Knoppix news

[nanZor]

For all of us live-usb system fans ..

Knoppix needs no introduction, but in case you haven't kept up in a few years ..

Ver 9.1, the public release has been put on the mirrors. It is available in the classic huge >4gb dvd iso, but reintroduces the cd-sized iso as an option.
Flash-knoppix will also allow you to create this "mini" version from within the larger version should you want.

After playing with systemD for a few releases, starting from about 8.5 / 8.6, Klaus has gone back to his custom autoconfigs and fixes, rather than continue on with systemD.

Of note is that the init-system is now based on Busybox init. Busybox isn't integrated in the way that Slitaz or Tinycore fully integrate the shells and utilities, but it appears that the init system of Busybox is getting the job done, possibly making less work of custom debianizing.

Two classic mistakes if you are interested:
1) Downloading the >4gb image to a filesystem that can't handle 4gb files will truncate your download iso. Use an appropriate filesystem for download.

2) Being a mix of Debian stable, testing, and experimental, along with custom dev tweaks - if you do wholesale updates (like the classic apt update / ugrade pair), you are more or less guaranteed to break things badly. Knoppix is NOT a rolling distro, although small-scale updates done with wisdom and caution can be done. Hint: yes, run apt update at least *once*, and manually pick up stuff if you need it. But if you allow a full upgrade to occur, tears of frustration will follow. The usual cautions we've all been used to for years.

Glad to see it still active! The BB init caught my eye...

[Kulle]

Hi nanZor,
"...but reintroduces the cd-sized iso as an option..."
I found only the DVD on the mirrors,
where can I find the CD version?

[Kulle]

I have now found the CD version.
The startup process continues until the graphical user interface begins to load.
And the screen stays black, nothing happens.
What can I do?
Is there a boot parameter?
Apropos:
The same problem occurred with another distribution.

[nanZor]

Hi Kulle! Glad you asked ..

I noticed that some mirrors don't update the cheatcodes text file! The latest is from 2021, and contains additional hints that may be valuable if you are going off an old one, say from 2013....

I should have added this as a #3 hint to turn OFF compositing, or "wobbly windows". Many people don't like it, very easy cheatcode:

knoppix nocompiz
or
knoppix64 nocompiz

When using cheatcodes at the prompt, you have to manually indicate either 32 or 64 bit knoppix preceeding the cheatcodes.

That may not fix your problem however - depending on hardware, you walk through a bunch, one which might be common to your situation is

nomodeset

In my case, similar to yours, I had to use this:
noapic

But *beware* how closely "noapic" looks similar to "noacpi" !! For the longest time I was tearing my hair out remembering to use noapic, but all the while using noacpi and getting nowhere. Thought I'd throw that out since I was getting dyslexic between these two options! In my case noapic fixed my issue, but the only thing wrong was that my monitor wouldn't actually power down when it went into sleep mode.

Worst case, you can walk "up" through say ugly frame-buffer options, Xvesa, etc until you nail it. You might need something like i915 invert. Hard to say without knowing your hardware...

Once you do find the magical cheatcode, I suppose you could use flash-knoppix and burn a new version for yourself specific to that machine.

Where to save these codes?

My last notes indicate to store your favorite codes in

/mnt-system/boot/syslinux/syslnx32.cfg or syslnx64.cfg in the DEFAULT line. I suppose you could use the APPEND line in the boot stanza too.

I haven't done that lately, so don't quote me...

[nanZor]

Trackpad not working?

This is pretty common so I guess I should throw this out if you are using a laptop. Klaus hates the trackpad getting in the way of his typing.

A quick fix is to fumble up a terminal, and issue any one or all of these commands depending on the capabilities of your touchpad:

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synclient TapButton1=1
synclient VertEdgeScroll=1
synclient HorizEdgeScroll=1

Be aware of the camel-casing.

If you want to make them permanent, add them to this file:

/etc/X11/Xsession.d/45knoppix

Finding that years ago was a biggie for me.

[nanZor]

Screensaver driving you nuts?

Heh, might as well continue on with stuff that bugged me...

Right, so easy enough to go into the screensaver options. You may prefer to to just "blank" the screen, rather than turn off screensavers completely, otherwise your screen may never go to sleep and power down.

But notice there are also advanced "power saving" options too, which give you finer control over the time periods than the default.

Again, you may prefer to "blank", rather than totally disable the saver, otherwise your time controls mean nothing.

How to check?

Our old friend from when X11 was rocking the world with this command:

xset q

Will query the settings.

In a pinch if you find that DPMS isn't working, so that your monitor can sleep and power save, you can force it:

xset dpms force on

although usually using the advanced power saving time options in the gui screensaver control will do that for you.

[nanZor]

Knoppix is HUGE! Is it hogging ram?

Not really, but it depends on what tool you use to look at ram with, and whether it *clears the cache* first.

I've seen many posts elsewhere, drive-by blogs and videos that don't get this right.

Since Knoppix uses LXDE by default, (and of course Porteus LXDE), one tool you can rely on is the gui

LX-Task Manager

Make sure that the preferences in the lx task manager has this checked:

"Show memory used by cache as free"

Suddenly Knoppix looks a lot slimmer ram-wise. Same with Porteus!

Just a caution that simply running free-m may not show a cleared cache depending on the distro.

A full discussion of unix cache memory is beyond the scope of this thread. It is however an impetus to make sure one clears the cache before making casual ram-use observations/comparisons.

[nanZor]

The menus are totally bloated! How does one handle it?

You aren't expected to memorize the vast hierarchical menus in a daily crazy fashion.

You pick out what you like, and right-click to make a desktop-launcher icon. If you have a bunch, perhaps put them into desktop folders.

Formerly, in 8.6.1 for example, another way was to use the LXDE Menu-Editor to totally remove / re-order what you use. It's not there in 9.x, so usually right-clicking programs to make desktop launchers will save your sanity.

Of course if you are handing this off to someone else who is not computer-savvy, and scared by the vast amount of menu options, you can use flash-knoppix to burn a custom non-scary version for them.

[nanZor]

The desktop elements are tiny on my high-res monitor, and I'm not young anymore!

Not really Knoppix specific, but just as applicable to those who want a larger desktop up quickly on Porteus lxde without being an LXDE zen-master.

Here's my routine when I encounter a fresh lxde environment with my 1920x1080 monitor. Use your own values of course:

1) Use the bottom left-most lxde "start-ish" bird-looking icon. Choose
Customize Look and Feel.
Change font size to 14

2) Right-click taskbar
Panel Settings
Change height of taskbar to 40 pixels
Change size of icons to 35
Appearance Tab > check box to change font size to 14

3) Changing the application icons in the taskbar!
Right-click in the middle of one of the existing *application icons* and NOT the lxde start-icon bird logo!
Now you can see the option to change the Application Launch bar

So that's it basically. Sorry guys, I couldn't stop with the tips, which most probably know already.

[Rava]

nanZor I tried the 9.1 CD on USB (I just dd'd it) and the 9.1 DVD (created it from the ISO after I booted up the 9.1 CD and let the creator script do the install) - to see if knoppix is helpful with my search for a solution to my still unsolved laptop WLAN issue.

My issue: on the same machine the 9.1 CD runs okay, but the 9.1 DVD is unable to start up the X window system. Both the internal screen and the external screen are running and showing a knoppix background image, but none display the whole desktop, I cannot get any menu to open and the visible desktop elements that all were there in the 9.1 CD are not visible.

I checked the md5sums of the created 9.1 DVD and they all are okay:

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guest@porteus:/mnt/sdc1/KNOPPIX$ ls -o KNOPPIX*
-rwxrwxrwx 1 guest  674061237 Nov 23 01:01 KNOPPIX
-rwxrwxrwx 1 guest 3957110684 Nov 23 01:15 KNOPPIX1

guest@porteus:/mnt/sdc1/KNOPPIX$ cat sha1sums 
6857db99ed079d739e6f531fc3eac969c62810c2 *KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX
6c9713a82d94c18a28f3ec3c9bb301750f36d959 *KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX1

guest@porteus:/mnt/sdc1/KNOPPIX$ sha1sum KNOPPIX*
6857db99ed079d739e6f531fc3eac969c62810c2  KNOPPIX
6c9713a82d94c18a28f3ec3c9bb301750f36d959  KNOPPIX1

cat /mnt/sdc2/var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state says:

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[main]
NetworkingEnabled=true
WirelessEnabled=true
WWANEnabled=true

WirelessEnabled=true - but it not works.

The 9.1 CD said something about a hardware driver missing for my WLAN … but no more info.
______________________________

What I don't get: how can the standard boot of the 9.1 CD start up the desktop without issues, but then I get this weird mess running standard boot of 9.1 DVD. Both the CD and DVD should have the same core system, with the DVD just adding some more programs.

[beny]

hi Rava,i am curious of your wifi hardware can you share the model of it

[Ed_P]

Do any of you boot the Knoppix downloads as ISOs with grub2? And if so could you share the menu code?

[nanZor]

Well, on some of my hardware I've tried running the latest 9.1 on, I've noticed some peculiarities and it might have to do with timing of the custom scripts, that is

1) Results for booting seem to differ between an iso that is simply dd'ed (in whatever manner) and used as a working environment. Rather, IF you can get a dd'ed version working, immediately use the flash-knoppix gui/script and try again with that custom Knoppix formatted stick. Some issues may go away, and others may be new.

I'm no expert, but I have observed this difference in possible timing issues. Maybe a few sleeps/no-ops might help. So I'll never use the dd'ed iso as a working environment, even if it seems to work. Kick the tires, look around, but make the flash-knoppix usb stick anyway once you get a dd'ed version running.

One thing I battle on some particularly cheap hardware is video on some of my intel boxes. Rather than have nothing but a blinking cursor in the upper left, I have to manually stop the auto boot, and call it manually:

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knoppix64 nomodeset no3d

That seems to get me to a working state, and with no3d not use some of the nifty wobbly windows and whatnot.

Still, I have problems with what appears to be Intel C-states, which I thought was solved long ago for cheap nasty Atom cpus.

Unfortunately, I still have to use either one of these, which seems to prevent keyboard/mouse lockup and allows video to reveal a full desktop:

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knoppix64 intel_idle.max_cstate=0

OR

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knoppix64 idle=poll

(Along with the previous kernel cheatcodes like nomodeset etc)

Heh, but now my dmesg is totally spammed every microsecond, although the desktop is useful, albeit running a bit hot.

So, kind of frustrating when Porteus has absolutely no problems, whereas with Knoppix 9.1, I have to search out and play with a lot of bootcodes sometimes. Neko and others would immediately know what to use with Knoppix, but for me, figuring out what works and what doesn't is a learning experience.

No disrespect to Klaus! Having to produce a system that faces all the hardware combinations out there is quite the task. Deep respect for our kernel / system builders!

[Rava]

hi Rava,i am curious of your wifi hardware can you share the model of it

Sure, glad to oblige. But I do so in a new thread since that gets off topic by itself.

Added in 2 hours 22 minutes 58 seconds:
beny, here the URL to the new thread: Broadcom Corporation BCM4313 802.11bgn Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01) issues with 5.0rc3 x86-64 XFCE4.12

[nanZor]

Hmm.. for the wifi, do you have one of those boxes that needs rfkill to enable it to be seen? I have one machine that always needs this before network manager will recognize it...

typically

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rfkill unblock all