I thought it might be nice to install Knoppix on a partition of my Archos Gmini 402 and be able to boot a computer from it. I almost always have my Archos with me and installing Linux means that I can carry around my own personal workspace, which can be used from any computer that can boot from a usb hard drive.

Please note that the following procedure may erase all the data on your Archos so make sure you have it all backed up before proceeding . If you do it correctly your data should be OK, but it’s easy to make a mistake and zap everything:)

The following HowTo is derived from the one on Francis Shanahan’s site for installing Knoppix on a Creative Zen.

Partition the Hard Drive on your Archos.

You need to divide your Archos into two partitions. The first partition will hold all your existing data and the second partition will be used for Knoppix. Whilst you can resize the existing partition and then create a new one, I found it simpler to back up all the data from my Archos onto a computer and then erase the existing partition and create two new partitions. I chose to do this using the Gnome partition editor, but you could just as easily use fdisk or qtparted. I made the second partition 1GByte.


The partitions on my Archos.

Make sure that you tick the boot flag.

Format both partitions as FAT32. Next set the flags on the first partition to be lba and on the second set the boot flags. You can do this by right clicking on the partition and choosing flags from the pop up menu.

Now restore all your backed up data to the first partition.

Install Knoppix.

Note I am assuming in this section that the partition where you want to install Knoppix is /dev/sda1. Please make sure that you are using the correct partition before proceeding, it may not be /dev/sda1 on your system!

  • Boot Knoppix
  • Install the syslinux bootloader: 
syslinux -s /dev/sda1
  • Make sure that the drive is mounted: 
mount /media/sda1
  • Copy the files needed to boot: 
cp -av /cdrom/boot/isolinux/* .

Don’t forget the period (.) at the end of the command. You may get some messages about not being able to set permissions, you can ignore these.

  • Copy the isolinux.cfg file to syslinux.cfg 
mv isolinux.cfg syslinux.cfg
  • Remove the isolinux.bin file 
rm -f isolinux.bin
  • Copy the contents of the Knoppix CD to your Archos: 
cp -av /cdrom/* .

Again don’t forget the trailing period and ignore messages about file permissions. You will be asked about overwriting some existing files. You can answer either “y” or “n” - it doesn’t matter.

  • Remove the existing boot directory: 
rm -rf ./boot
  • Reboot making sure that you remove the Knoppix CD.