Knoppix

Knoppix is a Linux distribution LiveCD. Knoppix is a Debian based Linux distribution running on a Compact disc or DVD drive without using the hard drive or installing any files onto the hard drive. Knoppix was developed by GNU/Linux consultant Klaus Knopper.

The popularity of Knoppix is due to many factors. Its extensive hardware detection allows the majority of systems to boot straight into a graphical environment without the need for manual configuration. It connects automatically to most kinds of networks, and includes software both for use as a computer system (notably web browsers, OpenOffice.org, and the GIMP) and for system repair. The complete graphical environment and networking make it much more comfortable than the previous generation of boot disk for system administrators repairing systems whose hard drives won t boot.

Starting from version 4.0, Knoppix has been split into a DVD maxi edition (with over 9GB of software), and a CD light edition, both developed in parallel. The limited first edition of the Knoppix 4.0 DVD was handed out to visitors at the LinuxTag convention on June 22, 2005.

=Usage=

Knoppix has a wide variety of free software. More than 2600 software packages are included on the DVD edition and more than 1000 are included on the CD edition. Up to 9 gigabytes can be stored on the DVD in data compression form. When a program is used, it is decompressed into a RAM drive. The decompression is transparency (computing) and on-the-fly. Knoppix recommends at least 128 mb of Random Access Memory in order to accommodate this RAM drive.

Unlike most Linux distributions, it does not require a hard drive installation; the system can boot from a single 4.7 gigabyte DVD or a 700 megabyte Compact disc. One needs a bootable CD or DVD-ROM drive to start Knoppix from the CD. In order to start the CD/DVD, it may be necessary to enter the BIOS Setup of your computer and, in the boot order, select the CD drive before the hard drive or floppy drive. Insert the CD/DVD and restart the computer.

Knoppix may also be installed on the hard drive using an installation script (computer programming). However, the hard disk installation is recommended only for advanced users, since Knoppix is meant for use from the CD. The installation script is knoppix-installer or knx2hd from Knoppix 3.3 onward, or knx-hdinstall previously. Use caution since this may affect other disk partitions. The user needs enough advanced knowledge to create partition space for Linux and for Linux-swap partitions. The hard-disk install script, while a bit difficult for new users, can be used to install a Debian-based distro. The only difficult part is the partitioning with cfdisk, but there is a lot of documentation on this.

Prior to Knoppix 3.8.1, any documents or settings a user created would disappear upon reboot. This lack of permanence for anything a user did made it necessary to save any documents explicity to a hard drive partition or over the network. Another possibility was and is to save data to a user s home directory on a removable medium, such as a USB thumbdrive. This has been changed with the latest version of Knoppix. The new UnionFS filesystem allows a user to write to the boot media (e.g., if Knoppix has been burned onto a CD-RW or DVD±RW). If Knoppix has been burned to read-only media (such as a CD-R or DVD±R) then it is not possible to make permanent changes without writing these changes to a hard drive or removable medium. With UNIONFS, it is also possible to update the software on the boot cd, allowing the user to use Advanced Packaging Tool to update and install additional software. By carrying a Knoppix CD and a USB thumbdrive, a user can have the same environment, programs, settings, and data available on any computer.

There are different possible uses of the Knoppix live CD: *an introduction to Linux, especially as a desktop operating system *advocacy or demonstration at conferences *in-store testing whether a computer system is compatible with Linux before purchasing it *restoring a defunct system or some of its data *running a Firewall (networking) or Router *bootstrapping a Debian (or other Linux) installation

=Highlights=

*KDE, the default desktop environment; includes the Konqueror web browser and KMail e-mail client *XMMS, with MPEG video, MP3 audio, and Ogg Vorbis audio playback support *Internet access software, including the Kppp dialer and Integrated Services Digital Network utilities. *The Mozilla Application Suite/Mozilla Firefox web browser *K3b, for CD authoring and backup. *The GIMP, an image-manipulation program. *Tools for data rescue and system repair. *Network analysis and administration tools. *OpenOffice.org, a comprehensive office suite. *Many programming languages and development tools.

=Graphic cards=

The graphics card device driver is very important in using this distribution as it relies on a Graphical user interface, although most expert users can make use of the command line interface. If your graphic card does not work, it may be that it is new (or exotic) and is not in the knoppix hardware database yet. New cards will usually work under Linux, but they may have to be run using a generic driver (i.e. xmodule=fbdev).

=Boot Options=

Boot options are also known as cheat codes. Automatic hardware detection may fail, or the user may want to use something other than the default settings. For example, the user may want to boot into Xfce, or boot a plain console, or proceed without SCSI support. For this, Knoppix allows the user to enter one or more cheat codes at the prompt before booting. If the user doesn t enter a cheat code, or if no key is pressed before the timeout, Knoppix will boot with its default options. Cheat codes are entered in the format kernel options . Cheat codes affect many auto-detection and hardware options. Many cheat codes also affect the gui. The list of cheat codes is available on the Knoppix mirrors, and can be seen at boot time by pressing F1.

==Languages==

To set a language other than the default (CDs are available with either German or English as the default language), type your language abbreviation at the boot prompt. For US English, one would type:

knoppix lang=us

==Linux (Kernel) 2.6.X==

Knoppix has offered the Linux 2.6 kernel as an option since version 3.4; since version 3.8 it has been standard. Older versions of Knoppix default to a version of the 2.4 kernel.

=Problems with Knoppix=

Despite the fact that Knoppix is often touted as a great way to introduce Linux to others, it has its drawbacks.

Hardware detection: Knoppix 3.9 cannot work with many soundcards, such as Soundblaster 16, Soundblaster 32awe etc., Knoppix being a LiveCD cannot be upgraded with driver upgrades easily. As well, Knoppix has difficulty recognizing cards before 1998, or motherboards with a BIOS before 2002.

Memory intensive: Knoppix requires memory of at least 128 MB, and even then Knoppix has long loading times, although this can be broadened to a general criticism of LiveCDs in general, as they all store their files on the RAM.

Hard to install programs: Although this is a criticism of Knoppix, this can also be broadened to a general criticism of Linux itself. To alleviate this, Knoppix includes Klik (packaging), which allows installation with a single click at klik s official site, and Synaptic Package Manager, which provides an easier way to use Debian s famed Advanced Packaging Tool from version 4.0 on.

Sources:

http://code.campware.org/projects/livesupport/ticket/934 http://www.osnews.com/story.phpnews_id=5589 http://www.osnews.com/story.phpnews_id=5589&page=2 http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Bugs/3.6-2004-08-16

=Versions=

=Variations=

ClusterKnoppix is a distribution based on Knoppix using the Linux Terminal Server Project and openMosix. It is a convenient way to try out Computer cluster.

[http://www.eduknoppix.org/ eduKnoppix] is an Italian Knoppix variation, aimed at primary schools. It focuses on children aged between 8-15, and thus contains a lot of educational software for kids. The other language supported is English.

Kanotix Linux LiveCD is based on KNOPPIX. The included XFree86 4.3 is from Debian/experimental.

ing.

Kurumin is a Brazilian distribution based on Knoppix (with support for the English language) that fits on a Mini-cd. It includes standard desktop applications, documentation and an e-book that introduces users to Linux.

The Gnoppix project uses a modified form of Knoppix with GNOME as the default desktop environment.

[http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/quantian.html Quantian] is a Knoppix-like DVD geared towards sciencific, numerical and statistical tools, based on clusterKnoppix and offering openMosix clustering (as well as MPI/PVM clusters) out of the box or via PXE netbooting.

Formerly [http://whoppix.net/ WHoppiX], whose name was a combination of Whitehat and Knoppix, was another Knoppix based distribution designed for security tasks. Since version 3.0 of WHoppiX the liveCD was renamed to WHAX, because the distribution is based on SLAX from that version on.

There are also other Linux demo CDs: SuSE and Slackware distribute live evaluation CDs, Coollinux, DemoLinux, Mandrakelinux, Morphix and Gnoppix all have similar purposes to Knoppix. There are also full desktop-oriented distributions based on Debian, notably Linspire (formerly Lindows), Xandros and Libranet.

Hispalinux has an ongoing project, Metadistros, to enable the easy creation of customized Knoppix-like Linux live CDs with an easy installation on the hard disk.

Damn Small Linux, Feather Linux and Flonix are Linux LiveCDs that are very small, mostly under 50MB in size, but fairly robust and desktop-oriented nonetheless.

[http://games-knoppix.unix-ag.uni-kl.de/ Games Knoppix] is a Live CD with a lot of free games based on KNOPPIX with accelerated 3D support for ATI and Nvidia graphic cards.

[http://pareto.uab.es/mcreel/ParallelKnoppix/ ParallelKnoppix] is a Knoppix-based LiveCD with support for netbooting (via PXE) an MPI (Message Passing Interface) cluster off a single master node.

[http://bioknoppix.hpcf.upr.edu/ BioKnoppix] is a customized distribution of Knoppix Linux Live CD. With this distribution you simply boot from the CD and you have a fully functional Linux OS distribution with open source applications targeted for the molecular biologist. Beside using some RAM, Bioknoppix doesn t touch the host computer, being ideal for demonstrations, molecular biology students, workshops, etc.

[http://www.remote-exploit.org Auditor Security Collection] is commonly used to test the security of networks. Auditor gives one root privileges.

=Further reading=

Knoppix Hacks ISBN 0-596-00787-6 (O Reilly Media, 2004)

=See also=

*List of Linux distributions *Comparison of Linux distributions

=External links=

*[http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html Knoppix pages] *[http://www.knopper.net Klaus Knopper s homepage] *[http://www.knoppix.net/ Knoppix.net - English user site] **[http://www.knoppix.net/docs Knoppix Wiki], or [http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Main_Page Knoppix Wiki using mediawiki] **[http://www.knoppix.net/forum/ English Forum]

[http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/USB_Based_FAQ Knoppix USB Based].

*[http://www.isofile.de/files/knoppix-36-dvd.txt List of included software packages] *[http://www.solidz.com/torrents/ Knoppix torrents] *[http://www.knoppix-std.org/ Knoppix STD] *[http://www.knoppix.pl Knoppix.pl - Polish user site] **[http://www.knoppix.pl/faq Knoppix FAQ (in Polish)] **[http://www.knoppix.pl/phpBB2 Forum]

*[http://www.gnoppix.org/ Gnoppix], a version with GNOME desktop. *Kanotix: http://kano.mipooh.net/kanotix/ and http://kanotix.mipooh.net/ *[http://www.confederatelinux.com/linux/knoppix_variations.htm Knoppix variations] *[http://www.pjls16812.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/knowing-knoppix/index.html Knowing Knoppix] *[http://www.livedistro.org/ LiveDistro.org] - LiveCD Remastering and Customization Resources and New Releases *[http://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/quantian.html Quantian] scientific computing environment

==News articles==

*[http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-knopp.html Cameron Laird: Knoppix gives bootable, one-disk Linux] *[http://www.distrowatch.com/dwres.phpresource=interview-knoppix Distrowatch.com interview with Klaus Knopper] *[http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-knopx.html System recovery with Knoppix] *[http://arstechnica.com/columns/linux/linux-20050504.ars Fun with Knoppix ]