ADMIN - Explore the new world of system administration! Special introductory offer! Order by September 30th to save 10% off the regular subscription price! Each issue delivers technical solutions to the real-world problems you face every day. Learn the latest techniques for better:
network security
system management
troubleshooting
performance tuning
virtualization
cloud computing
on Windows, Linux, Solaris, and popular varieties of Unix.
Knoppix offers an impressive array of GNU/ Linux applications, as well as automatic hardware detection and support for a great variety of graphic cards, sound cards, and USB devices.
Knoppix is amazing. It worked extremely well for me from both the DVD and from my USB stick. The interface is nice and clean and it comes with a plethora of software that is more than enough to cover the needs of the average user. If not on a read-only medium, it is a fairly simple matter to install software to expand it if your favourite app isn't included.
In LXDE, it is quite snappy and responsive even while using Compiz. The security measures are a little over the top but not unneeded. In GNOME and KDE, it's also fairly responsive although on my ageing hardware starting Compiz in GNOME takes a little toll on performance.
All around quite good, I carry it with me wherever I go.
knoppix toram boot option works great and is not german for 'key logger'
Steve Donato - Sailor in Florida
May 23, 2009 12:26am GMT
Anyone familiar with the work of the Knoppix distro's author, would know you can trust his Distros.
I found using toram option responds instantly. Try it you will love it.
I did not however, see how to install this distro on disk as an option on splash screen?
Steve
Tips
Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@excite.com
May 07, 2009 11:29am GMT
I missed the issue! Now I have to decide whether to buy a back issue or wait - Knoppix seems to be kind of exclusive to the show or magazine giveaway editions for a while when it's released that way.
I could also wait for some bugs to be fixed maybe in a 6.1.1 - I guess you can report 'em. It's a shame about the modem, should an error be able to halt the PC?? (I think the same hardware takes down my Windows XP - I have reasons for using XP - unless I unplug the hub it's on before "suspending" the PC; plugging it in after booting could work for you maybe?)
As for not cacheing the disc, I think there is usually a "cheat code" document on there, and http://knopper.net/knoppix/knoppix60-en.html seems to say that booting with the magic words "knoppix toram" will use a RAM image of the disc, or at least of the OS. Could help. But you're not going to type mysterious words just because someone on the Web said so, are you? For all that you know, "toram" is German for "keystroke logger". Anyway, maybe there's a more subtle and less RAM-hungry middle way. And I think you can rewrite the disc with your favourite cheats as defaults, too - can you?
Knoppix 6.1 DVD
linuxfan
Apr 16, 2009 9:31pm GMT
I don´t know if it is your DVD that is faulty or the distribution but Programming - Mono Development will not start on the DVD that came with your magazine.
Another issue is that the Network Manager Applet freezes the entire computer every so often (an estimate is about 30% of the times) when I try to connect with my Huawei e220 mobile modem. In between I get a faultless connection. This also happens with the 6.01 CD version of Knoppix so it is not an issue with your DVD.
In Knoppix 5.3.1 I use wvdial to connect with the Huawei without any problem.
In the past chosing between starting a Live CD Ubuntu or a Live DVD Knoppix everytime gave preference to Knoppix because Ubuntu spends a lot of time accessing the CD, Knoppix did not. I am sad to say this is not the case anymore. Knoppix 6.1 seems to access the DVD with annoying frequency slowing down things.
Apart from this every new occurrence of a Knoppix release is a major and most welcome event.
By the way, what happened to mono-mint?
Knoppix 6.1
Bob
Mar 30, 2009 11:10pm GMT
I used to love Knoppix, it was the one I carried to sites around the country. But I'm afraid I wasn't very impressed this time.
I tried it on a Sony Vaio with 2G ram.
It loads quickly, remember the old Live distros with their very long startup, Knoppix 6.1 may even be faster than an installed linux boot.
The first thing to note is that it went off to the DVD every time I opened a menu and then again for sub-menus. But it didn't cache, because if you flit through menus and come back to the same one, it went back to the DVD to get it.
Ok, could live with that. The first things I do with a new distro is try some large picture files and videos, just to see how well it handles memory, and knoppix did well here.
But then I setup for my IMAP email, I got a crash. Its a long time since I had a crashing linix (applications crashing not the whole system). But I got a crash when I tried an office application and then when I tried the CAD. There is something unstable in this distro.
This is a decent laptop that has had a fair few distros on it, mainly as VMs. The only troublesome one was openSuse which just couldn't get to grips with the video, while the likes of Mandiva/Debian are happy with it. (Nvidia GeForce Go7400).
So I'm afraid this Knoppix didn't really impress me.
Watch our free Video Archive from Apachecon US 2009. Archive provided by The Apache Foundation, COLLABNET, and Linux Pro Magazine
Drawing internationally renowned thought-leaders, contributors, and organizations in the Open Source community, ApacheCon offers insight into the culture and community that develops and shepherds industry-leading Open Source projects, including Apache HTTP Server – the world's most popular Web server software for more than 10 years.
Comments
Excellent Distro
Eric Jun 17, 2009 6:09am GMT
Knoppix is amazing. It worked extremely well for me from both the DVD and from my USB stick. The interface is nice and clean and it comes with a plethora of software that is more than enough to cover the needs of the average user. If not on a read-only medium, it is a fairly simple matter to install software to expand it if your favourite app isn't included.In LXDE, it is quite snappy and responsive even while using Compiz. The security measures are a little over the top but not unneeded. In GNOME and KDE, it's also fairly responsive although on my ageing hardware starting Compiz in GNOME takes a little toll on performance.
All around quite good, I carry it with me wherever I go.
knoppix toram boot option works great and is not german for 'key logger'
Steve Donato - Sailor in Florida May 23, 2009 12:26am GMT
Anyone familiar with the work of the Knoppix distro's author, would know you can trust his Distros.I found using toram option responds instantly. Try it you will love it.
I did not however, see how to install this distro on disk as an option on splash screen?
Steve
Tips
Robert Carnegie rja.carnegie@excite.com May 07, 2009 11:29am GMT
I missed the issue! Now I have to decide whether to buy a back issue or wait - Knoppix seems to be kind of exclusive to the show or magazine giveaway editions for a while when it's released that way.I could also wait for some bugs to be fixed maybe in a 6.1.1 - I guess you can report 'em. It's a shame about the modem, should an error be able to halt the PC?? (I think the same hardware takes down my Windows XP - I have reasons for using XP - unless I unplug the hub it's on before "suspending" the PC; plugging it in after booting could work for you maybe?)
As for not cacheing the disc, I think there is usually a "cheat code" document on there, and http://knopper.net/knoppix/knoppix60-en.html seems to say that booting with the magic words "knoppix toram" will use a RAM image of the disc, or at least of the OS. Could help. But you're not going to type mysterious words just because someone on the Web said so, are you? For all that you know, "toram" is German for "keystroke logger". Anyway, maybe there's a more subtle and less RAM-hungry middle way. And I think you can rewrite the disc with your favourite cheats as defaults, too - can you?
Knoppix 6.1 DVD
linuxfan Apr 16, 2009 9:31pm GMT
I don´t know if it is your DVD that is faulty or the distribution but Programming - Mono Development will not start on the DVD that came with your magazine.Another issue is that the Network Manager Applet freezes the entire computer every so often (an estimate is about 30% of the times) when I try to connect with my Huawei e220 mobile modem. In between I get a faultless connection. This also happens with the 6.01 CD version of Knoppix so it is not an issue with your DVD.
In Knoppix 5.3.1 I use wvdial to connect with the Huawei without any problem.
In the past chosing between starting a Live CD Ubuntu or a Live DVD Knoppix everytime gave preference to Knoppix because Ubuntu spends a lot of time accessing the CD, Knoppix did not. I am sad to say this is not the case anymore. Knoppix 6.1 seems to access the DVD with annoying frequency slowing down things.
Apart from this every new occurrence of a Knoppix release is a major and most welcome event.
By the way, what happened to mono-mint?
Knoppix 6.1
Bob Mar 30, 2009 11:10pm GMT
I used to love Knoppix, it was the one I carried to sites around the country. But I'm afraid I wasn't very impressed this time.I tried it on a Sony Vaio with 2G ram.
It loads quickly, remember the old Live distros with their very long startup, Knoppix 6.1 may even be faster than an installed linux boot.
The first thing to note is that it went off to the DVD every time I opened a menu and then again for sub-menus. But it didn't cache, because if you flit through menus and come back to the same one, it went back to the DVD to get it.
Ok, could live with that. The first things I do with a new distro is try some large picture files and videos, just to see how well it handles memory, and knoppix did well here.
But then I setup for my IMAP email, I got a crash. Its a long time since I had a crashing linix (applications crashing not the whole system). But I got a crash when I tried an office application and then when I tried the CAD. There is something unstable in this distro.
This is a decent laptop that has had a fair few distros on it, mainly as VMs. The only troublesome one was openSuse which just couldn't get to grips with the video, while the likes of Mandiva/Debian are happy with it. (Nvidia GeForce Go7400).
So I'm afraid this Knoppix didn't really impress me.