/home/jpatota | zd7000 Linux | ResNet | writings | Audiovox XV6600
Last updated: 2007.4.13
The Following has been tested and modified as needed for correctness in knoppix 5.1 released in January of 2007. Most topics are either an extension/update/modification to topics written in Knoppix Hacks by Kyle Rankin. Copyright 2005 O'Reilly Media, Inc., 0-596-00787-6. I highly recommend this book.
Screen Resolution | Persistant Screen Resolution | Persistant Home Directory | Installing Nvidia Drivers
As usual one of the first things I change when moving into a Linux distribution is the video resolution. Its probably the easiest single customization you can do which makes the greatest immediately visible effect.
Once knoppix has completely started, open a terminal and copy this xorg.conf into /etc/X11/
wget http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/jpatota/linux/knoppix/xorg.conf
sudo cp xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Log out and back in and you should be greated with normal 1440x900 screen resolution
Who wants to download, copy, and reload the X settings every time they want to use knoppix? If you have a spare USB key, saving network settings, desktop and program settings, and system other settings are easy to preserve.
Click K Menu -> KNOPPIX -> Configure -> Save Knoppix configuration
or run
/usr/sbin/saveconfig
in the console to start the utility.
Select the type of backup you want to perform. By default everything but the desktop files option is selected. Here I only have the XF86Config option selected because the graphics settings are the only ones I want to preserve (for now).
Below is where the location of the configuration files gets set. Depending on the setup of your drive partitioning scheme, these may differ. Usually USB keys are reserved for sda1.
Knoppix stores its configuration settings in the root directory of the deive in a bzipped tar file configs.tbz, along with a script that Knoppix runs to restore this configuration called knoppix.sh. When booting knoppix, use the cheatcode knoppix=myconfig scan to locate and execute those scripts.
This step is not particular to the zd7000 at all. It is rather a setup procedure necessary when installing the nvidia drivers of the next section. Creating persistent home directories is much like saving settings.
Click K Menu -> KNOPPIX -> Configure -> Create a persistant Knoppix home directory
or run
/usr/sbin/knoppix-mkimage
and you will be greeted by the following introductory message making sure you understand exactly whats about to take place.
Just like with creating the persistent configs, my USB key is at /dev/sda1
I chose not to enable encryption. Its up to you.
The size was actually recommended to me by the utility. I decided to use almost all of my available free space on the drive.
Formatting......
....aaaand done. super easy.
Now when starting knoppix, you will have to type knoppix myconfig=scan home=scan. Make sure you dont fall asleep during the boot process. You will be prompted whether or not you actually want to continue with using persistent home directory just before X starts to run.
Last checked 2008.02.06