Distributions

Knoppix - the Great Linux Advocate

[This article was contributed by Ladislav Bodnar]

If you had to single out one project that most contributed to attracting Windows users to Linux, which one would it be? Opinions will undoubtedly vary a great deal, but one of the projects that has to be very close to the top is Knoppix, the popular Linux live CD, developed by Klaus Knopper.

Consider this letter written by an excited reader of Langa List, a popular newsletter for Windows users:

Very few of the long-time LWN readers will get this excited about Knoppix's ability to read files on Windows partitions, or indeed, about its ability to repair a broken Windows installation that refuses to boot. It is not because we don't appreciate this ability - it's just that, in all honesty, we have become accustomed to using Linux this way and many of us carry around a bootable Linux CD for those emergencies that require system repair, irrespective of the operating system.

Why has Knoppix become so popular and successful? The concept of a bootable CD is not new and neither is the content of the Knoppix CD - the software packages provided are nothing but a selection of pre-compiled deb files from Debian's unstable, and occasionally, experimental branches. Few people heard of Knoppix as recently as a year ago, so how come suddenly everybody, even Windows users, talk about Knoppix?

Possibly the greatest advantage of Knoppix, as opposed to similar live CD projects, is its ease of use. Place the CD into the CD-ROM drive and reboot the computer - a few minutes later you will be fully productive in a graphical environment that is fairly easy to navigate even by those who have never used Linux before. Few Linux distributions have been able to match Knoppix's ability to auto-detect and set up hardware during boot. Everything from network cards to printers will be instantly available, at least in the majority of cases.

It goes without saying that if the user's intention is to use Knoppix to read password protected Microsoft Office files, then the user will have to learn how to start the console, navigate a UNIX file system and mount the correct partition. Those are just the first steps, but we all had to start somewhere. The curiosity, together with the realization of how powerful Linux is, might just convince these users to start playing with Linux on a more regular basis and even give it a partition on their hard disks. The shock of learning how awfully inadequate Microsoft file protection features are should be another strong motivator.

Knoppix has become so successful, that new Knoppix-based sub-projects have sprung all over the Internet. One the most comprehensive Knoppix-related resource sites available today is knoppix.net. Its Knoppix Customizations page lists, at the time of writing, a total of 28 customized versions of Knoppix, catering for those who need Knoppix in Hebrew or Norwegian, for those who want a live CD with extensive multimedia support, for those who prefer more educational or medical software, for those who need a mini-Knoppix or a live firewall..., the list goes on. Still cannot find what you need? Then head for the Knoppix Remastering Howto page for instructions how to build your own Knoppix bootable CD.

There is little doubt that Knoppix has become one of the greatest advocates of Linux we have ever seen. At the same time, it is simple to use, practical and useful in emergency situations. If you want to spread the word, carry a few Knoppix CDs in your briefcase and give them away liberally.

Comments (4 posted)

Debian GNU/Linux

The Debian Weekly News for May 6, 2003 looks at the FLOSS survey, old and new; something from Bruce Perens' wishlist; will i386 support be dropped?; the debate over credits in Free Software; and much more.

The Debian Project will be attending conferences in Italy (Webb.it 2003 in Padova) and Austria (IFIT 2003 in Innsbruck).

Tollef Fog Heen has a Debconf 3 update. This year Debcamp and Debconf will take place in July, in Oslo, Norway.

Wichert Akkerman introduces a new service for SubVersion users at svn.debian.org.

DebianPlanet reports on the work being done to create a tag-based browseable hierarchy of Debian packages.

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Gentoo Weekly Newsletter -- Volume 2, Issue 18

This week's edition of the Gentoo Weekly News looks at the feature list for the next release of Gentoo Linux 1.4; Rsync etiquette guidelines; some new mailing lists are available; and a policy discussion regarding accessing users' boxes.

Full Story (comments: none)

Libranet 2.8 released

Libranet GNU/Linux has released Libranet 2.8 with many improvments, including improved hardware detection, up to date KDE, Gnome, kernel etc. and it has undergone rigorous beta testing.

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Mandrake Linux

MandrakeSoft announced the immediate availability of Mandrake Linux 9.1 retail packs. Choose from the Standard Edition, PowerPack Edition (for power users) or ProSuite Edition (for businesses). All Mandrake Club members will receive a 20% discount on 9.1 orders made at the MandrakeStore.

MandrakeSoft has some bug fixes available for Mandrake Linux 9.1:

• kdebase-servicemenu (a broken Konqueror feature used for PS to PDF file conversion).
• Updated devfsd packages fix multiple bugs.
• More bugs have been found in the drakxtools package.
• OpenLDAP did not properly migrate data from previous versions.

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OpenBSD 3.3 released

OpenBSD 3.3 is out, with a long list of improvements and new security features. Much work has been done to make buffer overrun attacks harder to execute, but there's a lot of other security work in this release as well.

Full Story (comments: none)

Announcing GinGin64: A Technology Preview for the AMD64 Platform

Red Hat has announced the availability of a AMD64 technology preview. This preview is for those who are interested in early access to a Red Hat distribution for the AMD64 platform.

Full Story (comments: 2)

Damn Small Linux

Damn Small Linux has released v0.3.8. "Changes: There is now a very nice X configuration script. The very small but very easy to use Monkey Web server has been added. A couple of small bugs in dsl-hdinstall and mkliloboot have been fixed."

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Gibraltar Firewall

Gibraltar has released v0.99.7a with major security fixes. "Changes: The major security fix is for pptpd. It has been upgraded to a new development version that fixes the problem while glibc has been downgraded to the version available for Debian woody, which has the fix applied. If you use the pptpd service, then it is recommended to upgrade as soon as possible, since there already exists exploit code for this vulnerability (even if it doesn't work with current Gibraltar versions)."

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KNOPPIX

KNOPPIX has released v3.2-2003-05-03 with minor feature enhancements. "Changes: This release has an hpijs inkjet driver update, a LILO update (fixed RAID support), qtparted, libsmbclient, and ethtool."

Comments (none posted)

MoviX

MoviX has released v0.8.0pre5 with minor bugfixes. "Changes: The dxr3 modules have been updated. Video card detection finally seems to be correctly fixed. MPlayer's cache is now automatically reduced when free RAM is very low, to allow MoviX to work with just 64MB of RAM. DMA problems have been fixed. Memory bounds for the use of Win Codecs have been raised to ensure that there is enough RAM for the system."

MoviX2 0.3.0pre3 has also been released with major bugfixes. "Changes: There is improved TV out support. MPlayer has been upgraded to 0.90, and faad/Real support added to it. DeCSS routines have been removed. NVidia support has been fixed. Support for VIA CastleRocks cards has been added. DMA and video card autodetection bugs have been fixed. Some modifications have been made to make it work with 128MB. The -menu MPlayer feature has been added."

Comments (1 posted)

Rock Linux and dRock

Rock Linux released dRock v2.0.0-beta followed by Rock Linux v2.0.0-beta.

dRock (desktop Rock Linux) "Changes: Many package updates and compile fixes were made. The PowePC port and hardware auto-detection were improved. The installer has also been sped up greatly."

Rock Linux "Changes: This beta release features an almost totally redesigned build system, which is now more like a true distribution build kit. The dROCK (Desktop ROCK) sub-distribution was merged into the main ROCK tree, many new packages were added, and important package updates were made."

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RUNT (ResNet USB Network Tester)

RUNT has released v1.11 with minor bugfixes. "Changes: An fstab entry has been added for /dev/hda1. Network card probing has been removed from the netconfig script to prevent rc.netdevices being overwritten. lilo.conf has been improved to recognize /dev/sda as the first disk when booting directly from USB. runthelp has been improved, and diskhelp help files have been added. This release uses Sendmail 8.12.9 for a security fix."

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Slackware Live CD

Slackware Live CD has released v2.9.0.14 with major feature enhancements. "Changes: This release adds KOffice 1.2.1, adds the ability to pass some kernel parameters during boot (hold down Shift), and allows changing of the keyboard layout in KDE (multi-language keyboard)."

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uClinux

uClinux has released v2.5.69-uc0 with major feature enhancements. "Changes: The latest kernel updates were applied. DragonEngine and 5282 support were added."

Comments (1 posted)

SuSE 8.2 approaches computing Nirvana (Register)

The Register has a glowing review of SuSE Linux 8.2. "There's a lot to like in SuSE's latest edition, 8.2, and little to complain about. There are security enhancements and graphics tweaks partly due to KDE 3.1, and major administration bonuses in YaST-2. It's clear that SuSE has worked hard to accommodate the corporate desktop market as well as the home user since edition 8.1, which we did not recommend. It appears the company is serious about tempting a mixed-species shop of Linux servers and Windows desktops to harmonize in favor of Linux and thus save considerably on administration costs. Microsoft should worry about the strides SuSE is making in this area."

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Knoppix installation tips (NewsForge)

Here's a NewsForge article with some tips to help you get the most from your Knoppix CD. "When you boot up the Knoppix CD, a browser window pops up with a link to the software's FAQ, which includes instructions for installing Knoppix on the hard disk. Don't follow them! If you do, you'll install the German version of the software even though you booted from an English version of the CD. If you follow the instructions in the FAQ you can still convert the system to English, but to do so you have to change the locale setting in a number of places using a German interface."

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