Hi,
Has anyone tried the cdrom OS Knoppix ? Can you really do anything with it
such as browse the web or anything else for that matter ?
My guess is that it would be limited and slow but I would like to hear from someone who tried it..
Thanks in advance,
JP

I have tried it on all my PCs at home on the network (2 laptops and a desktop) and my PC at work and on a friend's PC (to show off linux a little) and it worked amazingly well.

It actually detected my hardware on my laptop better than Mandrake 9 did on install (the distro I currently have on there).

I find its great to give to a friend who doesn't want to "mess up" his hard drive trying out linux.

I've used it as an emergency disk for a while, it has proven to be quite valuable. Its great for new linux users or those whom are interested in seeing what Linux is like as it doesn't write a thing to the hard drive and by default sets all drives as read only. I made 20 copies for all the people in my department as a christmas gift last year (man am I a nerd)

I love Knoppix. I agree about the hardware thing, I've had to do no configuration with it everytime I've used it. It's invaluable as a rescue disk.

Knoppix is great.
The only time I have had a problem loading it on a PC was a bad burn.
I have seen it pick up DHCP network connections on boot.
I can configure WVdial, email and news in minutes.
The obvious problems of it being a little slow due to running from CD, and needing more swap or hard drive acccess when working with or saving larger files are all that I have encountered.
There is an option to save config files to floppy for use at next boot.
Get that Knoppix CD today. Run, Forrest, run.

(I can't believe I've gotten this far running MuLinux + Netscape 3.0, about 5 floppy disks of an OS + Apps! Runs quite will on a '486 + 32Megs RAM + 100 Meg Hd)

Anyway:

I share everyone else's experience with Knoppix. I don't think it is really all that slow as long as you have lots of RAM for the ramdisks. It runs a compressed file system, which on slow media like CDROMs it actually turns out to be faster than a non-compressed filesystem. The slowest thing actually is having to go through all the configuration steps when you boot the thing up.

Of course there is a simple script in /usr/local/bin that allows you to clone the whole (2.4 gigs!) to a hard drive partition, which is kind of a neat way of getting a preconfigured Debian system installed in about 15 minutes!

I read your post about saving the config files to a floppy as an option..Could you explain where and how to do this?
Many Tnanks to all posts,
JP

As I recall, there's a menu option for that...I don't have the system here to doublecheck, around the same place where you can select "root console" there's an option that says "save settings" or "save configuration settings" and that saves everything to a floppy.

However, I've never used it so YMMV

I love knoppix so much, i extracted the distro out onto
the hard drive, used kpackage to install a bunch of
different stuff. installed a bunch of mame games,
mp3 files, customized scripts i wanted. i uninstalled
stuff i wouldn't use, and rebuilt the cd. its great.
I have scripts on my machine that rebuild the knoppis
cdrom when i want. it also has acidrip and dvdrip
for making divx movies.

Can you point me to a good doc that explains how to recreate the knoppix CD? That could prove to be quite valuable.

knx-hdinstall is on in the knoppix installation.
that isn't what i used, but i think it works, for
installing to the hard drive.

the knoppix web site has info about which tools
you use to rebuild the knoppix filesystem

this is most of the script.
you need more than a gig of ram +swap to build it.

mkisofs -R -l -V "knoppix iso9660 filesystem" -hide-rr-moved -v ../knoppix/source/ | create_compressed_fs - 65536 > ./master/KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX

mkisofs -l -r -J -V "knoppix" -hide-rr-moved -v -b KNOPPIX/kno.img -c KNOPPIX/boot.cat -o k.iso ./master


found it

http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.ph...masteringHowto


that sort of looks overcomplicated.
i have the knoppix uncompressed stuff in
a directory called source, and in master
the stuff from master on the cdrom.
then i chroot into source, change stuff.
exit then run the rebuild script and burn
to a cdrw to test.

Knoppix is a great distribution for introducing someone to the wonders of free software and fixing problems with other distros. It autodetected all my hardware, including a USB mouse and my GeForce4, I tried it on a laptop and it even autodected the built-in mouse!

I wouldn't install it as my everyday distro because of KDE and all the extra things that come with it, plus, it's Debian. I can have Debian with only the things I want on my HD with a 180mb iso and an install time of about 1-2 hours (including X).

Very useful for times when I can't remove Windoze from a system

If you have not found it already...
I forgot to fire up Knoppix before I started Debian this evening, but if I remember correctly, the save configuration files to floppy option is in Kmenu ("start" menu) -> Knoppix -> save configuratin to floppy, or such.
I have not used it a lot myself so I do not know which config files it does or does not save.
You need to check the README. To use the floppy configuration file you need to enter a command at boot (floppyconfig or such).

Thanks guys for an interesting discussion...I tried to save the conf to a floppy and it went fine,BUT..I boot from a floppy as my old box will not boot from a cdrom drive..Thus at the boot message when I type in "Knoppix Conf floppy" or something like that i think, it fails to find the kernel..The boot floppy is also too full to include the configuration data.. Thus It looks like i'll have to think about that one for now..I am still struck how slick Knoppix is..heh..
Take care,
JP

In reading about floppy config over on the Knoppix forum it sounds like you can save a config file on your boot floppy (or copy it there).
Things like the size of the file and deleting an old before rewriting a new were discussed. You may want to test on a copy first.
Perhaps check out the Knoppix forum?