How to create a bootable USB Knoppix flashdrive

This is a quick step by step to make a bootable flash drive in order to boot a computer into the Knoppix distribution of the Linux operating system. When complete, you will be able to use Knoppix on most computers able to boot from USB.

This tutorial was created on 11/28/07

Requirements
  Knoppix Live CD
  Computer with CD-RW drive
  1GB or larger USB stick

Creation process
  1. Download the Knoppix ISO and burn it to CD
  2. Insert USB flash drive
  3. Restart computer and boot from Knoppix CD
  4. Open up a terminal and type  sudo su
  5. Type fdisk -l and note which drive is your USB stick
  6. Type umount /dev/sdx1 where x is the letter shown in fdisk -l
  7. Type fdisk /dev/sdx
    a. Type p to show the existing partition and d to delete it
    b. Type p again to show any remaining partition
        (If partition exists, repeat the previous step)
    c. Type n to make a new partition
    d. Type p for primary partition
    e. Type 1to make this partition 1
    f. Hit Enter to use the default first cylinder
    g. Type +750M to make the partition 750MB
    h. Type a to make this partition active
    i. Type 1 to select partition 1
    j. Type t to change its file system
    k. Type 6 to select the fat16 filesystem
    l. Type n to make another new partition
    m. Type p for primary partition
    n. Type 2 to make this the second partion
    o. Hit Enter to use the default first cylinder
    p. Hit Enter again to use the default last cylinder
    q. Type w to write the new partition table
  8. Type umount /dev/sdx1 to ensure th partition is unmounted
  9. Type mkfs.vfat -F 16 -n usb /dev/sdx1 to format the first partition
 10. Type umount /dev/sdx2 to ensure the partition is unmounted
 11. Type mkfs.ext2 -b 4096 -L knoppix-rw /dev/sdx2 to format the second partition
 12. Remove and resinsert your USB flash drive
 13. Type mkdir /tmp/usb
 14. Type mount /dev/sdx1 /tmp/usb
 15. Type cd /cdrom
 16. Type cp -rf KNOPPIX boot/isolinux/* /tmp/usb
 17. Type cd /tmp/usb
 18. Type mv isolinux.cfg syslinux.cfg
 19. Type cd
 20. Type umount /tmp/usb
 21. Type syslinux -sf /dev/sdx1
 22. Reboot the computer and set your system BIOS to boot from USB-HDD.  Also set the boot
     priority to boot the USB device first.
 23. Save changes and exit.  You should now be able to boot to KNOPPIX

Please report any errors to fedorafreak@fincelfamily.com

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