk by issuing (on Linux) dd if=mounted_cdrom_directory/KNOPPIX/boot.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=18k or, in case of DOS, use the rawrite.exe program provided in the KNOPPIX directory on CD. If you wish to remaster the CD, please don't forget to specify -b KNOPPIX/boot.img for the german version of the bootfloppy, or -b KNOPPIX/boot-en.img for the english version, 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 type "ls /usr/X11R6/bin/XF*" to see a list of all available X-Servers. Once you verified that your X-Server is working correctly, you can run the X startup script with "/etc/init.d/xsession start".