Knoppix is one of the oldest Linux distributions still around, and it was one of the first Linux Live CD distributions.
If my memory is correct, the first generally available release of Knoppix (on a Live CD) was made sometime in late 2000. I don't think it is exaggerating to say that Knoppix set the standard for Live Linux distributions when it was released, or that the Linux world as a whole learned a lot about how Live distributions should be done, and how powerful, versatile and useful they could be.
Fedora 20: Hands on with five different desktops
Mar 16, 2019 Knoppix 8.5 is built from Debian Buster and Sid packages while providing various updates, utilizing the Linux 4.20 stable kernel, shipping both KDE 5 and GNOME 3 and LXDE options, adds in the ADRIANE audio desktop that can be used with vision-oriented output devices for desktop engagement via audio, and has a plethora of package upgrades. Hello All, Recently Knopper released new version of Knoppix (KNOPPIX 6.0),With lot of new features, which includes.
I've been exploring Fedora Heisenbug in five different guises - Gnome 3, KDE, Xfce, LXDE and MATE
Over the years, Knoppix has evolved and expanded. In about 2005 a Live DVD version was added, with loads of additional applications, utilities and packages included. Rather than drop the Live CD version, however, both formats have been maintained since then, with the CD version as a 'small/fast/easy' alternative, and the DVD version as an 'everything including the kitchen sink' alternative.
My first use of Knoppix came at SANS training classes, where they were using the Live CD version as a convenient way for course participants to gain access to Linux tools.
Those classes require attendees to bring their own laptops, and until a few years ago the majority of them would be running Windows. I have noticed in the last few years that more and more people are bringing dual-boot systems with both Windows and Linux, but that still doesn't eliminate the advantages of Live CD/DVD distributions of Knoppix (and Kali), because it is way more convenient to have a complete, bootable distribution with all the specific tools needed for the class ready to go, rather than to have to download and install them on whatever Linux system you brought along.
So, to get to the point rather than digressing about the history of it all: the latest release of Knoppix is 7.2.0, and it can be obtained from the Get Knoppix website.
It can be downloaded via BitTorrent or FTP/HTTP, or it can be ordered on CD, DVD or USB Flash Key. There is also one clear example of the 'experience shows' that I mentioned above; for computers which cannot boot from USB drives (such as the Lifebook S2110 I am currently typing this on), there is also a 'bootonly' CD version.
This is an extremely small download (about 12MB) which you can burn to a CD to be used together with the USB Flash drive version. When you boot the CD the first thing it does is switch over to the USB drive and continue running from there â how clever is that to get around old BIOS limitations?
I have downloaded both the CD and DVD images, so that I could compare them. I found the file list on the download site to be a bit confusing, so let me see if I can paraphrase it simply:
Whew. Hopefully one or two examples will make it all clear.
As far as I know these ISO images can only be burned to CD/DVD media, they are not the type of hybrid images which are becoming common, that can easily be converted to a bootable USB stick. I have tried with dd (no joy), but I haven't tried using unetbootin yet.
When you boot the Live image, the real fun starts. I have to admit that I just about jumped out of my chair when the woman's voice suddenly and completely unexpectedly announced 'Initiating startup sequence'!
When it has finished booting, you get an LXDE desktop:
This release of Knoppix is running Linux kernel 3.9.6, with LXDE 5.x (I'm not experienced enough with LXDE to determine exactly what version, it seems like it's probably 5.4 or 5.5) and X.org X Server 1.12.4.
Oh, and it includes Compiz Fusion, with lots of desktop effects enabled! I found this to be a particularly amusing experience, using what is generally thought of as a 'lightweight desktop', but with wobbly windows, animations when windows open or close, a desktop selection cube and heaven knows what else.
This system was installed from the DVD distribution, and as I said above, that is really the 'all in' version. It is absolutely chock full of applications, utilities, packages and even alternative desktops. I will only give a few examples from each menu:
Honestly, I just picked those at random. If you download and boot the DVD, and then just look at the LXDE menus, I promise you it will amaze you.
If you boot from the CD version, rather than the DVD, what you get is still a nicely configured LXDE system, but without the massive amount of additional software.
Just glancing at the above list, the CD version has 'only' Iceweasel, GIMP and Image Magick, LibreOffice, MPlayer, Install to Flash/HD, Midnight Commander and Leafpad. Besides not having the KDE and Gnome desktops and their associated programs and utilities, it does not have the Programming menu at all, and it does not have WINE.
When running either the Live CD or DVD version, you can choose 'Install to HD' from the Knoppix menu to make a permanent hard drive installation. There are a few useful things to know about this.
First, the Knoppix installer (called 0wn, for Zero Work Needed), is not at all like any other installer you might have used for another Linux distribution. 0wn does the minimum work necessary to copy the Live image to a hard drive partition and make it bootable.
It doesn't worry about niceties such as setting up timezones, keyboard maps and user accounts, and it doesn't have any flexibility at all when it comes to disk partitions and filesystems. It will install to an empty 'reiserfs' partion, and nothing else â no ext2/3/4/btrfs or whatever need apply.
If you already have the necessary partition, 0wn will find it and offer to use it for the installation. If you don't have a suitable partition 0wn will let you run gparted so that you can create one, or it will offer to automatically partition the disk for you - it would take a brave person, or a totally empty hard drive, to accept that last offer, in my opinion.
Once it has copied the Live image to the hard drive, it will offer to set up GRUB for you. It only knows how to set up grub-pc (Legacy GRUB), not even grub2, much less UEFI boot. If you already have some kind of MBR bootloader installed, you can tell it not to install GRUB.
In this case it still has the GRUB package installed, and the necessary config files are complete (such as /boot/grub/menu.lst), it just doesn't try to set the MBR to point to the Knoppix partition.
The Live CD image is a 700MB ISO, but it expands to 2GB when unpacked to the hard drive. The DVD image is a 3.8GB ISO which expands to 10GB when installed to the hard drive. Keep these sizes in mind when you are setting up the partitions for Knoppix.
In the DVD version, on the Knoppix menu there is an item called 'Choose/Restart KNOPPIX Desktop'.
It is exactly what the name implies, it puts up the window shown here, listing the available desktops, you can select the one you want and then OK, and it will configure that and then restart the X server, all without rebooting or even logging out. You need to be a bit careful about this, because restarting the X server will terminate all running programs which have graphical output. Keep that in mind, or you will get a rather unpleasant surprise when you try it.
If you select the KDE desktop and then click OK, after the X server restarts you will get this:
That is a very typical looking KDE desktop. As you might guess from what is shown in this screen shot, the KDE menus have the same structure and content as the LXDE menus had.
If you select the Gnome Desktop, you will get this:
Again, that is a pretty typical Gnome 3 desktop, with the application menus structure and content the same as for the LXDE and KDE desktops seen above.
So, in summary: Knoppix is a well-established, well-known and very stable Linux distribution.
It is best known as a Live CD/DVD version, which many experienced Linux users keep handy for system recovery, hardware compatibility testing, and ad-hoc Linux shows (oh, and for students at SANS security classes).
Knoppix is not only interesting as a Live distribution, though: it can be installed to hard disk quite easily, and makes a very nice Linux system.
The Knoppix installer (0wn) is a bit, uh, different. Many people consider the Fedora installer 'anaconda' to be the height of complexity; I don't necessarily agree with that, but if I were to look at it that way I would consider the Knoppix installer to be the opposite extreme, the height of minimalism.
The Knoppix CD distribution is a good, well-equipped LXDE desktop, but if you want more than that the DVD distribution has LXDE, KDE and Gnome and an easy utility to select and switch between them.
If you are seriously interested in Linux, and you have never tried Knoppix, you owe it to yourself to download one of the Live images and at least give that a try.
Further readingRelated Topics:Enterprise Software Open Source Developer Cloud
KNOPPIX (/ËknÉpɪks/KNOP-iks)[2] is an operating system based on Debian designed to be run directly from a CD / DVD (Live CD) or a USB flash drive (Live USB), one of the first of its kind for any operating system. Knoppix was developed by, and named after, Linux consultant Klaus Knopper. When starting a program, it is loaded from the removable medium and decompressed into a RAM drive. The decompression is transparent and on-the-fly.
Although KNOPPIX is primarily designed to be used as a Live CD, it can also be installed on a hard disk like a typical operating system. Computers that support booting from USB devices can load KNOPPIX from a live USB flash drive or memory card.
There are two main editions: the traditional compact-disc (700 megabytes) edition and the DVD (4.7 gigabytes) 'Maxi' edition. Each main edition has two language-specific editions: English and German.
KNOPPIX mostly consists of free and open source software, but also includes some proprietary software, as long as it fulfils certain conditions.[3]
Knoppix can be used to copy files easily from hard drives with inaccessible operating systems. To quickly and more safely use Linux software, the Live CD can be used instead of installing another OS.
Contents[edit]
The classic Knoppix start-up process
More than 1000 software packages are included on the CD edition, and more than 2600 packages are included on the DVD edition. Up to nine gigabytes can be stored on the DVD in compressed form. These packages include:
Hardware requirements[edit]
Minimum hardware requirements for Knoppix:[4]
Saving changes in the environment[edit]
Prior to Knoppix 3.8.2, any documents or settings a user created would disappear upon reboot. This lack of persistence then made it necessary to save documents directly to a hard drive partition, over the network, or to some removable media, such as a USB flash drive.
It was also possible to set up a 'persistent home directory', where any documents or settings written to the user's home directory would automatically be redirected to a hard drive or removable media, which could be automatically mounted on bootup. A single file, knoppix.img, was cached on the rewritable media and used to simulate a file system into which files were written for later use. This allowed the user to transparently write to their home directory.
Union mount support was added in version 3.8.1 through UnionFS. This was later replaced by Aufs in 5.1.0 to improve stability.[5] The union mount allowed virtual updates to the data on the read-only CD/DVD media by storing changes on separate writable media and then representing the combination of the two as single storage device. The writable media could be memory (ramdisk), a hard disk, USB flash drive, etc. This means that the user could modify the software installed on the Knoppix system, such as by using APT to install or update software. The storage device containing the changes needed to be present whenever Knoppix is started, else only the original data from the disc would be used. While Knoppix would scan available storage devices for a persistent home directory by default, a user could dictate a specific location with a boot option (see below) such as:
home=/dev/hda1/knoppix.img [6]
By carrying a Knoppix CD and a USB flash drive, a user could have the same environment, programs, settings, and data available on any computer that could run Knoppix.
This functionality was only available through Knoppix 5.1.1 (CD release) or 5.3.1 (DVD release). Subsequently, the Live CD paradigm has transformed into portable operating systems that run on external storage.
Boot options[edit]
When using Knoppix as a Live CD, one can use boot options, also known as 'cheatcodes', to override a default setting or automatic hardware detection when it fails. For example, the user may wish to boot into 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 does not enter a cheat code, or does not press any key before the timeout, Knoppix will boot with its default options. For example, to set the language to French rather than the default, one would type:
knoppix lang=fr [6]
Knoppix is a 32-bitDebian Linux based distro, but recent releases (including the latest version 7.6) have also been equipped with a 64-bit kernel on the DVD edition, where it will automatically boot up for 64-bit computers, or by using the boot option
knoppix64 manually in the command-line prompt, while knoppix will boot up the 32-bit kernel. Neither PAE nor 64-bit applications are supported by Knoppix, and system memory with more than 4 GB can only be used with a 64-bit kernel.
The DVD edition of Knoppix can also be loaded onto a USB flash drive, with flash-knoppix under the Knoppix system, such that 'the KNOPPIX Live System starts and runs about factor 5 faster from USB flash disk than from CD or DVD!'.[7] Besides that, the experimental UEFI support is provided for USB flash drive rather than DVD media. 32-bit UEFI firmware can only boot up the 32-bit kernel, while 64-bit UEFI firmware can only boot up the 64-bit kernel. The text interface for UEFI is similar with it for BIOS, one can also press key F2 and F3 to access information on boot options.
Popularity[edit]
Knoppix was one of the first Live CD Linux distributions to gain popularity.[8] There are several factors that contribute to the popularity of Knoppix:
Knoppix works on a fairly large number of PCs or laptops, but not all. The automatic hardware detection cannot cope with all hardware, and sometimes the drivers used will not be optimal. Knoppix has difficulty recognizing some cards made before 1998, or motherboards with a BIOS made before 2002. (In some cases, manual configuration with codes entered at boot time can overcome problems with automatic detection.)[citation needed]
If a PC does not have enough RAM to run KDE and other included programs, the legacy Knoppix (earlier than 6.0) boots up a very limited twm session instead. The only window running in the twm session by default is xterm.[citation needed]
Versions[edit]
The table (to the right) shows the version history of major releases.
Knoppix 4.xâ5.x[edit]
As of April 2008, from version 4 up until 5.1.1, Knoppix has been split into a DVD 'maxi' edition (with over 9 GB of software), and a CD 'light' edition; both were developed in parallel.[11][12]
Up until Knoppix 5.1.1, the CD editions contained a selection of graphical environments, including the TWM window manager, and KDE 3 â a feature-complete desktop environment default in Knoppix 5.3.1 and earlier.
No further development is being done on the traditional 5.x versions.
Knoppix 6.x[edit]
KNOPPIX 6.0.1 / ADRIANE 1.1 is a CD-edition again, and a complete rebuild from scratch. LXDE was made the default desktop environment, and the edition contains a substantially reduced software collection in order to easily fit on a CD.[13]
The KNOPPIX 6.2.1 release has both CD and DVD editions, and ADRIANE 1.2 only has a CD-edition.[14]
Knoppix 6.7.1 has the last CD version with stable touchpad drivers.
Knoppix 7.x[edit]
From June 2013 on until March 2019, Knoppix 7.2 was the most recent release with a CD edition. By 2018, its software had become very outdated, as the libc6 2.17 library no longer suffices for installation of several modern packages. The 7.x version range is known for instabilities with touchpads.
As Knoppix 8.5 is a publication exclusive,[10] then version 7.2 still remains the most recent CD version of Knoppix in wide distribution.
Knoppix 8.x[edit]
The KNOPPIX 8.0.0 edition was released at CeBIT 2017.[15]
KNOPPIX 8.1.0 was released in September 2017 as the first public release in the 8.x series.[16]The version 8.0.0 has the dual boot, and a choice between three different desktops:LXDE as default option, KDE or GNOME[15].
Versions 8.2.0 and newer (8.2.x, not 8.5.x) are available on Knoppix mirrors.
Knoppix 8.5 again includes a CD version, but it is not available for downloas, as it is an exclusive that is only bundled with a physical edition of Linux-Magazin.[10] Version 8.5 no longer includes Systemd, which was replaced by elogind. Spectre and Meltdown kernel vulnerabilities have been mitigated.[17]
Derivatives[edit]Adriane Knoppix[edit]
Knoppix 6.7
Adriane Knoppix is a variation that is intended for blind and visually impaired people, which can be used entirely without vision oriented output devices. It was released in the third quarter of 2007 as a Live CD. Adriane Knoppix is named after Adriane Knopper, the wife of Klaus Knopper, the developer of Knoppix. Adriane has a visual impairment, and has been assisting Klaus with the development of the software.[18] The name Adriane is also a backronym for 'Audio Desktop Reference Implementation And Networking Environment'.
Adriane Knoppix is intended not only for the blind but also for beginners who donât know much about computers. It uses the SUSE Blinux screen reader with a phoneme generator and speech engine for normal output.
Other variations[edit]
Knoppix family tree
Unmaintained projects[edit]
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