ON the DVD This Month’S DVD Comes with an Exclusive Version of Knoppix

Know-How Knoppix 6.3

Knoppix Version 6.3 highlights ON THE DVD This month’s DVD comes with an exclusive version of Knoppix. Knoppix creator (and Q&A mastermind) Klaus Knopper shares some insights on the latest release. BY KLAUS KNOPPER

noppix, a Debian-based Linux PDF readers. The installed version also the ADRIANE user interface for users distribution, is optimized to run works as a plugin for Firefox and with sight impairments. An additional Kfrom the DVD as a Live system. Google Chrome. tool, adriane‑ht, allows users to up- System administrators and other IT pro- • Adobe Flash – Flash is popular for load scanned texts to specific Braille fessionals use Knoppix to troubleshoot browser-embedded multimedia play- displays. The screen reader now has downed Windows (and Linux) comput- ers. The proprietary plugin was li- ALSA support to enable voice output ers, but Knoppix also comes with a big censed for the version of Knoppix in- while playing music. collection of desktop tools, games, and cluded here and cooperates with both other apps. Knoppix’s Live boot orienta- Firefox/ Iceweasel and Google Chrome. nVidia Graphics Card tion makes it a great choice for a flash For security reasons, Flash content on Drivers drive system that puts your documents, web pages has to be enabled in the So far, owners of nVidia graphics cards settings, and desktop on a keychain. NoScript security extension (the lower have done without the accelerator func- right button in the browser window) tions needed mainly for Compiz Fusion, what’s new in Knoppix in Firefox/ Iceweasel. the 3D window manager, because of a 6.3? • ADRIANE Add-ons – A new network lack of capable free drivers. Although the The latest version of Knoppix comes configuration tool has been added to vendor provides drivers, licensing issues with new features, such as: • Google Chrome – Google’s Firefox- Table 1: Cheat Codes based web browser (Figure 1) comes Boot Option Effect with a new interface with improve us- knoppix lang=en Change the system to English language and keyboard ability and interoperability with popu- support lar web applications. Chrome Version knoppix desktop=kde launch the KDE desktop instead of lXDE 4.0.249.43 is installed and can be up- knoppix desktop=gnome launch the Gnome desktop instead of lXDE dated via the Google repository. knoppix no3d Graphics setup without composite/ 3D • Adobe Acrobat Reader – Acrobat is Knoppix tohd=/ dev/ sda1 Copy DVD content (folder) to disk and launch from disk one of the first and most feature-rich

32 ISSUE 113 APrIl 2010 Knoppix 6.3 Know-How

Figure 1: Try out Google’s Chrome browser. Figure 2: Setting up a flash drive to boot Knoppix. are difficult in a free distribution. Version the boot configuration. You can specify is somewhere left of the Space key on 6.3 includes drivers for nVidia cards that the desktop, language, or keyboard con- most keyboards. It may be labeled with a match the provided kernel. The drivers figuration through cheat codes (as house, a penguin, or a broken window. are pre-built and match the graphics li- shown in Table 1). You’ll find a compre- You will find the hotkeys and mouse braries in the Drivers folder. Also, a short hensive list of Knoppix cheat codes in gestures that enable and disable the indi- script facilitates the install (install‑drivers. the KNOPPIX directory on the DVD. vidual functions through the Compiz-fu‑ sh) – in the GUI or in text mode. sion settings in the Bindings tab. After completing the installation, your Compiz Fusion nVidia graphics card should work in ac- Compiz Fusion was the result of merging Installing Knoppix on Disk celerated mode with Compiz support. If the 3D window manager projects Beryl Knoppix is a Debian GNU/Linux system your card is not supported, you need to and Compiz; it extends the desktop, add- optimized and configured for a Live remove the drivers you installed with ing new functions and effects. Many Intel boot. Many distros, including Debian it- ./install‑drivers.sh ‑u to get the graphical onboard chipsets and ATI/Radeon cards self, have more comprehensive installa- system working again (because the include the required hardware accelera- tion programs that offer more configu- nVidia libraries are not compatible with tion and composite (transparency) sup- rable details. The Knoppix Installer sim- the free graphics modules). port out of the box, but nVidia cards and ply unpacks the system running from the other proprietary cards require the user to DVD or flash disk and copies it, along Knoppix Cheat Codes install a proprietary driver. Compiz comes with a boot manager, to the disk. My Some machines don’t fully support auto- up with a wobbling logo shortly after you only motivation for offering an installer matic hardware detection. In other launch the LXDE desktop. On KDE and was that many people requested a fea- cases, a component might be disabled at Gnome, you can launch Compiz as an ture that installs Knoppix quickly to a very early system state. Knoppix cheat add-on from the Settings menu. disk. Because Knoppix is reduced to a codes help the user troubleshoot prob- Some of Compiz’s most useful func- minimum size, the Knoppix installer is lems by defining important features of tions are listed in Table 2. The Super key one of the quickest approaches to drop-

Knoppix on a USB Flash or SD Card A flash drive or SD card is definitely the operating systems use floppy mode – that stick and boot from a DVD, which you can most convenient means for creating a mo- is, they do without a partition table. In this then quickly remove as soon as the kernel bile version of Knoppix. Installing on a case, this method will not work, and you and the ramdisk have been loaded. The flash disk combines the benefits of auto- will need to rewrite the partition table. mini-ramdisk then searches all the existing matic hardware detection with the ability Flash-knoppix creates a copy of the boot drives for a KNOPPIX folder, which it finally to permanently store data such as the sys- folder (and of Knoppix) on the flash me- finds on the USB stick. tem settings. dium and installs the Syslinux bootloader, The first time you boot from the flash disk, Flash‑knoppix (Figure 2), which you will which uses the same syntax as the Isolinux you will be prompted to define the size of find below Install KNOPPIX on Flash in the loader used on the DVD. The configuration the persistent Knoppix image in which set- Knoppix Settings menu, requires a me- file for Isolinux, isolinux.cfg, which also tings and personal data such as docu- dium with an existing partition table for the contains the default boot options, simply ments and downloads are stored. The install; the primary partition has to be needs to be renamed to syslinux.cfg. maximum size is 4000(MB); the minimum FAT32. This is the case with most USB If your computer does not support booting size 200(MB). Please enter a number (with- flash disks and SD cards, although some from a USB stick, simply insert the USB out the “MB”!).

April 2010 ISSUE 113 33 Know-How Knoppix 6.3

Table 2: Compiz Functions After installing, update the whole system or individual packages using the Action Description typical Debian tools – for example: Drag mouse to top right corner of screen Miniature live overview of all windows

Drag mouse to top left corner of screen Overview of all desktop workspaces sudo aptitude update Ctrl+Alt+Left-click Grab and rotate the desktop cube sudo aptitude install frozen‑bubble Ctrl+Alt+Arrow key Turn to the next cube surface Alt + left-click Grab window in any position Some caution is advised for kernel up- Super+mouse wheel or Super+Arrow key Zoom dates; the kernel used for Knoppix inte- Super+l Fix zoom (lock) grates all the drivers needed for access- ing hard disks and drives, whereas you Super+Alt+Left-click Draw on screen need to create the initial ramdisk with Super+Alt+k Delete drawing the required modules for the Debian ker- Super+Shift+Left-click Draw with fire nel. Normally, the kernel is not automat- Super+Shift+c Delete fire ically updated, unless you explicitly specify that you want an update. ping a ready-to-use Debian system onto nected to your computer during the in- a disk. To install to the local hard disk: stall. You could easily make a mistake Debugging and Support 1. Create a Linux (data) partition and a selecting the medium or modifying a I would be happy to answer your techni- swap partition, partition, and restoring your system will cal questions about the current version 2. Decompress the cloop container im- require a great deal of trouble and effort. of Knoppix – this doesn’t include com- ages on the Linux partition, The installer needs a Linux partition of plaints about transport or packaging 3. Set up a bootloader. at least 15GB and a swap partition of at damage. I tend to collect frequently The bootloader can launch other operat- least 1GB to install Knoppix. You’ll have asked questions and publish the an- ing systems on the same disk. Please the choice of manual partitioning using swers. You can use the contact form on make sure you have an easily restorable gparted, automatic partitioning of the http://knopper.net/kontakt/ external backup of all your critical data free (unpartitioned) disk space, or a ?kontakt=knoppix or mail me at and the backup medium is not con- complete repartition the whole disk. bugs@knopper.net. n

FAQ Question: Why does Knoppix still have this work on the computer, whereas the GUI- or a PXE emulation disk (available from totally obsolete command-line boot menu? based console runs an LXDE session for http://www. rom‑o‑matic. net/ ) can boot and There are so many neat, graphical boot the non-privileged user knoppix. You can pick up the exported Knoppix DVD off the managers that let you use the arrow keys use the sudo command, or its GUI variants network. This means that you can run a or have menus with color highlighting. gksudo or kdesu, to switch to superuser complete pool of Linux PCs without having Answer: True enough; however, Isolinux mode; all of this works without a password to install Linux on a single machine. Before and Syslinux are tried-and-trusted boot on Knoppix. If you do need to run a pro- you try this out, make sure that the DHCP managers that just keep on working, even gram that insists on you entering a pass- server you launch on Knoppix doesn’t col- if you attach really rare input devices that word, and which you can’t teach to do oth- lide with an existing server to avoid un- can completely confuse the graphical boot erwise, just set a password like this: pleasant surprises for other users on the network. managers. sudo passwd root Question: Question: What is the root password? sudo passwd knoppix How do you build Knoppix? There must be one; why don’t you want to Answer: Ever since Microknoppix (Version In both cases, you are prompted to type tell us what it is? 6.0), I have used a makefile-based build the new password twice. Answer: Actually, there are no predefined system with the Debian installation in a passwords; in other words, all logins are Question: I’ve heard that you can boot subdirectory, which is defined as the work- blocked by default. You can easily verify Knoppix across a network without needing ing directory using chroot if the filesystem this by looking at the /etc/shadow file: a DVD drive or USB flash disk. How do you needs to be updated or modified. Boot and do this? graphics files are located outside of this sudo egrep ‑e '(root|knoppix)' U Answer: Knoppix includes all the compo- folder. When I put this together, the content /etc/shadow nents it needs to run as a terminal server. of the installation folder was compressed root:x:14627:0:99999:7::: To allow this to happen, one computer on using mkisofs in combination with create_ knoppix:x:14627:0:99999:7::: the LAN, which has been configured as a compressed_fs and stored in Knoppix/ The x in the second column represents an DHCP server and file server using the Knoppix as an image file. The other visible invalid encrypted password that does not knoppix‑terminalserver starter, has to boot files on the DVD are copied into this, and match the password entered. This makes it Knoppix from a DVD or flash disk (you can mkisofs is then used to create an ISO impossible to log in, if you are not already optionally configure this machine as a web image that boots Isolinux. The whole thing logged in via Knoppix auto-login. By de- cache and DNS proxy). After starting these is easily automated using the makefile so fault, root shells run on the first four text services, other machines on the same net- that the compression and mastering pro- consoles to support rescue and report work that have boot-capable network cards cess is easily reproducible.

34 ISSUE 113 April 2010