rootninja

Cheatcodes

Cheatcodes are used to pass options to KNOPPIX to help with getting it working on difficult hardware. You type them into the boot screen and press enter/return. The format is “kernel option option option …”. Usually “knoppix” is the right selection for the “kernel”. You can type more than one cheatcode before pressing enter. Also note that some options can take on values.

Example: “knoppix xvrefresh=60 noscsi floppyconfig”

Options

lang=bg|be|ch|cn|cs|cz|da|de|dk|es|fi|fr|ie|it|ja|nl|pl|ru|sk|tr|tw|uk|us
specify language/keyboard
You can go to the ISO 639 site to see the two-letters code meanings.
For example, typing knoppix lang=us you change the keyboard/language to US english.
If you don’t change the keyboard, in the default DE-bootimage, Knoppix boots with the german keyboard layout (i.e. ‘=’ letter is located at Shift-0 at this keyboard). Print the german keyboard layout for your reference.

keyboard=us
specify only console keyboard

xkeyboard=us
specify X keyboard

atapicd
Do NOT use SCSI-Emulation for IDE CD-Roms - Knoppix V3.4 and later

desktop=fluxbox|icewm|larswm|twm|wmaker|xfce
Use specified WM instead of KDE

screen=1280×1024
Use specified Screen resolution for X

xvrefresh=60 or vsync=60
Use 60 Hz vertical refresh rate for X

xhrefresh=80 or hsync=80
Use 80 kHz horizontal refresh rate for X

xserver=XFree86|XF86_SVGA
Use specified X-Server

xmodule=ati|radeon|fbdev|vesa|savage|s3|nv|i810|mga|svga|tseng
Use specified XFree4-Module

wheelmouse
The mouse is a wheelmouse - not needed since 2003-04-15

nowheelmouse
Regular PS/2 mouse - 2003-04-15 and after.

0
Runlevel 0, Shutdown
1
Runlevel 1, Textmode, single user
2
Runlevel 2, Textmode only
3
Runlevel 3, Textmode only
4
Runlevel 4, Textmode only
5
Runlevel 5, Graphics mode, default
6
Runlevel 6, Reboot

myconfig=scan or floppyconfig or floppyconf
Run knoppix.sh from a floppy. The “floppyconfig” option allows you to reconfigure the system after autoconfig, or install your own config files, by mounting a floppy disk and running a bourne shell script called knoppix.sh from the root directory on this floppy. There is a GUI to create such a configuration floppy disk calles “saveconfig” (also located in the KDE menu under “KNOPPIX”, but experts also know how to do this by creating their own shellscripts. The configuration with network and graphics setup are stored in configs.tbz. A file called knoppix.sh, if located in the toplevel KNOPPIX directory on CD, will also be executed at startup. This makes it easier to create customized versions without having to change anything on the compressed filesystem KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX.

myconf=/dev/sda1
Run “knoppix.sh” from a partition - Knoppix V3.4

myconf=scan (or config=scan)
Try to find “knoppix.sh” automatically - Knoppix V3.4

noapic noagp noapm nodma nomce nofirewire nopcmcia noscsi noswap nousb nosmp noaudio
Skip parts of Hardware-detection, In case of a failing hardware autodetection, try booting with any of the “no-” options as shown in the table above, like in knoppix noagp noapm noapic nodma nopcmcia noscsi nousb to skip some critical parts of the autodetection system. The “noswap” option is useful for a forensic analysis without touching existing swap partitions.

nofstab
By default Knoppix will look/scan the HDs to see if it contains partitions. If the HDs do have partitions, Knoppix will automatically build a ‘/etc/fstab’ file and fill-in the appropriate partition entries and will also create the ‘/mnt/hdxx’ mount points. The ‘nofstab’ cheat code prevents this look/scan and prevents the generation of the /etc/fstab and its mount points.

nohwsetup
Skip hardware detection (does not run hwsetup)

no-hlt
Do not perform hlt test. On some CPUs or with some power supplies the hlt test can cause the CPU to reset, so specifying this instruction will cause the system to ignore the hlt test and run at full power. Warning, this can cause your CPU to run hotter, and may defeat power saving measures.

pci=bios
Workaround for bad PCI controllers

pci=biosirq
Will force the use of the BIOS assigned Interrupt ReQuests on the PCI bus. Possible cure for non-functioning hardware. Very handy for unruly IRQ conflicts. Look at dmesg and cat /proc/pci to find out if you have any such troubles..

pci=irqmask=0×0e98
Notebook if PS/2 mouse doesn’t work, Also try “knoppix pci=irqmask=0×0e98″

ide2=0×180 nopcmia
boot from PCMCIA-CD (Transmeta notebooks)

mem=128M
Specify Memory size in MByte, Some Boards apparently don’t pass the proper memory size to the linux-kernel. It may cause the message “Panic cannot mount root file system” and the system hangs. Use “knoppix mem=128M” to solve that problem if your system has 128MByte memory for example (caution you MUST use a capital “M” here). Stuff like mem=16320K also works.

noeject
Do NOT eject CD after halt

noprompt
Its especially useful in combination with noeject. With noprompt, Knopix won’t eject the CD and ask for a keypress. It was a much asked feature some time ago. Version 2003-09-22 and later.

nodhcp
skip dhcp/network broadcast detection

splash
It shows the upper half of the KDE splash-screen, while booting up. You can press Esc anytime to see all the messages. Ever wanted to hide those cryptic messages? Version 2003-09-22 and later.
New in 3.4: Animations (see for yourself) and the ability to press any key.

modules-disk
This cheatcode allows you to insert a floppy disk with additional modules, for example USB-stick or similar. Yes, its also possible with “expert”, but there you lose the automatic configuration afterwards. Version 2003-09-22 and later.

toram
Copy CD to RAM and run from there. Version 2003-09-05 and later.

tohd
You can now do a “poor mans install” on vfat and ext2-Partitions with, knoppix tohd=/dev/hda1 Version 2003-09-22 and later.

fromhd
With this cheatcode the CD-Roms are ignored, so you can finally boot your “poor mans install” with just the original cdrom. Version 2003-09-05 and later. note - Cheatcode “toram” and “fromhd” work now together. Usage fromhd=/dev/hda1.

boot=/dev/hda1
(after you load kernel and run ramdisk startup stuff (minirt.gz) however you may choose)
Then continue starting up from hda1/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX . This is an easy way to free up your CD drive–you don’t even need the CD at all, to boot, if you boot using loadlin, and have the ‘linux’ file and ‘minirt.gz’ file being loaded from the hard drive with loadlin. just copy the cd compressed contents to the root directory of a partition. then load knoppix with loadlin or however, passing this code in addition to the others, as you start up.
This was tested to work on a fat32 partition, in knoppix 3.4. –gh78 May 20 2006

bootfrom=/dev/hda1
Access Image then boot from previously copied CD-Image (enables booting from NTFS / ReiserFS) - Knoppix V3.4

bootfrom=/dev/hda1/KNX.iso
Access image, boot from ISO-Image. - Knoppix V3.4
NOTE: bootfrom needs access to a running Knoppix-System with the same Kernel as the Bootkernel, before it is able to mount the partition / ISO-Image. This should allow a poor mans install from NTFS-Partitions and makes it also possible to boot an ISO-Image directly. You can also use wildcards in the ISO-Filename, but it must be unique. So: If you have just one KNOPPIX.iso on /dev/hda1 you can access it as: bootfrom=/dev/hda1/K*.iso, but if there are several, you need to make clear, which one you want. (Feature added by Fabian Franz.)
CAUTION: The 2.4 kernel that is in the KNOPPIX 3.4 CD does not support the ext3 filesystem so make sure that the ISO is stored in an ext2 filesystem.

gmt|utc
Hardware clock is set to GMT/UTC

tz=Europe/Berlin
Hardware clock is set to timezone Europe/Berlin

vga=normal
No-framebuffer mode, but X

vga=ext
50-line TEXT mode

dma
enable DMA for all IDE drives

home=scan
Set home directory. ’scan’ will search for knoppix.img in the root of all partitions. To create a home directory, go K-menu -> Knoppix -> Configure -> Create persistant home directory. Be carefull when creating the home-dir, Do NOT use the entire partition unless you know what you are doing. Other options could be, home=/dev/hda1/knoppix.img home=/mnt/hda1/knoppix.img . If you are using a USB memory stick type home=/dev/sda1/knoppix.img but home=scan will probably do.

blind
Start Braille-Terminal (no X)

brltty=type,port,table
Parameters for Braille device.

alsa
Autoconfigure alsa for an pci-soundcard

alsa=es1938
Configure alsa for the snd-es1938.o-module pci-soundcard

testcd
Check CD data integrity, If your KNOPPIX CD makes strange noises during boot, or you see frequent errors like “cloop read error”, or programs on your KDE desktop keep crashing randomly, then your CD image is probably defective or incomplete, or your CD-burner created a defective CD due to wrong writing speed or bad media. This is the most common error reported. Please boot with “knoppix testcd” to check if the CD is OK, and/or even better, verify the MD5 checksums that are present on the mirrors before writing the CD. Also, please read the KNOPPIX-FAQ.
CAUTION: testcd can take a long time and the screen saver often starts while the testcd check is running. Hit SHIFT or CTRL to turn off the screen saver and continue, there is likely no need to reset the system or burn another CD at this point.

pnpbios=off
No PnP Bios initialization

acpi=off
Disable ACPI Bios completely

knoppix_dir=KNOPPIX
Directory to search for on the CD.

knoppix_name=KNOPPIX
Cloop-File to search for on the CD.

-b
“Emergency Mode”, a quick-n-dirty boot, almost no HW detection, only 1 VT; hit enter at root-password prompt and start typing commands. Good if you just need to fdisk IDE devices, activate a different partition for booting, DD stuff, and you are planning on rebooting Real Fast after you’re done. You can actually Alt-SysRQ-B safely ie. immediate reboot w/o worrying about shutting down nicely or anything, because nothing is mounted r/w at ALL - not even swap. Also works on other Linux distros.