Knoppix Linux On USB

Pre-Boot BIOS Configuration

On the hardware side, two critical factors are necessary for a USB Flash distribution to be bootable: native BIOS support for booting from USB devices, and a suitable boot-up configuration. This feature is supported by the modern BIOS firmware in most contemporary motherboards, in the form of USB-HDD, USB-ZIP, or by enabling USB keyboard and mouse support. In the not-so-unusual event that bootable USB Flash devices are not supported, you can find specialty Linux images designed to boot from USB floppy devices instead.

Initial Boot-up

Thanks to a well-designed automated hardware detection facility, both Feather and DSL bootstrapped and identified all available hardware on separate test machines without any trouble.

The following sequence of screenshots depicts boot splash screens for both Feather and DSL.

Initial DSL Linux boot-up screen.

Initial Feather Linux boot-up screen.

Ed Tittel is a long-time IT writer, researcher and consultant, and occasional contributor to Tom’s Hardware. A Windows Insider MVP since 2018, he likes to cover OS-related driver, troubleshooting, and security topics.