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Knoppix v3.4Knoppix v3.4Grok Headline matches for Knoppix v3.4KnoppixKnoppix 10/29/2003 12:12 AM So, I finally tried Knoppix today. I'd heard a lot about it and was ready to be impressed, but it still took me by surprise. If you haven't heard of Knoppix, it's a full Linux distribution on a CD that is designed to boot straight from the CD, without you needing to install anything and without you having to worry about it modifying the contents of your hard drive. Getting it running was pretty simple. I had to change the boot order in my BIOS so that my PC would try booting from the CD before the hard drive (not difficult at all: hit delete as the PC is booting up and the option for changing the boot order was pretty obvious, at least on my machine), then all it took was inserting the CD and powering up the computer. Knoppix auto-detected everything - from my graphics card and network (I guess it used DHCP) right up to the scroll wheel on my mouse. There was a moment of confusion when it came up with a 'boot?' prompt, but it turned out I just had to hit enter for it to start auto-detection (the prompt appeared to be for advanced users to specify additional options). After that, it booted straight in to an attractively set up version of KDE 3. The ease with which it started up was the first pleasant surprise, but what really impressed me was the huge amount of software that came on that one CD. As well as KDE, Knoppix comes with the full Open Office and Mozilla application suites, all the usual Linux tools and editors, plenty of multimedia software, the GIMP (a photo editing program similar to Photoshop), even Python 2.3. Everything was available through the KDE application menus, and everything Just Worked. The icing on the cake though was WINE. WINE is an emulation layer for Linux that allows you to run Windows applications. I had heard about it, but always been put off trying it because it sounded so complicated. Knoppix comes with WINE already installed, so I figured there was nothing to lose by trying it out. wine notepad.exe Windows notepad loaded up in a new, KDE style window. Wow. Knoppix mounts your Windows hard drive (in my case as hda2) as read only, so you can play with your existing files without fear of damaging them. I browsed around my Program Files directory and tried to run WINE on various applications. Several failed, including Internet Explorer (hardly essential software, but useful for testing). I don't know if this is because they do weird, screwed up things that WINE doesn't yet know how to handle or if they were upset that they couldn't read the filesystem. Whatever the reason, I was blown away by the fact that any of it worked at all. When UltraEdit loaded under Linux I positively cackled. I've only made one venture in to Knoppix land so far, but it really was everything as good as people had said it was. If you have access to a CD burner and a fast internet connection you owe it to yourself to try it out. Knoppix 3.4-2004-05-04Knoppix 3.4-2004-05-04 05/06/2004 07:11 AM A bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software. Knoppix 64 3.4-EN-2004-05-31Knoppix 64 3.4-EN-2004-05-31 06/05/2004 02:40 AM A 64-bit Linux development and desktop system. Knoppix 4.0 DVDLiveKnoppix 4.0 DVDLive 06/24/2005 09:56 PM Knoppix 3.6 releasedKnoppix 3.6 released 08/23/2004 10:47 AM Slashdot Aug 23 2004 3:07PM GMT Games KnoppixGames Knoppix 12/25/2004 04:45 PM Slashdot Dec 25 2004 1:49PM GMT Grokking KnoppixGrokking Knoppix 01/01/2005 10:23 AM Knoppix 3.8.1 is ReleasedKnoppix 3.8.1 is Released 04/10/2005 12:25 AM Slashdot Apr 10 2005 4:24AM GMT Knoppix V3.3-2004-02-16Knoppix V3.3-2004-02-16 02/16/2004 09:26 PM joatBlog: KnoppixjoatBlog: Knoppix 02/15/2004 09:17 AM http://users.757.org/~joat/blog/archives/001795.html From Joat, a bid ol' list of Knoppix Projects... Knoppix 3.3-2003-11-03Knoppix 3.3-2003-11-03 11/07/2003 07:45 AM A bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software. Knoppix 3.3-2003-11-14Knoppix 3.3-2003-11-14 11/15/2003 12:10 PM A bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software. Knoppix V3.3-2003-11-14Knoppix V3.3-2003-11-14 11/14/2003 08:05 AM Repartitioning with KnoppixRepartitioning with Knoppix 12/02/2003 12:41 AM I've been long bemoaning the fact that if you want to repartition your hard drive to install Linux as a dual boot with an existing Windows system the most frequently recommended method is to buy a copy of Partion Magic. You would have thought the open source software world would have provided a free alternative by now. Via Andy Todd, it turns out that they have. GNU Parted is a repartioning tool for Linux. QtParted wraps it in a GUI with a Partition Magic style interface. And the awesome Knoppix comes with QtParted included on the disk. So instead of shelling out for an expensive package that you are unlikely to ever use more than once, you can download and burn a Knoppix CD, boot in to Linux and repartition from there. I'll be trying this out for real on Monday, and I'll report back with the results when I do. As an aside, has anyone ever found a web page that lists all of the software included on the Knoppix CD? Update: Closer inspection reveals that Parted can't resize NTFS. Thankfully, ntfsresize< /a> can - and ntfsresize is integrated in to QtParted. Magic. Knoppix: CD-Based LinuxKnoppix: CD-Based Linux 07/06/2004 11:39 PM
You can get the CD image file at www.knoppix.com (I used Bit Torrent to get my version). Burn it to a CD, stick it in the drive, and reboot. You will boot into a really nice Linux distribution. There are no users on the system — you're automatically logged on as root. If you're worried about this, don't be — remember that you booted from a CD. If you screw something up as root, just reboot and the system will be back to normal. While Knoppix can read everything on your hard drive, it has no write access by default, so it's not going to do anything to your existing stuff. You can allow it to write, but it's not advisable with an NTFS drive. Knoppix creates a ramdisk to store all the stuff it needs while running. It accesses everything else off the CD, just like it would off the hard drive normally. When you run a new program, you can hear the CD spool up. Consequently, it's slower than a normal Linux machine, but not by much. It's fully functional — it detected everything on my machine, including FireWire and USB devices. I just had to get the network card to broadcast a DHCP request and I was on the network. It recognized my Lexmark E210 printer just fine, and I'm listening to MP3s on XMMS as I write this. I had more trouble with my dedicated Linux install at work, and I spent days fiddling with that. It comes with scads of software, like most Linux distributions — KDE, Open Office, The Gimp, Mozilla, Konquerer, etc. Since it forms a ramdisk when it boots, you can save files and work with them just as if it were a normal operating system. I saved the image above off a Web site, cropped it, and converted it to JPG in The Gimp. If I wanted to keep it beyond this session, I could always FTP it somewhere (remember that KDE is FTP-aware — you can map an FTP site to a local folder, so you'd never really know the difference). I'm fairly well stunned by this. It's really amazing. Sure, it can't really store or persist anything locally from session to session, but most of my apps are Web-based and my email is IMAP, so I'm actually pretty functional. If you ever wanted to try Linux but you don't want to make any changes to your current Windows set-up, Knoppix is exactly what you're looking for. Click here to comment on this entry Knoppix Tips and TricksKnoppix Tips and Tricks 01/04/2004 09:34 PM Knoppix 3.3 Update, 3.4 C't Edition Are
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I'm writing this
entry from a Linux machine...but I never installed Linux. I've booted
my PC off a Knoppix disc, which is a bootable Linux CD. I'm in Linux
now, but I just need to pop the CD and reboot, and I'm back to
Windows.