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Bootable Linux Demo Distro - Knoppix
ts writes "Newsforge has an article about using Linux to recover Windows partitions.
The interesting part is not only the article, but also the comment about Knoppix a Live-on-CD distribution of Linux. I just downloaded it and it booted from CD on a Shuttle Spacewalker SS25. AMAZING. Even the audio works.
Have any /. users found interesting uses for this distro?" I've been looking for exactly this to use in demonstrations. Perfect.
Well no, lots of pix. These are the specs of this Debian based distro:
* Linux-Kernel 2.4.x
* KDE V3.0.2 as the standard desktop with K Office and the Konqueror WWW-browser konqueror
* X Multimedia System (xmms) an MPEG-video, MP3, Ogg Vorbis Audio player and xine
* Internet connection software kppp,pppoeconf (DSL) and isdn-config
* Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) Version 1.2
* utilities for data recovery and system repairs, even for other operating systems
* network and security analysis tools for network administrators
* OpenOffice(TM), the GPL-developed version of the well-known StarOffice(TM) office suite
* many programming languages, development tools (including kdevelop) and libraries for developers
* in total more than 900 installed software packages with over 2000 executable user programs, utilities, and games
DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
"Have any /. users found interesting uses for this distro?"
.02 cents worth.
Yes I used the diskette to prop my table leg up. I was able to replace the AOL CD I was using.
Seriously though it could have problems with varying types of file systems. For instance the guy said he used it with ME, not with Windows 2K which uses NTFS. And of course microsoft decided to come out with encryption in W2K so those files would pretty much be lost if you had that setup. Why not just create a recovery CD? If it's FAT there are a lot of ways to boot to it. Just my
We've used this distro for forensics and network trouble shooting.
Because its on a CDR we know the tools are safe. We use dd to image a drive off via the network (piped to netcat/cryptcat), firewire, another drive etc etc... just add a few scripts to do some MD5 hashing an away you go.
It would make network trouble shooting tool as well because you have your network tools, tcpdump, etherreal, etc to check out the network on any users desktop or laptop. You don't have to lug aroung your linux laptop.
Full bootable Linux w/seti@home using my username. Perfect for every public machine I find that has network access w/dhcp enabled.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
Take a look at H. Peter Anvin's SuperRescue - it's a full Red Hat system on a floppy. It uses zisofs compression to fit it all on a single CD.
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
Some more linux live cd distros:
m l
* DemoLinux - http://www.demolinux.org/
Dedicated to bootable Linux CD distributions.
* LNX-BBC - http://www.lnx-bbc.org/
Business Card Sized Open-Source Bootable CD.
* Mondo Restore/Rescue Utility - http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/
Use a live bootable Linux CD for your system backups and recovery.
* Linux - Live on CD - http://www.ocslink.com/~blunier/
Linux - Live on CD. Hard disk not required
* Dyne Bolic - http://lab.dyne.org/DyneBolic/
Complete GNU/Linux operating system working without the need for any hard-disk.
* Diskless Nodes - http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Diskless-HOWTO-3.ht
Includes information on creating your own live CD.
* Virtual Linux - http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtual-linux
Bootable Mandrake Linux distribution with 1.6 gigs worth of tools and toys on a single CD.
FreeBSD LiveCD -- http://livecd.sourceforge.net/
NetBSD LiveCD -- http://www.netbsd.org/Changes/#live-cd
Even me, when I discover a new Knoppix CD, I cannot believe my eyes: every latest version is on it and it's running rock solid.
1. Compile the system. There's a fanastic guide at linuxfromscratch.org.
2. Set the fstab up to place all read-write hierarchies on a tmpfs filesystem. This include tmp, var, and portions of etc. Have copies of the initial state of thse filesystems in a separate directory on the CD and set the bootscripts up to untar them at bootup.
3. Compile a highly compatible kernel. Basically, enable most things that cannot be compiled as modules and compile all modules.
4. Use devfs with compatibility links. it cuts down on confusion as to what devices exist.
5. Create an ISO of the filesystem, being sure to enable all options required for bootable CDs.
6. Install lilo into the boot sector of the ISO.
7. Burn the CD.
8. Reboot and pray.
Timos Rescue CD
This probably isn't as well suited for a super demo, but you can get the source, tweak it up as you want, and burn. Though the prebuilt iso is great as is for a rescue disk if you aren't into customizing it. Optionally the whole thing will load into RAM, freeing up the CD drive, say for if you've got data on CD that you want to access as well.
We are runnning a Network in a large Student Apartment House, with about 500 PCs connected.
Whenever someone starts shouting: "Hey my network doesn't function and it's all your fault!"
You just go there, pop the knoppix CD into the drive, surf to slashdot, download some mp3s and tell him: "Nope, it's yours."
You would not believe in how many ways you can misconfigure a personal firewall!
for our windows OSs is actually a Linux boot disk with parted
(any major distro has parted) parted can copy, resize, move etc. partitions like a command line Partition Magic.
Can't resize NTFS though, but we can still move it with dd.
Oxford University is setting up Linux training courses. We're assuming that those on the course have little or no experience of Linux. We're using Knoppix for the course because it comes with the basic software that a user will need to learn and become familiar with the OS and it lets them take the CD home or to their office and play with it while making no permanent changes to their precious systems.
My own project is run entirely on Open Source Software and it is my belief that spending public funds on licenses for office suites, web browsers, email clients, databases and webservers is money poorly spent. It seems that others in the university agree. A medium sized project can save thousands of (dollars, euros or pounds) by setting up staff with the basic tools for their tasks on an Open Source platform. Those thousands of pounds can often mean the project can bring in another researcher / investigator / clerical assistant.
Getting fellow academics and their students to dip their toes into the Open Source Gnu/Linux waters through a bootable CD like Knoppix is very easy to do. We'll see how these training courses go but I'm hopeful that we'll see more projects migrating at least some of their staff from Microsoft to Gnu/Linux
Linuxcare Bootable Toolbox
It will fit on one of those oddly cut business card sized CDs, so will of course fit on a 3 inch CD. Enjoy!
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
He ended up admitting that it was quite nice, and that indeed he and his colleagues were experimenting with RedHat... I wonder how long they'll remain MS Certified Training Center ;-)
while the idea of using a boot-from-cd-distro would never appear to me, knoppix is unbeatable when it comes to "initiating the non-believers." I have seen knoppix detect and support some very weird hardware configurations, including but not limited to tv/radio cards, webcams, exotic soundcards and pcmcia cards, without asking for information or requiring a kernel update. so, the next time J. Random Linuxdisser talks about how no Hardware is supported, the installation is painful or whatever, invest the 30 cents for a CD-R and give him Knoppix. As of today, I got 3 people to convert from Windows to Linux with this nifty distro. Maybe they should rename it "Gateway Distro" ? :)
Karma
After reading about it on Slashdot, I downloaded Knoppix 3.1 (I love my Cable Modem), disabled my hard drives in BIOS and booted it. Here I am, 10 minutes later. This is a truly amazing peice of software. I just might take it to Best Buy or a computer lab at the local community college to get some weird reactions. Convertomg people to Linux by abandoning CD-R's in public computers just might work. The only problem that I ran into was having to reset the H-Size scaling for my LCD panel. But all-in-all, an EXCELLENT package.
Love,
Jay and Silent Bob
Haven't had a need to try it myself, but if you need it, you can find the instructions here.
Yeah, I thought about this a couple of months ago. The use I thought about is this:
I create a presentation with KPresenter, Impress or something similar. I burn the presentation onto a CD together with a live Linux distro. Many good auditoria have a good projector, but connected to a windoze computer. So I pop the CD in the PC, boot it on Linux and give my talk.
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
I just got it setup for a client running Point of Sale systems. Most of their machines are Linux based and our POS software runs just fine, but we haven't ported the printing to Windows yet, so running the software on the Windows machine is not possible.
When the client is offsite and needs a bunch more computers, we can now just grab a couple of spare Windows boxes, stick a CD in and boot up a fully functional Linux system with our software installed and configured. The process for adding your own software is listed in their English forum and I can help anyone out who's interested. Post a reply here and I'll check when I get back from Reno, NV on the 12th.
The 2nd time we did this, we simply used fullscreen VNC. In both cases, the boxes looked like an average Linux box... we just didn't need to do any partitioning or installing or annoy the IT department. :^)
At the Whole Earth Festival at UC Davis last year, we handed out about 100 DemoLinux discs to passers-by, so they can try Linux out at home without installing anything.