I tried dd'ing the floppy image, that failed me for some reason, I will try experimenting with GRUB in the manner you described and see what happens.
Thank you.Here's the "easiest" way I can think of:
Is there a problem on that hard drive? If not, I'd just suggest for you to install a frugal and run it off there.
If there is a problem, you could still do the above... but copy the KNOPPIX file to your usb drive (and delete the one off your hard drive - might need to boot with fromusb and/or waitusb). Note that the booting files will be on your hard drive still. Essentially, this way will end up with a setup like what curaga described.
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Is there a problem on that hard drive? If not, I'd just suggest for you to install a frugal and run it off there.
I originally was going to suggest the same thing, only set /home on the USB stick since there would be nothing to worry about with the frugal install on the hard drive. That would boot a lot faster, too.But having KNOPPIX on the hd would still allow the box to be booted, which he doesn't seem to want.Finally getting back to this and answer some questions.
The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 3500. Essentially a PII-400 with 196MB RAM. The hard drive has an intermittent glitch that causes the system to lock up. Reason 1 to avoid doing anything but booting from it. But otherwise, this thing is a great knockabout laptop, runs great with DSL and if it gets bashed or stolen, I won't cry too much.
I have done a frugal on this drive in the past and it will read my backup file from the stick which would be enough to satisfy most folks.
I have several USB sticks that I boot from with various versions of DSL and I've noticed that some of them behave abnormally with the latest version of the DSL Knoppix image. Reason 2 why I don't want to be fixed to the Knoppix on the drive.
My aim is to setup the drive so that any bootable stick will be recognized. Also, I have been using Linux for over 10 years and I am ashamed at how poorly I understand the boot process and GRUB. So I hope to learn. I figure if anyone is going to know how to do this kind of thing, it is you guys.
I have done a Frugal install, then deleted the Knoppix image. It got further than I imagined. It posted "Finding USB devices" then the next line "Could not find Knoppix..." "dropping to a shell..." etc.
I am going to play with GRUB a bit more and get back this week with results.Next Page...
original here.