USB booting :: Changing Read-only File System to Writeable?

Basically what I'm looking to do is have a custom distro of Knoppix (similar to DSL) on a USB key. No problems there. I'm trying to remaster it with some additional programs, however those programs use configuration files which need to be changed before the program runs....but everything needed for the program to work MUST be on the same USB key as the Knoppix distro.

The programs are all installed properly to the knoppix image and are present whenever the remastered knoppix loads up, however the config files cannot be modified because the file system is read-only.

I'm trying to remaster the distro so that the file system is writeable. I've been playing around with minirt and changing some "-o ro" flags on the knoppix mounts to "-o rw". this either causes the os not to boot or it boots but is still read-only.

Any ideas as to how to make the file system writeable?

add "write" to the boot string, or "/etc/init.d/mkwriteable" to bootlocal.sh

original here.