trouble installing knoppix on used hard drive...
 

This is sort of a continuation of an old thread from yesterday....

I am trying to install linux onto a used HD which has been reformatted. I type "knoppix-installer" and am taken to the partition screen. I select the drive to partrtion and am told: "opened disk read-only - you have no permission to write." I hit enter and it says "FATAL ERROR: cannot read disk drive."

This is all taking place with a 30 gig maxtor HD.

Here is what I have done so far:
1. Physically installed the HD.
-drive seemed to already be partitioned as "my computer" in windows read it as two drives.

2. I formatted the larger partition by typing format e: in MS-DOS. "my computer" showed the drive as being empty after this.

3. I attempted the same process with the smaller partition and was not allowed to do so because of a write protection.

4. I tried deleting all of the files form the drive, and then emptying the recycle bin. Next, I typed reformat d: in MS-DOS and it seemed to work, yet in "my computer" (windows) it said there were still 13 hidden objects. However, the drive appeared empty.

5. I attempted the install again, but received the same error message (see above).

6. Following advice from this forum, I downloaded powermax from the maxtor website. I scanned the disk with this program, and it passed all tests. I then tried to refomat the disk and it said to remove other hard drives. To be safe, I opened the cpu, and I unplugged the ribbon to my main drive (the one with windows, and all my files on it.) After closing the cpu and hooking everything back up I started the computer booting from the floppy into the maxtor program again. I selected the reformat option and the program said the disk was successfully reformatted.

7. I rebooted again into knoppix (from the CD). Typed "su - " "knoppix-installer," followed the screens to the partition screen again. SAME PROBLEM, SAME MESSAGE.....

The difference is that now KDE does not even show the other drive whereas before it did. Also, "my computer" in windows does not show the drive either.

Is this where mounting the hard drive comes in?? If so, I do not know anything about this and will be in need of detailed information if possible.

Thank you so much.

amanda

You'll probably find more assistance if you look here. Though if my memory serves me correctly, you can't just do su- and normal stuff like that, because you won't have a root password. You have to use sudo instead i.e. type sudo command whatever/prefix commands with sudo

The knoppix site(s), well one of them, has full instructions about installing hard drive. If you manage that, then I'd suggest that you then change the sources in the apt-sources list, to reflect proper debian ones. That way, whenever you update, you'll get "proper debian" packages (but that's just another thing to look into/consider etc).

Maybe that helps some.

regards

John

thanks big john.

read your blog by the way. right on brother.

amanda.

Da Nada.

Personally, I think that you going for knoppix on the hard drive, is, (IMO) a good idea.

When I first started meddling with linux, I was mainly using mandrake, but I got delusions of grandeur. I'd heard so much about Debian (theres a small, but very vocal, if somewhat "tongue in cheek" minority at my LUG who expound the "Use Debian" message) so I got a copy of the stable version.

Whoooosh, as it all went over my head! :( One of the vocal ones came over and installed it - I just didn't know enough to do that myself (actually the issue was mainly that the older stable kernel version didn't support my graphics card so he had to change it so that I had the unstable newer kernel). While I was meddling, I found that not only is Knoppix is derived from the unstable/testing debian versions, plus, it recognised all my hardware (including the graphics card) and figured that if it would do that from the CD, surely it should do that from the hard drive.

I was right. It was as easy, if not easier than installing mandrake, which IMO has very good hardware detection, but not as good as knoppix. It worked "a treat".

Sure, I can see the benefits of debian. Hell, have you seen the number of packages that it supports ? (10000 +)

Plus, if you do look into changing the apt-sources list so that it reflects "proper" debian sources, you'd never (in theory) have to install another distro. Just learn how to use the apt package manager. Brilliant - Ha!, that's one of the reasons that I changed to Gentoo, because that will do the same, the only difference being, that I download new packages/updates/upgrades as source code and gentoo then compiles it for my system and the customisations that I've chosen, whereas you'd just be downloading the pre-compiled binaries.

That, I suspect, is why Ubuntu has proved so popular since it's inception. Afterall, there used to be "Gnoppix" as well, which was a Gnome version of Knoppix - though that now seems to have been transformed into the Ubuntu Live version.

I, from choice, prefer KDE as my graphic windowing environment so wouldn't bother with Ubuntu or Gnome.

So "good on yer" for taking that route to get linux up and running. Theres a mountain of stuff at the knoppix site, so I've always thought that it's a good place for all sorts of Knoppix specific info.

The difference being, that LQ, you get a quicker response. Theres a hell of a lot more people here!


regards

John

p.s. As for my site, well it's just my little corner of the web where I can shout and moan as much as I want! Then if anyone else wants to listen/read my rantings, its up to them.