I am looking for a way to do hardware detection automatically based on a
knoppix-like distro:

This is what I have in mind:

1._ a box as old and crappy as Likux/knoppix could take, as long as
it is an X86-based PC, would come your way

2._ box preferably has a CD caddy in it (or you will have to open it and set it up)

3._ you would put in the CD, that would
3.1_ detect all hardware in the box
3.2_ test each component to make sure it works properly (and/or report what is
wrong with it)
3.3_ produce a name-value output with each hardware type and its properties (it
should do things like reporting built-in hardware, mainboard-based peripheral parts, amount of RAM, the hard drives manufacturer/serial number, ...)
3.4_ this output would then be appended to a file in the network

Can it be done right from Knoppix?

Are there distros out there to do something like that?

How do you achieve that?

Albretch Mueller (lbrtchx)