Knoppix. Persistent home directory confusion
 

Firstly - sorry if this is in the wrong place.
Please be gentle if this has already been addressed in the forum - I did search but am using a slow dial up connection!

I have just installed Knoppix 5.1 to a 8GB USB stick, which runs as a live cd I believe.

It seams to work okay, apart from 1 issue I can not sort out.

I have created a "persistent home directory" as advised by a procedure I was following, I put this at 4GB.

Okay, so all is working and I have made changes to the desktop - simple things like time zone and 'British' English, etc

The problem is this....
When I boot up I have a menu called "Knoppix Configuration" which reads as follows:

Found image file (media/sda4/knoppix.img)
This contains components listed below which can be activated separately.
If you do nothing in 10 seconds the image will be activated.
[*] home........mount persistent knoppix home directory[*] system.....add as persistent, writeable system area
[ ] overwrite..overwrite/update stored system configuration[*] init...........start INIT boot su??? (network, printer, etc)

If I leave it 10 seconds it loads up the default Knoppix desktop - as if it is a live cd.

If I select 1st option It boots my personalised desktop.

Can I force it to select the 1st option? What is option 2? If I miss the menu I have to re-boot! Or is there something wrong with what I am doing?

All I want to do is have an install I can use on my works laptop (new Thinkpad T61)

Please bear in mind this is my 1st successful (?!) install of a distro after 2 months or so of trying different ones with different machines! So I am just a beginner with all of the Linux genre.
Thanks for any help!

Since nobody else is coming forth...

I guess you can do it. There will be somewhere (and that is where I have to be vague, have no Knoppix right here) a configuration file for the installation. I'd guess either in the root directory in /install in /home/<user> or in /etc. Look for Knoppix.conf or some such file.

Look into the file for the text which gets displayed in those messages you posted. Either change the sequence of the lines or look for a keyword like "default" and change as appropriate.

Oh yes, and good luck ;).

Thanks for the reply, I have become quite despondent with the whole of the Linux concept, - non of the distros I tried have worked for me with my hardware requirements and my minimal knowledge... yet!

I was on the verge of wrapping up my Linux hopes, but in the 11th hour...

I have just ordered a hard drive for my works laptop, so will go for a regular install, and swap the HDDs as required.

Btw. Knoppix is not exactly a beginners choice. I began with
SuSE seven years ago (and still use it). Kubuntu is said to be beginner friendly too. Did you try one (or both) of those yet? At least SuSE has excellent hardware detection...

I'm going for Ubuntu I think.
I previously tried Knoppix purely because it is a full size distro that was able to put on a USB stick, without needing Grub etc, non of the others I tried succeeded! (Ubuntu, Puppy 3 and 4, openSUSE, Backtrack 2 and 3, DSL, Feather, Mepis antix,)

But on your recommendation, may look at duel booting Ubuntu with SUSE. And see which I like (or which picks up all/most my hardware!)

Cheers!