knoppix-customize FAQ


1. What is knoppix-customize?
2. Where can I get knoppix-customize?
3. What is KNOPPIX?
4. How do you use knoppix-customize?
5. Can I perform customization on either Linux box or Windows box?
6. After customization is completed can I burn the modified ISO image in either Linux or Windows environment?
7. Can I also use knoppix-customize on a floppy image?
8. Can I use knoppix-customize to extract the floppy boot image from the CD?
9. How can I write the floppy boot image to floppy disc?
10. can I re-insert my boot.img into a Knoppix image?
11. How can I make a version of Knoppix in langauge "xx"?
12. Why not just use a loopback mount?
13. Is knoppix-customize GPL?
14. What is the current status of knoppix-customize?
15. What's the final goal for knoppix-customize?
16. How do I build knoppix-customize?
17. How does knoppix-customize work internally?
18. How can I exchange a file for a file of a different size?
19. Where can I find the standards used for writing this program?
20. Are there other possibilities to customize knoppix?
21. What limitations does knoppix-customize have?

1. What is knoppix-customize?

knoppix-customize is a program that let's you change the boot options and files of a KNOPPIX ISO image or boot disk without remastering.

2. Where can I get knoppix-customize?

You can get knoppix-customize

per http

from the homepage

or latest the verion via cvs


$ cvs -d :pserver:cvs@developer.linuxtag.net:/var/cvs login
(Logging in to cvs@developer.linuxtag.net)
CVS password: cvs

$ cvs -d :pserver:cvs@developer.linuxtag.net:/var/cvs checkout knoppix-customize


3. What is KNOPPIX?

KNOPPIX is a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, ound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be used as a Linux demo, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it. See: http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/

4. How do you use knoppix-customize?

At the moment you can use knoppix-customize to:

  • extract a file from the image and export it to a local file

  • import a local file into the image

  • get and set the value of a syslinux option

  • get and set the value of a syslinux-append-statement option

See knoppix-customize man-page for how to call program.

5. Can I perform customization on either Linux box or Windows box?

knoppix-customize was developed under and for GNU/Linux, but I designed it to work under Windows as well. You can compile the Source under Windows using Cygwin or unter Linux using mingw32 to make an executable for Windows.

You can download a Win32 executable on the homepage and on Chris Liechti page you can even get a Win32 GUI for knoppix-customize.

6. After customization is completed can I burn the modified ISO image in either Linux or Windows environment?

Yes the image remains a normal ISO image.

7. Can I also use knoppix-customize on a floppy image?

Yes you may customize a 1.44MB floppy image file and test boot the floppy and burn a Knoppix with your configuration when you're ready. The program will work for files an devices. So you can read from /dev/cdrom and read and write /dev/fd0 for example.

8. Can I use knoppix-customize to extract the floppy boot image from the CD?

Yes: $ knoppix-customize --image knoppix.iso --action export_floppy --local_file boot.img

9. How can I write the floppy boot image to floppy disc?

$ dd if=boot.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=18k

10. can I re-insert my boot.img into a Knoppix image?

$ knoppix-customize --image knoppix.iso --action import_floppy --local_file boot.img

11. How can I make a version of Knoppix in langauge "xx"?

12. Why not just use a loopback mount?

The program should work without root access. The final goal is also to provide a tool for non-linux platforms.

13. Is knoppix-customize GPL?

Yes.

14. What is the current status of knoppix-customize?

knoppix-customize is still beta.

15. What's the final goal for knoppix-customize?

The final goal is to provide a GUI for Linux and Windows that will allow a novice to set options (like language and keyboard) for a KNOPPIX image before burning it.

16. How do I build knoppix-customize?

Under Linux change to the directory and type make.

17. How does knoppix-customize work internally?

knoppix-customize parses the El Torito block of the ISO image to find the boot floppy image and then traverses the FAT file sytsem to access the files. knoppix-customize replaces only existing files on the boot floppy with files of the same size.

18. How can I exchange a file for a file of a different size?

At the moment you can't. The file size may not change at. Some time, I hope to remove this limitation. This is no problem for the keymap file as that is alwas 256 Bytes. Text files shouldn't be a big problem either. syslinux.cfg ist padded with a line of hash marks (#) for this purpose, just add or delete some hash marks until you have the right size. For the boot logo this is a bigger problem than for text files. One solution is to create a smaller logo and pad it with zeros:


  $ dd if=/dev/zero bs=1 count=541 >> logo.16
Of course you'll have to choose the right number of missing bytes as value for count.

19. Where can I find the standards used for writing this program?

20. Are there other possibilities to customize knoppix?

You may want to check outChris Liechti's page for knoppix-customize wrappers and win32 versions On André Holzhey's page you'll find mmkcdrom - an easy tool for recording KNOPPIX CD-ROMs and plugscipt, a modular KNOPPIX extension kit.

21. What limitations does knoppix-customize have?

Because only the boot floopy image is changed you can't add or remove programs. If you want to make bigger changes you can look at the Knoppix Customising FAQ

2003-04-27, Kester Habermann .