Knoppix Hacks (Kyle Rankin, O'Reilly)
Knoppix is one of the myriad distributions of Linux, but its a fine one to start exploring with. What makes it different from the rest of the pack is that its a live CD rather than a full-bore installation, meaning that one can just reboot a PC with it in the CDROM drive and it just goes.
At least, thats the principle.
In trying out some of the 100 hacks presented in this book, I ran Knoppix on 2 PCs and 1 laptop. I only had problems with one of them [an older PC] and I suspect it was on the BIOS end, not the fault of the CD itself. For the most part, Knoppix is quite good at detecting hardware configurations and getting one going.
Booted up, Knoppix presents a KDE environment, which, to be frank, had never been my favorite desktop. I was prepared to be underwhelmed.
What surprised me is how far KDE has come since the days of Caldera and Corel Linux. Dynamic icons, better graphics and smarter window placements all contribute to a much better user experience.
But not all is great. I found that after heavy use, KDE still tends to get bogged down. While you'll never see a BSOD in Linux, you can certainly lock it up. Thankfully, Knoppix includes other window managers, such as the excellent fluxbox, icewm, twm, xfce, windowmaker, and larswm. Most of my testing was done in fluxbox or KDE.
I was using Knoppix mainly on Windows machines, the hard drives of which Knoppix is capable of reading, so I wanted to check the installer as well. Digging out an old 8gb with Win98 on it, Knoppix installed quite readily, both as a dual-boot and a wholly Linux box. What you wind up with is essentially a slimmed-down, fully functional Debian installation.
The most useful aspect of a live CD distribution like Knoppix is that the hard drive is not being actively used, but can be examined. This makes it incredibly useful for forensics or security work, say for scanning for virii or looking for rootkits.
Article comments
1 - Aaman
Good review - knoppix has been considered a good gift by geeks to non-techies to get them interested in Linux.
Linux is nowhere near ready for prime time, though.
2 - Mark Saleski
Linux is nowhere near ready for prime time, though.
this is a line that has been repeated for years.
what makes you think it's not ready?
i use suse linux at home (with gnome) and it's just briliant for all of my needs.
plus, i don't have to reboot my computer once a day (or more) for no apparent reason.
3 - Aaman
To give you one example why it's not ready:
Booting Knoppix on my Dell Latitude starts DMA by default, then locks up because the CD-ROM is not recognized. Until DMA is disabled, I cannot boot up.
Another reason - application support - the enterprise apps I use all the time are not yet on Linux, despite the public efforts of all the big players, who are merely, IMHO trying to establish mindshare and positioning distinct from Microsoft.
Another reason, though this is not the fault of Linux - inertia. The sheer size of the Windows marketspace.
Incidentally, I do not need to reboot any of my systems for wierd reasons - don't install wierd stuff, work on supported apps, and you should be fine. Linux can freeze too, as you know. There is nothing unusual in a memory or application fault that can lock up or crash the OS, any OS.
4 - Mark Saleski
i write software for a living. believe me, when you stress test nt/xp over the long haul...it rots right out from under you.
5 - daneil ofosu
please I would be happy if you could send me a free cd to use to entertain my self. please my postal address is
abeka methodist church box 10896 accra north ghana
6 - Agbemor Emmanuel
Please i want you to give me some of your items through the box below: Agbemor Emmanuel Emit Elec. box 3530 Accra Ghana
7 - Eric Olsen
whoa, virtual pan-handling
8 - Victor Plenty
And both from Ghana, too. Thereby might hang a tale. If only someone here had time to research this.
(Not me... I gotta go back to work in a few minutes.)
9 - enock odai otoo
thanks