I'm not 100% sure, but there are graphics just like it in the /mnt-system/KNOPPIX directory (same directory as the desktop back ground.

You could start there, and see what works.

Of course you probably want to make sure that any image you substitute for the default images is the same approximate size as the originals, both in terms of file size as well as dimension. If you put some huge uncompressed image in there it's likely to slow the boot down even more.

I was very careful to match the size of the Compiz splash screens,.. for this very reason

Are there any good process loggers that I could set up as autostart that would create a log file of what's going on in the moments after boot while the "hornets nest" has control of the system?

I've been wondering about that myself. Ubuntu is recording everything you plug in to your machine, the time, the date, the manufacturer of it but its all buried in binary and hex only viewed by a hexeditor and serious computer geeks.

/var/log keeps up with a lot of stuff but most of them seem locked or compressed images and hard access except for
cat /var/log/dmesg.

I was thinking if I could just get a remaster of my settings and background like I like, I wouldn't even use persistence.
I'd store any data on the USB and keep a bookmarks backup on there as well.

The problem with taking up all the data on the USB with the data overlay is that you can't put anything on that USB unless its booted.

Are you able to boot your Knoppix USB without the overlay working?
I suppose you could rename knoppix-data.img temporarily so knoppix won't find it at boot.
Im gonna try that real quick. I did get the image renamed with mv command.
Example: sudo mv knoppix-data.img sometingwonglol

Renaming knoppix-data.img to somtingwonglol worked.
It booted without persistence and is much much faster even on my older slower laptop at 2.1ghz. 2g ram
Nice to have my remastered background and adjusted terminal and panel buttons.

So I don't think I'll ever turn that overlay on again. Its so much faster running live with no persistence.
The problem is its like gimp if you get all the panel setup like you like it you'd have to remaster it again which takes a fair amount of time.

Persistence works like it should on hard drive. It works as good as any OS.
All it takes is an empty partition, cp -r all the Knoppix contents over, dd an image file inside the KNOPPIX folder 1000G or 2 and grub2 to boot.
--------------------------------------------------------------
This was my favorite of all time way of making an Ubuntu USB. It used grub legacy then, today you'd want to be running 20.04 Ubuntu live which has grub2 so you'd be able to install grub2.

It has the dd commands used to dd an iso to the 2nd partition and dd a casper-rw onto the 1st partition which was ubuntu's persistent image and what it looks for at boot.

To use it for knoppix-data.img you just replace casper-rw with knoppix-data.img and adjust the size to whatever you like.
https://rudd-o.com/linux-and-free-so...live-usb-drive

Having used the "read only" flavor for a year now, my gut feelings are very similar. Especially now that I am using gparted to create a second partition beyond the knoppix install, giving me "on board" space to store files.

But I still hope to get a definitive answer to the balkiness of the overlay install ....someday,..somehow?

I've got 3 separate USB drives with identical "remastered" non-overlay installs...one as an every day user...and two for back up.

Plus, I've got a 4th USB stick install with overlay that I just got working, that I am using just as a testbed of sorts to see if I can find the actual problem, or blow it up trying.

One thing I've noticed, the system with the overlay file has already written to 13% of the overlay file's available capacity....and I've only made negligible physical additions. So I'm now curious to see if it's just gonna keep bloating that file up until there is no space left.

I'd love to purge all of the games off of it except Chess and see if that helps any.
Its a given that the larger the .iso the longer it takes to load everything.

The USB that I have manually created and used dd to install a knoppix-data.img inside the KNOPPIX folder works better than the flash-knoppix created one. I can't wait 2 to 3 minutes for firefox to open and 2 minutes for the shutdown button to appear once I've had enough and another 2 minutes for it to begin shutdown after I've pressed the button.

The manually created USB is at least functional with persistence but only after the CPU meter settles down.
And then one thing at a time needs to be on. A terminal, browser and file manager starts taxing it a bit.

Can you quantify "better"?


For example, on my laptop from the time I select knoppix in the boot menu, a flash drive knoppix with the overlay file takes 2 minutes 55 seconds to get to a usable desktop. In comparison a read-only flash stick knoppix takes 52 seconds. Similarly, launching Chromium...from the time I click on the icon until the browser is open to the default page,...on an overlay system is 2 minutes and 12 seconds...compared to a read only system being 20 seconds.

The figures for Chromium are for the first time launched after a fresh boot, but allowing the system to settle down before trying.

The launch time for Chromium is considerably better for both, on second, third, and subsequent launches.

How does your "franken-overlay" knoppix compare?

I'll run a clock on my Flash-Knoppix created USB in a second and report back.
I have a new USB with freshly installed grub2 supposedly supporting EFI32, EFI64 and BIOS booting.
I have the Ubuntu 20.04 .iso booted but its not finding its persistent file.
And now its just shutdown because of heat.

On the Laptop it took me 4min and 54seconds to get to the desktop with background image loaded.
I've been booting this USB in the desktop EFI booting system so it probably had a whole lot more info to process since the system benchmark can tell you every single piece of hardware in the thing plus its performance capabilities.

6 total minutes for the CPU to settle down.
6 more minutes to get wifi connected partially because of error in password. It wouldn't type when expected but later put double letters where one was needed.

1min and 24 seconds to get Chrome up, search and pull up the msn page.

My lap top is old and slow by today's standards with a 2.1 ghz dual core processor with 2G Ram

So after loading chrome several times and establishing msn.com/en-us as the start page. It will fully load that page in 8 seconds.
And its finally closing instantly. It seems to get faster and faster. Things load faster once cookies have been stored so if I move to another site it takes a bit to load.

Your strategy for installing overlay, but disabling the functionality...is very intriguing. That way I could re-enable only for specific updates, and then switch back off,... for performance. Best of both worlds.

Wonder if there is a boot time "cheat code" that would do that?

Okay, did a little research on cheat codes...interesting results.

If I enter the cheatcode "knoppix noimage" the system boots and runs as well as a non-overlay system, but all changes made to the system after the initial remaster...are completely gone/ No revised bookmarks, no revised background image for the desktop, even the setting to select which graphic to use for the desktop reverts to the original default. And, the DiskFree utility cannot even see the 3GB knoppix-data overlay file.


If however, I use the cheatcode knoppix forensic then the system boots and runs just as well, but is additionally able to read-only the overlay, and all the changes I've made prior that are in it. And DiskFree is able to again see the overlay, as well.

All with no performance hit.

But, with a big downside.....when booted with "forensic" I cannot even write to the physical hard disk that is on the machine....which I normally can do even with a non overlay install.

BUT, this is interesting...the performance hit I have been banging heads over, is specific to the ability to write to the overlay.

Turn that off, and the performance comes roaring back

if there was a cheatcode that specifically allowed you to turn off writing only to the overlay, yet preserving it for the main system controller, I would be willing to call this one [SOLVED]...

There use to be some talk about booting the cd only which would not be nearly so bloated. I looked and didnt see the cheat code. But there is an iso inside the KNOPPIX folder titled boot iso only.

Sometimes we just have to push ourselves back, take a deep breath, and re-think our assumptions.

Rather than insist that the question is "why does the system w/overlay run so slow?" Perhaps the real question is "why do they offer the option to install without overlay, in the first place?"

More likely they could never get the system with writable overlay to perform adequately, so the "non-overlay" install option is offered to make the current version palatable to the average user. As usual, I'm coming in thru the "out" door.

Back when only CD's of Knoppix were bootable and not USB's, the knoppix.img so called then, had to be dd'd onto one of your partitions on the PC's hard drive. Then you could reboot the CD and have all of your customised user settings be there with no CPU hit.

To have it like the CD or DVD in an unwritable iso9660 file system was the original idea and protects the file system so no matter what you do to it, it keeps coming back on next boot like Terminator 2000.

Everyone wants persistence so they don't have to spend a lot of time reloading their personal settings so that's a bonus.
What baffles me is why older versions worked much better and faster.

One thing for certain remastering is way way easier than it use to be no doubt about that.


I think one of the Knoppix versions had single click file opening by default and I got use to that and now I have to track it down and find out where to change it every time I boot a live system without persistence. I get tired of dbl clicking.
And It aggravates me to no end to boot up a system and there's no terminal to be found. So have to make a shortcut right away.

That's what's aggravated me about my new Ubuntu USB today.
It boots the iso fine and is supposed to look for the image file called "writable" that I have dd'd onto the root of the USB file system which actually can be an entire partition on the USB from what I understand.

Thinks have changed since I made my last persistent Ubuntu USB. Apparently you can have many persistent images with it now, still looking into it.

Ubuntu is very powerful I've seen it manipulate windows partitions with gparted when nothing else would.