Knoppix

Knoppix also throws in several other window managers, but switching among them seems to break the X11 configuration.

Knoppix is the most well-known LiveCD distribution, so looking at it first makes a good baseline.

An early Knoppix variant was a "bootable business card" -- a "rescue" or "survival" Linux system in a minimal form factor.

Almost a score of distributors in Northern Europe, the United States, and Australia process orders for Knoppix CDs, including betas.

Knoppix solves problems -- at least many of the problems I commonly encounter.

Although it's certainly not unique in that, the organization and content of a Knoppix CD are distinctive.

It is common for power management to mess up a Knoppix session: when you wake up the machine, Knoppix doesn't respond to commands anymore.

I disabled SCSI detection by adding knoppix no scsi to the boot command, and that took care of it.

Helix is a customized distribution of the Knoppix Live Linux CD that focuses on incident response and forensics tools.

Most Knoppix users mention a boot-up time of under two minutes, on unremarkable hardware.

The Knoppix CD also contains a number of sound files, for quick sound testing, starting with "OpenMusic" on the welcome screen.

After booting up the Knoppix CD, it will pause at a command prompt for 30 seconds, then continue booting.

Technologies such as Knoppix and Live Eval, though, illustrate a way in which Linux radically alters computing's "terms of trade. "

And, of course, you can create user accounts on Knoppix as needed, with useradd and passwd.

Zip drives, floppy disks, and USB storage devices will be automatically recognized by Knoppix, and icons will be placed on the desktop.

Knoppix offers advantages for common situations you're likely to encounter.

See the Resources section below for more information and links to how-tos for making your own customized Knoppix distribution.

Be aware, though, that there are specific applications of Knoppix where alternatives might serve you better.

I've heard from dozens of administrators and network managers with such affection for Knoppix that they "wouldn't leave home without it. "

The Resources section later in this article provides several other interesting Knoppix uses.

However, LLGP is a fork of Knoppix 3. 6, and I would not rebuild a new version of LLGP from a newer Knoppix release.

In complete contrast to those sad scenarios, Knoppix exemplifies the virtues of Linux's openness and flexibility.

If you work much with older equipment, for instance, Knoppix probably isn't practical.

Knoppix has also proven friendly to business initiatives.

The default keyboard mapping is German, so I always boot with knoppix lang=us.

Knoppix's standard configuration demands too much memory -- 32 MB isn't enough.

In this article, you'll see how to use a Knoppix-based LiveCD to set up your very own supercomputer.

Copying files over an untrusted network should be done with scp (secure copy), and in fact Knoppix won't let you use anything else.

Knoppix's knowledge includes not only a wide range of graphics cards and mice, but also sound cards, modems, and USB and SCSI devices.

Knoppix comes up treating its host's mass storage as read-only.

Mostly, the collection of tools on Mepis is similar to those on Knoppix.

I am not the fondest of Knoppix' choices here: single-click, Keramik theme; but this is purely personal and easily changed.

The easiest way to begin your own use of Knoppix is with a vended CD-ROM.

You can also install STD onto a hard disk using the normal Knoppix hd-install script, which is included by default.

The Knoppix Security Tools Distribution site, for example, gives a checksum value of de03204ea5777d0e5fd6eb97b43034cb.

The project has recently released the 1. 0-beta version based on Knoppix 3. 7 with updated and new packages.

After Knoppix boots, click the icon to start a command-line window as shown in Figure 2