KNOWING KNOPPIX The beginner's guide to the Linux that runs from CD Phil Jones 1 Copyright (c) 2005 Phil Jones. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License”. 2 Table of Contents Introducing Knoppix...............................................................................7 What is Knoppix?...............................................................................7 Linux that runs from CD..............................................................7 How it works..................................................................................7 Safe to run......................................................................................8 Personal..........................................................................................8 Free.................................................................................................8 What you can do with Knoppix.........................................................8 Learn Linux....................................................................................8 Rescue and test..............................................................................9 Use and explore.............................................................................9 Network..........................................................................................9 Where Knoppix comes from...............................................................9 Knoppix is Free Software.................................................................10 Limitations.......................................................................................10 No warranty.................................................................................10 CD means slow.............................................................................10 Not everything works..................................................................10 RAM intensive.............................................................................11 What is included in Knoppix?..........................................................11 What is Linux?.................................................................................12 A little history..............................................................................12 How GNU grew.......................................................................13 It's a GNU world!....................................................................13 Knoppix for the first time.....................................................................14 Overview...........................................................................................14 Hardware requirements...................................................................14 Starting Knoppix..............................................................................14 The first stage..............................................................................14 The second stage..........................................................................14 The first stage...................................................................................15 Getting to the boot prompt..........................................................15 Help at the boot prompt..............................................................16 Quick help................................................................................16 The second stage...............................................................................17 Starting Knoppix proper.............................................................17 Which keyboard/language?..........................................................17 Automatic hardware detection....................................................18 The X Window System................................................................18 The K Desktop Environment......................................................18 Quick help....................................................................................19 Getting out........................................................................................20 The K Desktop Environment...............................................................22 Single click, not double-click.......................................................22 Context menus everywhere.........................................................22 Hover the mouse for help............................................................23 The Desktop.................................................................................23 The Panel.....................................................................................24 K Menu....................................................................................24 Quick launch...........................................................................24 Desktop Guide.........................................................................25 3 Taskbar ...................................................................................25 System Tray............................................................................25 Clock.........................................................................................25 Hide Panel...............................................................................25 Left mouse button selects text, middle button pastes...............25 Knoppix essentials................................................................................26 File names.........................................................................................26 Drive names......................................................................................27 Disk types.....................................................................................27 IDE drives....................................................................................27 SCSI drives...................................................................................27 Disk partitions.............................................................................28 SCSI emulation for IDE CD-ROM drives...................................28 Conventional 1.44 Mb floppy drives...........................................28 Drive detection.................................................................................28 Partition detection............................................................................29 Mount points.....................................................................................29 Auto-mounting of floppy and CD-ROM drives...........................29 Login accounts..................................................................................29 User accounts...................................................................................30 The user account..........................................................................30 The superuser account................................................................30 Identifying hardware............................................................................31 Listing hard disks.............................................................................33 Limitations.......................................................................................33 Hardware newer than itself...................................................33 Winmodems.............................................................................34 Identified does not mean supported......................................34 Not guaranteed........................................................................34 Reading the hard disk...........................................................................35 Selecting files and folders................................................................36 Enabling write access.......................................................................36 Quick help.........................................................................................37 CD writing.............................................................................................38 Quick help.........................................................................................42 Reading CD-ROMs................................................................................43 Ejecting the CD................................................................................43 Quick help.........................................................................................43 Using an external USB drive...............................................................44 Quick help.........................................................................................45 Using a 3.5" floppy drive......................................................................47 Quick help....................................................................................47 Using an Iomega Zip disk.....................................................................48 Using an external USB Iomega Zip drive.......................................48 Using an internal IDE Iomega Zip drive........................................49 Using a parallel port Iomega Zip drive...........................................50 Using an Imation LS-120 SuperDisk ..................................................52