Carl Lowenstein([EMAIL PROTECTED])@Tue, Nov 01, 2005 at 08:40:17PM -0800: > On 11/1/05, Wade Curry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > boblq said: > > > > > The one I want is Quantian, a Knoppix / Debian variant tailored > > > to numerical and quantitative analysis. > > > http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/quantian.html > > > <snip> > > > > > > Knoppix has a "bootfrom=/dev/hdx#/nameof.iso" parameter that you can use at > > boot > > time. As long as you boot from a knoppix cd/dvd that is using the same > > kernel, then > > you can enter this boot parameter to tell knoppix to switch to an iso image > > on your > > hard drive. > > <snip> > > > > Anyway, when I boot up I use the following: > > > > boot: knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hda1/knoppix39.iso > > > > Have you thought about what it would take to eliminate the necessity > for the initial boot CD with the matching Linux kernel? A minimum > boot CD that didn't have the whole KNOPPIX directory with its > compressed KNOPPIX file? (thus being able to use a small CD instead > of a DVD, or maybe even a thumb drive). > > I'm thinking about it now, but haven't reached any good conclusion. I > will probably try making a CD image that has only the boot/isolinux > directory and its contents, and see what it does. If this works, one > could modify isolinux.cfg so that it defaulted to the "bootfrom= ..." > command.
Similar ideas lurked in the back of my mind, but I never had a need to really investigate. I always had a knoppix cd around just in case anyway, so it didn't bother me to use it to boot with. The machine I do this with is a Windows 2000 laptop that my employer tells me I can't install anything onto. (Does copying a single large .iso count as installation? ;-) ) I'm thinking that accessing the .iso on the hd requires a kernel, drivers, and maybe an initrd. Even if it were a linux system, it would need to do a loop mount, which implies that a kernel and drivers have to be loaded, at least. Still small enough to fit on a thumb drive, though. Wade Curry syntaxman -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
