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http://knoppix.net/

Wow! Rarely seen concentration of FUD in this post, you should be up for a promotion, or a bonus of some kind.

Reality is :
-it's way (I mean WAYYYY) faster and easier to install Linux on just about anything than to get windows working
-on the various machines I've used to make a living as a developper over the last six years (currently EeePC), everything worked seamlessly right out of box

To check it out :
Burn a Knoppix CD (or USB key) and boot your machine with it, you'll get a risk free trial (you should have networking and office suite all up and running)
http://knoppix.net/

Once you love it :
install Debian, following instructions here at
http://wiki.debian.org/QuickInstall
(other distributions exist)

This will preserve your Windows partitions, and the content will be accessible easily from Linux

You'll soon discover that computers are actually fun.

You can install a full working system to a USB device using the Ubuntu Live USB creator. You can configure it so save your configuration to a separate partition and make it readonly using a physical read-write switch. Your session runs from memory and so is flushed at each reboot. There are various desktop environment available, one of the lightest is Lubuntu. Any business out there doing online Banking should produce their own customized Live CD and hand them out to their employees, there are various systems out there that can be customized such as the Knoppix distro ..

Everyone should have a KNOPPIX CD/DVD to hand. It's very useful for when someone messes up the Windows PC. I've used it several times for cleaning malware off of Mrs. Turgid's laptops after the monkeys have been on the intarwebs.

Just author your own Knoppix distro and call it per the above AvatarDVD.iso, the check sum won't match any of of the known distros then.
Here's how to do it: Knoppix Remastering How To

"When a vulnerabily is found on your LiveCD you won't be able to patch it."

Slashdotters should know better...

You can boot from a live Linux CD and remaster it, which is very cool.

http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Knoppix_Remastering_Howto

You can also keep a variety of live OS including custom WinPE versions.

http://www.911cd.net/forums/

I had great success with Knoppix. It works on almost any hardware and is very easy to customize. There is a ton of information online. You can put it on a USB and / or CD. http://www.knoppix.net/ good luck, Yosef Shevah Porat

Knoppix is great for this purpose too. Granted it's a full-sized CD iso so it will be a long download, but it's also worth the download so that you can keep a copy around for emergencies. Like the Ubuntu LiveCD it's also a fully-featured desktop suite (KDE by default unlike Ubuntu but also very similar to Windows) because it is loaded with drivers and useful utilities.

Secondly, get the students to each learn to use the telescope during the day when the moon is up. This will give them an understanding of how each mirror folds and bends the light in order to bring it to the eye. See if they can work out where Jupiter or Venus are located during the day (if it's not too close to the sun). Explain why telescopes need to move and what angles they need to be set at in order to continue to observe a given object.

Start with the most 'boring' objects first and work up to the moon. This will keep their attention more focused. Bring binoculars and make sure there are a variety of simulaneous activities for them to do so that they are not bored while they wait to use the telescope.

Have them build red LED flashlights so that they do not lose their nighttime/dark adaption.

If you don't already have a computer with Linux, download and burn an iso of knoppix http://www.knoppix.net./ It is completely free software and includes kstars - astronomy software which can show all the objects that you can observe with a 4" scope. Put the DVD in the computer's drive and boot it. No installation required.

One of the main questions you'll get is: Can we see Saturn (or any other object)? The answer is never simple. Depending on time of day etc, you may or may not be able to see Saturn. They need to understand why they can't see Saturn and how they can predict when they might see it next.

Never underestimate what kids take away from an experience with astronomy. They may not refer to it or bring it up again, but it will give them a profound sense of where they are in the universe. If you can open their eyes to one of the fastest advancing fields of science, you will have done a wonderful thing.

"BSI"

I can't help but wonder if this might be a way for folks to be directed to Knoppix?

See also Knoppix (and most other linux distributions with a live CD .iso).

Knoppix is the Linux distro which contains the largest amount of drivers on the cd. Burn and try it out: http://www.knoppix.net/

"Surf the internet from a read-only OS."

That's easy to do with a "poor man's install" of Knoppix or other live CD/DVD image.
Only use "persistent home" if you want to, or choose not to set one up.

http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Poor_Mans_Install

SATA/CF adapters as well as the more common IDE/CF adapters let you use a CF card instead of a hard disk. This has been around for a while and there is plenty of info for the Googling.

Or just use the old dd command (it's short for "donvert and dopy" -- the obvious "convert and copy" abbreviation was already taken), which is found on pretty much every live / system rescue CD. I mostly use DSL or Slax, because they're small, but Knoppix works. I can't really recommend tomsrtbt anymore (shame; Lua is such an interesting language) due to the demise of floppy drives. Boot from CD, plug in and mount a USB HDD (not included; this must be bigger than the partition you want to back up), # dd if=/dev/hda1 of=/mnt/sda1/windows_image & (if = input file = the drive partition you wish to backup, of = output file = a (new) file on the HDD. You'll get a response like [1] 1234 - note down the number after the square brackets. Typing # kill -USR1 1234 -- substitute the number you wrote down before in place of 1234 -- will give you a progress report.

Later, if you're into that sort of thing, you can compress the image using bzip2 (it'll shrink well, since most of it will just be freshly-formatted disk space) and save it onto a bootable DVD. Change the DVD's /etc/motd to show the instructions to unzip the file into its rightful place (it'll be something like # bunzip2 /windows_image.bz2 > /dev/hda1 but depends on where you got it from and where you put it; do not be tempted to skip this step, because you will forget in the meantime how it was done) and put away in a safe place.

Are there any alternative that'll spit out custom ISOs which our non-technical staff can use to install a complete Linux system?

Take a look at Knoppix Remastering.

In a former life, I used to build custom embedded Linux distros as the base platform for other company projects; Knoppix makes it so easy, if I hadn't already moved on from that job, it would have sent me to the unemployment line.

Actually, I exagerate a tad there - Knoppix makes it almost trivial to get a customized Debian-based system down to the 40-50MB range; On my most challenging project, I managed to get a stable system running custom builds of X and Mozilla to fit on a 16MB flash disk. But presuming you don't have quite such minimalistic hardware requirements, Knoppix makes the task a breeze. Just unpack it, chroot into it, "apt-get remove" whatever you don't want and build whatever else you do, and roll it back into a cloop'd iso. C'est fini.



For comparison, I usually prefer to run Slackware as my normal Linux distro, and looked into Slax before Knoppix. For some tasks you might find it easier to work with, as it uses a more modular approach, but I found that far more limiting and inconvenient if you want to make fine-grained tweaks or even just alter configuration details without swapping out whole packages.

You can already boot Linux up over USB just fine, using Knoppix.

Here's a guide I wrote:

http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Bootable_USB_Key

Do this with a USB key and it will have Linux on it, ready to be booted up. Works on any PC, needing no installation, and leaving no traces behind (unlike SanDisk's lousy "U3" software). Because it's Knoppix, it's all self-contained, and can autodetect enough hardware to be useful.

Because Knoppix was intended to be ran from CD, it doesn't write anything back to the USB key. This is a nice fringe benefit, as it will make your USB key last longer (no write cycles).

The only unfortunate thing is that few BIOS's can cleanly boot from USB keys. It's a shame that motherboard makers don't really consider this important, and so don't test for it.

I have set up and supported remote sites and home based telecommuting. Listen to my advice, listen very carefully and save your sanity.

If your organization is large enough then it is likely that you will have a few older desktop PCs that have been or are due for replacement during an upgrade cycle. PCs that are inadequate for Microsoft XP and Office2003 are more than powerful enough for many current versions of Linux, especially for the role of server. Also second hand PCs with the required specifications are very cheaply acquired.

1) Find an older PC, at least a PII 300 with 256 MB memory, to set up as a headless ( no display or keyboard ) server and firewall. A simple web based interface ( or even an external hardware push button ) can be used by the local users to start/stop the server and internet connection. All other maintenance should be handled remotely via ssh, webmin and VNC.
2) Install a second NIC or connect the modem directly to the server. Connection to the Internet should be through the server and connection to the Office should be through a VPN on the server. Use a dynamic IP service for each site so you can remotely log on to the local server via ssh.
3) Install a new IDE hard drive in a 3.5" removable rack and tray. The drive should be than big enough for the operating system (Linux of course) and copies of some of the local desktop partitions. A telecommuter can shut down the server and bring in the drive during the day to resync and repair.
4) Install a DHCP demon on the local server to allocate local IP addresses, DNS and gateway settings. If the desktops are network boot capable then install TFTP to remotely boot and use Knoppix via PXE and the network. If the desktop OS is constantly crashing, or is infected by malware, the user can select PXE/network boot via the BIOS, and boot into Knoppix. The user can then be instructed over the phone to enable the ssh server to allow remote scan,repair and reimaging of the desktop partitions. The user can use the Knoppix desktop to continue working with full access to files while the the remote administrator fixes/reimages the drive in the background.( Consider hiring someone who knows how to customise Knoppix or another live Linux system for your setup )
5) Partition the desktops with as small as required C: partition ( or in the case of Linux the root partition ) for software. When software is install, use dd and netcat via live Knoppix to copy/clone a snapshot of the partition to the server. You can allocate the remaining free space as a persistent partition where documents are stored.
6) Install and enable remote VNC service on all the platforms, but only allow incoming connections from the local server ( which is redirected over a SSH tunnel ).
7) For local backup, create share directories on the desktop accessible by the server. On the local server create loopback encrypted file systems, unmount and copy the images to the desktops shares in chunks, using redundancy if enough space is available on the desktops. Checksum ( MD5 is enough ) each piece.
8) If the network load to the Office is taking up all the available internet bandwidth or the connection is just too slow then install proxy servers on the local server. You can also consider using a distributed filesystem ( OpenAFS is still the best ) wi

Would you be able to use a PC without an OS installed to take inventory? Teach classes? Check E-mail?

Yes

I like SLAX as my general purpose boot-and-go CD, but I'm also getting to like DSL. That will boot fine on older, slower hardware. I find Knoppix is just too big and clumsy anymore {though we should not forget that DSL is based on a trimmed-down Knoppix}.

Some versions of TheOpenCD used to include a bootable, cut-down Ubuntu; but it seems as though they're now concentrating on providing Free software to run on Windows. Which I suppose is better than trying to spread themselves too thin.

Debian is non-existant on the desktop and has an atrocious brand.

That I can also easily install? Knoppix works while the cd is in and the people at the friendly forum told me I shouldn't try to install it. The Ubuntu Dapper Drake cd won't boot up so that's out. I have an old dell I'm trying to use only for browsing the web so it doesn't need much, just a browser, preferably firefox, and the wireless stuff to work (which knoppix does till I installed it on the hard drive).

Or using a system that doesn't even touch the last accessed date in the first place.

To the original poster:
The certification and training courses listed above should keep you busy for the summer. It might be easier to figure out where you'll be this summer and find out who does what training in their area. You might find some smaller training facilities that have better student/teacher ratios. As far as the "RTFM" and similarly phrased answers, ignore the fact that they didn't read your question (that you're looking for formal classes/seminars) and apply their advice to your after class practicing. I'd even suggest you get Knoppix to start with. Being a live CD, you can use it to practice without touching your regular system's installation.

Although they have chosen to deploy Linux using the traditional thick desktop/workstation model, they use a spare server that operates as an X11 application server. This is used on a regular basis by the helpdesk, IT support and a few Windows users that access both windows and remote X Linux. The rescue partition, that can be also network booted via PXE, is based on the Linux Terminal Server Project ( http://www.ltsp.org/ ). During an install or if a security violation is detected, the user of the desktop is booted into Linux thin client, and can access all their files though the Application server. Forensic examination, repairs and installs can take place in the background while the person uses the thin client.

4) Install a DHCP demon on the local server to allocate local IP addresses, DNS and gateway settings. If the desktops are network boot capable then install TFTP to remotely boot and use Knoppix via PXE and the network. If the desktop OS is constantly crashing, or is infected by malware, the user can select PXE/network boot via the BIOS, and boot into Knoppix. The user can then be instructed over the phone to enable the ssh server to allow remote scan,repair and reimaging of the desktop partitions. The user can use the Knoppix desktop to continue working with full access to files while the the remote administrator fixes/reimages the drive in the background.( Consider hiring someone who knows how to customise Knoppix or another live Linux system for your setup )

as i am currently unemployed i couldn't afford a copy of xp at the minute. i certainly won't be able to afford a new computer to be able to run vista, even if i wanted to. As for free distros, i think knoppix has the best set of default applications and layout, but then i like kde. you can install this desktop and applications as a normal debian system by simply typing "knx2hd" as root( achieved in the while in live cd mode by typing sudo su), which is simple enough to write down on a piece of paper for mum and dad.it even has an application like partition magic called qtparted if you want to keep the windows installation and dual boot. install time is faster than i have seen for any operating system, and you can browse the web while you are waiting. for beginners in linux i would recomend this live cd/ installer cd called knoppix downloadable here

Will any software be able to see that file after it disappears so you can delete it or will it be stuck there, forever hidden?

How about Knoppix?

4) Install a DHCP demon on the local server to allocate local IP addresses, DNS and gateway settings. If the desktops are network boot capable then install TFTP to remotely boot and use Knoppix via PXE and the network. If the desktop OS is constantly crashing, or is infected by malware, the user can select PXE/network boot via the BIOS, and boot into Knoppix. The user can then be instructed over the phone to enable the ssh server to allow remote scan,repair and reimaging of the desktop partitions. The user can use the Knoppix desktop to continue working with full access to files while the the remote administrator fixes/reimages the drive in the background.( Consider hiring someone who knows how to customise Knoppix or another live Linux system for your setup )
5) Partition the desktops with as small as required C: partition ( or in the case of Linux the root partition ) for software. When software is install, use dd and netcat via live Knoppix to copy/clone a snapshot of the partition to the server. You can allocate the remaining free space as a persistent partition where documents are stored.
6) Install and enable remote VNC service on all the platforms, but only allow incoming connections from the local server ( which is redirected over a SSH tunnel ).

Serously, someone whould consider hacking a copy of Knoppix or Ubuntu live to work with WINE as a bootable CD for a remote repair service business.

To get people to switch you need to get them to try. To do this you need to get Linux to be 100% RISK FREE. If you don't like it you need to be able to easily uninstall and your computer will be exactly the same as before you started.

1) Install a second NIC or connect the modem directly to the server. Connection to the Internet should be though the server and connection to the Office should be though a VPN on the server.
2) Install a new IDE Hard drive in a 3.5" removable rack and tray. The drive should be than big enough for the operating system (Linux of course) and copies of some of the local desktop partitions. A telecommuter can shut down the server and bring in the HD during the day to resync and repair.
3) Install DHCP demon to allocate local IP addresses, DNS and gateway settings. If the desktops are network boot capable then install TFTP to remotely boot KNOPPIX via PXE. IF the desktop OS is constantly crashing, the user can select PXE boot, network KNOPPIX. The user can then be instructed over the phone to enable ssh server to allow remote repair and reimaging of the desktop partitions from copies on the local server.
4) Partition the desktops with as small as required C: ( or in the case of Linux the root ) partition for software. When software is install, use dd and netcat via live KNOPPIX to copy a snapshot of the partition to the server. You can allocate the remaining free space as a persistant partition where documents are stored. ( Consider hireing someone who knows how to customise Knoppix for your setup.)
5) Install/Enable VNC on all the platforms, but only allow incoming connections from the local server ( which is redirected over a SSH tunnel ).
6) For local backup, create share directories on the desktop accessable by the server. On the local server create loopback encrypted file systems, unmount and copy the images to the desktops shares in chunks, using redundantcy if enough space is available on the desktops. Checksum ( MD5 is enough ) each piece.
7) If the network load to the Office is takeing up all the available internet bandwidth or the connection is just too slow then install proxy servers on the local server and consider using a distributed filesystem ( OpenAFS is still the best ) .
8) If phone charges are eating into the budget, and the internet connection is good enough, then install Asterisk on the local server ( upgrade the server to a Celron 800Mhz or better ) and a card with enough FXS ports for each local user. Don't bother with software based phones/headsets. The phone will work when the desktop does not.
9) Set up a Linux server at the Office that operates as a thin client application server. Allow remote access though both FreeNX and VNC. Create login accounts and logins that operate as virtual meeting rooms, with multiple users logging in via VNC. Use VNCserver with a screen size of around 1000x600, that will operate via a VNC viewer on any 1024x768 desktop. Use phone based conference calling for voice -- it's a lot less hassle for the users
10) Add the ususal list of cross platform applications: Firefox, Thunderbird, Gaim, OpenOffice etc.

Do the open ten step and save yourself and your santity from all those hours driving from site to site.

Ask and ye shall receive. Hopefully the formatting turns out ok.. The below is available as a word doc called 'redcrossix.doc' at http://www.mikelong.ca/downloads/rc/

1. Follow the instructions at http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=13867 , with the following additional notes.

2. Removing packages: Use the following commands to remove extra packages.

A) # deselect update
The above command updates the system package list.

B) # dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Installed-Size} ${Package}\n' | sort -n The above command displays packages and disk usage.

C) # apt-get remove packagename
Here are some of the packages I removed:

- openoffice-de-en
- kdevelop3
- gdb
- kompare
- emacs*
- xtel
- gpsdrive
- ethereal
- lynx
- elinks
- xchat
- airsnort
- ettercap-*
- gq
- mtr
- pppstatus
- wavemon
- mutt
- slrn
- minicom
- iptraf

D) # deborphan | xargs apt-get -y remove
The above command removes orphan packages

E) # apt-get clean
The above command clean up old install packages that are no longer needed.

3. Customize the 'Loading KDE' splash screen by changing the file: /usr/share/apps/ksplash/Themes/Default/splash_top. png.

Editing Menus
The menu's in KDE and possibly other window managers are generated dynamically by the 'menu' script. You cannot use normal methods of remastering to change the menu's, and most move to a different method. I got around this by doing 2 things:

a) Commenting out lines 125-150 (rsync block) in /remaster/etc/X11/Xsession.d/45xsession

b) Create your remastered CD, and boot from it on a different PC then you remaster from. It will have the default menu's the first time. Don't worry. Use KDE menu editor to customize them, as you would like them to be. Also, use the KDE Control Center for any other changes you want (wallpaper, etc). When you are done, put a USB key in the drive. The system will automount it, showing you the name of the partition(s) on it. These will likely be /dev/sda1, or something similar.

c) Use the Knoppix "Save Configuration"(KMenu --> KNOPPIX --> Configure --> Save Knoppix Confguration OR run 'saveconfig') script to save your configuration to the USB key. I save 'Personal Configuration', 'All Files on Desktop', and other to my USB partition. This will create 2 files: configs.tbz and knoppix.sh.
d) Get these files back to your 'remaster' box, and copy them to "/remaster/KNOPPIX.build/Knoppix.Master/KNOPPIX-CU STOM/KNOPPIX/" directory. Now, rebuild and remaster your CD again. From here they should be run on EACH boot, and will take affect.

4. The directory remaster/KNOPPIX.build/Knoppix.Master/KNOPPIX-CUST OM/boot/isolinux holds the boot files. Here you can edit:
* boot.msg - says "Press keys F2 and F3..." and displays the version number in the next line
* minirt24.gz - the minikernel which boots and shows welcome to knoppix in many colors. Beware - editing this file by me made it un-bootable. More research is required.
miniroot24.gz is 799,962. Miniroot24 is 4,608,000
* Logo.16 - the boot splash screen. An LSS format file. Make by building a 640x400 16-color bitmap to start with. Then use the following commands within Linux to convert it to lss. Assume in the following example that our file is called logo16.bmp
# bmptoppm logo16.bmp > logo16.ppm
# ppmtolss logo.16

5. To prevent the 'hard disk', 'cd-rom', etc icons from being placed on the desktop at boot, you will need to edit the /etc/X11/Xsession.d/45xsession file. Comment out the line that reads 'mkdesktophdicons'. In my case, this was around line 380. Note that this is for KDE - for other window managers, these may be c

In my experience, reiser4, console commands, multilingual support, are all up-to-par or even better (usually) in Linux. I suggest you download and burn a knoppix cd, and boot it up. You will pretty much have a plantora of apps to play with, and you can test what it's like to program under linux.

In fact, I did use ubcd4win. Building a BartsPE CD, even with ubcd4win is still a relatively complex process, because the licences attached to the various bits of Windows software does not permit binary distribution of a whole CD image. Therefore, users are required to collect the software parts separately and build an image themselves, each and every time. ubcd4win is convenient in that it collects a number of popular packages to make this process easier, but it still requires some work.

Contrast this with Knoppix, where anyone who remasters it can post their customization for the world to download. Consequently, customizations only have to be done once by one developer, not by every single user. As a user, all I have to do is download the Knoppix remastered *.iso and burn it.

This would explain the plethora of Linux Live CDs, mostly which are Knoppix derivatives and to some extent SLAX. Contrast with the BartsPE world: there is huge dearth in the variety and selection of software for Windows LiveCDs. Further, the Linux LiveCDs are full operating environments, completely identical to hard drive installs, whereas BartsPE (and ubdcd4win) are only intended as recovery platforms.

Such systems already exist. There is Edubuntu and also some Live CD's based on Knoppix with focus on education. I'm sure others exist, but those just a few.

That's just what they're called - "cheat codes"
See http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes

http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19685 &start=10 I've been getting about 40k so far, please be sure to seed!

This link will explain what to do to get a fully functioning English version. It is from the forums on www.knoppix.net - http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19726

It states:
As with some of the other versions that default into German, you can use the cheat code Knoppix lang=us (to get the equals sign, press shit+zero) which will than bring up a fully functional English version.

I'm still waiting for a peer to download from the torrent however.

Knoppix 4.0 is brand spanking new release only as a 4GB ISO that at last check had a 230:1140 seed to downloader ratio. I think that is why there is little to no info about it.

As for the review, if you are at all familiar with Knoppix then it is just the same Knoppix with a huge load of packages, some GUI improvements, and some new functionality brought about by using packages & configuration info from Knoppix derivatives (like Kanotix) that was then accepted by Klaus Knoppix & fed back into Knoppix mainline. I felt that Knoppix 3.9 was ugly and now 4.0 uses KDE 3.4.1 with the Plastik widget style as default as opposed to previous release which used Keramik on KDE 3.4.0. Those folks who were missing GNOME can now use GNOME 2.8 since it has been missing for at least 18 months. Knoppix 4.0 uses a older more stable snapshot of UnionFS and will now not crash or exhibit strange filesystem behaviors like 3.9 did. V4.0 includes OO.o 2.0 beta, KOffice & if I recall correctly, abiword & gnumeric so it looks like office apps are all covered. If you want specifics on the packages, then look to the package list file on the Knoppix mirrors.

Knoppix users & newbies should also note that installing Knoppix to the HD is not recommended since something tends to break. In Knoppix 3.9, networking was broken due to a missing link in /etc/rc*.d. In past releases new users that installed Knoppix also experienced fstab problems in regards to optical drives and had difficulties in using the Debian package system since at that time Knoppix was a mixture of Debian stable/testing/unstable. Knoppix 4.0 is using Debian unstable for all of its packages, so maintenance of the HD should be easier than before. So far the only thing broken in a HD install of Knoppix 4.0 is manpages functionality. man ls or man vi works on DVD but is broken when run from the HD install.

Like most special conference releases (ex: Knoppix 3.8 Cebit Edition), Knoppix 4.0 DVD edition from LinuxTag, is standardized in German but contains support for many languages. A boot time cheat code of: knoppix lang=us will force it to load in US English. A more permanent method is to hexedit the ISO and change the lang=de entries to lang=us. Again like most conference releases, Klaus Knopper did not officially release the DVD as in is only for sale at LinuxTag for 5 euros. As a FOSS project, it is legal to distribute the ISO and this is what someone has done. You can find torrent trackers, screenshot galleries, and more info at the Knoppix 4.0 DVD Knoppix.net forum thread about.

Knoppix 4.0 is brand spanking new release only as a 4GB ISO that at last check had a 230:1140 seed to downloader ratio. I think that is why there is little to no info about it.

As for the review, if you are at all familiar with Knoppix then it is just the same Knoppix with a huge load of packages, some GUI improvements, and some new functionality brought about by using packages & configuration info from Knoppix derivatives (like Kanotix) that was then accepted by Klaus Knoppix & fed back into Knoppix mainline. I felt that Knoppix 3.9 was ugly and now 4.0 uses KDE 3.4.1 with the Plastik widget style as default as opposed to previous release which used Keramik on KDE 3.4.0. Those folks who were missing GNOME can now use GNOME 2.8 since it has been missing for at least 18 months. Knoppix 4.0 uses a older more stable snapshot of UnionFS and will now not crash or exhibit strange filesystem behaviors like 3.9 did. V4.0 includes OO.o 2.0 beta, KOffice & if I recall correctly, abiword & gnumeric so it looks like office apps are all covered. If you want specifics on the packages, then look to the package list file on the Knoppix mirrors.

Knoppix users & newbies should also note that installing Knoppix to the HD is not recommended since something tends to break. In Knoppix 3.9, networking was broken due to a missing link in /etc/rc*.d. In past releases new users that installed Knoppix also experienced fstab problems in regards to optical drives and had difficulties in using the Debian package system since at that time Knoppix was a mixture of Debian stable/testing/unstable. Knoppix 4.0 is using Debian unstable for all of its packages, so maintenance of the HD should be easier than before. So far the only thing broken in a HD install of Knoppix 4.0 is manpages functionality. man ls or man vi works on DVD but is broken when run from the HD install.

Like most special conference releases (ex: Knoppix 3.8 Cebit Edition), Knoppix 4.0 DVD edition from LinuxTag, is standardized in German but contains support for many languages. A boot time cheat code of: knoppix lang=us will force it to load in US English. A more permanent method is to hexedit the ISO and change the lang=de entries to lang=us. Again like most conference releases, Klaus Knopper did not officially release the DVD as in is only for sale at LinuxTag for 5 euros. As a FOSS project, it is legal to distribute the ISO and this is what someone has done. You can find torrent trackers, screenshot galleries, and more info at the Knoppix 4.0 DVD Knoppix.net forum thread about.

Knoppix 4.0 is brand spanking new release only as a 4GB ISO that at last check had a 230:1140 seed to downloader ratio. I think that is why there is little to no info about it.

As for the review, if you are at all familiar with Knoppix then it is just the same Knoppix with a huge load of packages, some GUI improvements, and some new functionality brought about by using packages & configuration info from Knoppix derivatives (like Kanotix) that was then accepted by Klaus Knoppix & fed back into Knoppix mainline. I felt that Knoppix 3.9 was ugly and now 4.0 uses KDE 3.4.1 with the Plastik widget style as default as opposed to previous release which used Keramik on KDE 3.4.0. Those folks who were missing GNOME can now use GNOME 2.8 since it has been missing for at least 18 months. Knoppix 4.0 uses a older more stable snapshot of UnionFS and will now not crash or exhibit strange filesystem behaviors like 3.9 did. V4.0 includes OO.o 2.0 beta, KOffice & if I recall correctly, abiword & gnumeric so it looks like office apps are all covered. If you want specifics on the packages, then look to the package list file on the Knoppix mirrors.

Knoppix users & newbies should also note that installing Knoppix to the HD is not recommended since something tends to break. In Knoppix 3.9, networking was broken due to a missing link in /etc/rc*.d. In past releases new users that installed Knoppix also experienced fstab problems in regards to optical drives and had difficulties in using the Debian package system since at that time Knoppix was a mixture of Debian stable/testing/unstable. Knoppix 4.0 is using Debian unstable for all of its packages, so maintenance of the HD should be easier than before. So far the only thing broken in a HD install of Knoppix 4.0 is manpages functionality. man ls or man vi works on DVD but is broken when run from the HD install.

Like most special conference releases (ex: Knoppix 3.8 Cebit Edition), Knoppix 4.0 DVD edition from LinuxTag, is standardized in German but contains support for many languages. A boot time cheat code of: knoppix lang=us will force it to load in US English. A more permanent method is to hexedit the ISO and change the lang=de entries to lang=us. Again like most conference releases, Klaus Knopper did not officially release the DVD as in is only for sale at LinuxTag for 5 euros. As a FOSS project, it is legal to distribute the ISO and this is what someone has done. You can find torrent trackers, screenshot galleries, and more info at the Knoppix 4.0 DVD Knoppix.net forum thread about.

This is true. The installer is a dialog/Xdialog script that guides the user to partition the HD, create a user account, enter the root passwd, and then decompresses the entire compresed loopback KNOPPIX and KNOPPIX2 files to the new partition. Then it applies the user info, converts the init & runlevels to be normal init system, and installs grub to the MBR. At no point is there any choice in deciding which packages to install since ALL of them get installed.

Knoppix users & newbies should also note that installing Knoppix to the HD is not recommended since something tends to break. In Knoppix 3.9, networking was broken due to a missing link in /etc/rc*.d. In past releases new users that installed Knoppix also experienced fstab problems in regards to optical drives and had difficulties in using the Debian package system since at that time Knoppix was a mixture of Debian stable/testing/unstable.

You can find torrent trackers & even info on how to hexedit the ISO to force it to US English at the Knoppix.net forum thread.

They arent that obscure, being fairly well documented http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Cheat_Codes and I think if you press F2 during startup you get a list of the most common ones.

I've used (formerly Mandrake) Move, Knoppix, SLAX, and Mepis. Most people I know who have heard of the live CDs have heard of all of those, and a bunch more.

I've never done it, but Knoppix offers what is called a poor man's install" which I believe is pretty much a direct copy of the ISO to a hard drive (which I believe is optional, and I may be wrong about this being part of the process), and storage of user files and prefs alone separately on the hard drive or a USB drive.

This allows for the installation to be easily upgraded (just get the new version of Knoppix), while using your computer mostly like normal because you can save and modify files normally.

See details on Poor Man's Installs here.

Use Kanotix as it is designed for installing to HD. Knopix is not designed to install to HD as it pulls from Debian stable, testing, unstable and updating a a HD-installed Knoppix is a pain.

There are issues with the installer script, see this post on the Knoppix.net forums. There is also a bug in Knoppix 3.9 that prevents that breaks the Debian package system. See Knoppix.net wiki about bugs.

Use Kanotix as it is designed for installing to HD. Knopix is not designed to install to HD as it pulls from Debian stable, testing, unstable and updating a a HD-installed Knoppix is a pain.

There are issues with the installer script, see this post on the Knoppix.net forums. There is also a bug in Knoppix 3.9 that prevents that breaks the Debian package system. See Knoppix.net wiki about bugs.

I had similar lack of knowledge and experience issues back when I first started down the linux/*BSD path, and it can be quite intimidating to a newcomer to *nix-based OSs.

Fortunately, these days it is much easier to get a handle on basic linux and *BSD operation/configuration/etc. There are now many excellent LiveCD distributions out there, including both linux and FreeBSD (FreeSBIE project).

They allow a newcomer to experience an operational, mostly configured system without risking your existing OS and data, and get familiar with it, and most can be installed to a hard drive while saving the configurations that were auto-detected by the LiveCD startup.

There are many flavors of linux LiveCD distributions out there like Knoppix http://www.knoppix.net/ and even "specialty" LiveCDs like P.H.L.A.K.(Professional Hackers Linux Assault Kit) http://www.phlak.org/ or Auditor http://new.remote-exploit.org/index.php/Auditor_ma in and for FreeBSD there is FreeSBIE http://www.freesbie.org/ which gave me my leg-up with the steep part of the learning curve for FreeBSD (the developers at #freesbie on Azzura.net on IRC are helpful and friendly!).

Good luck, hope that helps!

Strat

For software that's grumpy about where things are loaded, the easier solution is to run it from disk rather than flash - it'll still cache in RAM, which is mostly just a startup-speed issue, and you'll have most of the OS and applications in flash so you'll get most of the speedup you want. There are fancier solutions like translucent file systems of various sorts that let you mount dynamic stuff on top of the read-only stuff, or you can play with partitions some more (e.g. use the flash as native storage rather than compressed cloop stuff.)

I was running XP on my second box at home and wanted to try making a Linux box out of it. I didn't want to commit to a repartition, so I tried Knoppix. While playing with it, I discovered this method of install...

http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Win_Partition

No partioning or constant CD loading neccessary. Works fine from NTFS. Biggest problem here would be getting an ISO image of the disk down to the hard drive.

Of course, if you're comfortable doing the repartitioning, I would recommend the HD install (sudo knoppix-installer). That way you can use apt-get to keep the system up to date.

I built a custom system maintenance image for work in a couple of hours. Among the changes:

• Stripped out games, i18n (takes up a lot of space)
• installed some extra utilities (gkrellm, iftop, etc.)
• captive-ntfs ntoskrnl and ntfs.sys files already stored in /var/lib/captive
• installed DOSemu to run Ghost and DriveImage (previous backup standards). This allows me to do backups and restores over the network, or from a USB2.0 / firewire drive (that isn't always detected properly under real DOS). I can even backup and restore to SATA or SCSI/RAID arrays that aren't supported under DOS.
  Unfortunately, DOSemu stripped out wholedisk access, so I have to restore the MBR with dd . :( Anyone know how to hack wholedisk access back into the dosemu source?
• Custom scripts to automate connecting to our fileservers and detecting/backing up drives with partimage, dd, etc.
• And of course, custom backgrounds :P

Pretty damn useful... it's the only system maintenance CD that boots on all of our hardware.

If only grub could be bootstrapped from CD, we would also use it to boot into existing systems and it'd be perfect!