Got Knoppix? (A PSA)

[blackbelt_jones]

Earlier this evening, I was on the phone with a friend who had a bit of problem where it might have been helpful for him to test his hardware with a live CD, but he didn't have one handy.

Later, I myself was having a problem getting a new soundcard to work. I didn't have a recent live CD handy either-- so I downloaded Knoppix and burned a Knoppix disk. By booting the live CD, I was able to discover that the problem I was having with my soundcard, wasn't with the hardware, since the soundcard worked when I booted Knoppix.

So I thought I'd take a moment to remind everyone that a live CD is a useful thing to have handy. It can help you test your hardware, or get a temporary system running when there's trouble. Once, I used it to download and burn CDs, when I was experiencing complete hard drive failure.

Everyone, even the Windows afflicted might benefit from having a live CD somewhere where they can put their hands on it the moment it's needed. You can bet that I'm going to remember where I put this knoppix disk.

[mrrangerman43]

What's the url that you got the knoppix from? I downloaded one and it ended up being German, it wouldn't have been bad, but I can't speak German.

[bwkaz]

The third Google hit when searching for "knoppix" was this page:

http://www.knoppix.net/get.php

which links to this page:

http://knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html

whose URL implies that it's a list of mirrors for the English version. (Try some of the mirrors near the bottom if you're in the U.S., though I'm not sure if you are at the moment.)

(If you want BitTorrent instead, see the first link.)

[Davno]

Everyone, even the Windows afflicted might benefit from having a live CD somewhere where they can put their hands on it the moment it's needed. You can bet that I'm going to remember where I put this knoppix disk.

So true, one time i had some kind of (trojan, virus or else) in windows that i could not delete even in safe mod (permission denied, file is in use kind of problem). I booted with a linux live cd and deleted that file.

[blackbelt_jones]

What's the url that you got the knoppix from? I downloaded one and it ended up being German, it wouldn't have been bad, but I can't speak German.

Most download sites have .iso images for English and German. Look for the files that contain the letters "EN" (English), instead of "DE" (Deutsch, which you may know, is German for "German") .

Here's an English URL:

http://archive.cs.stedwards.edu/knop...7-01-04-EN.iso

[saikee]

Many distros are now in Live CD; Ubuntu, Mepis, Sidux (Knoppix off shoot), Puppy, DSL, PCLinixOS....

Some of them has an icon in the desktop like "install me" or "harddisk install".

One thing I like to see more from Linux Live CD is to use Grub as the boot loader but forget about the gfxmenu which offers a nice graphic screen. The text mode of Grub can offer a Grub prompt by pressing the "c" key and we can use a Live Live CD to boot up any Windows system!

[Parcival]

Most download sites have .iso images for English and German. Look for the files that contain the letters "EN" (English), instead of "DE" (Deutsch, which you may know, is German for "German") .

Bah, German Linux is for sissies, real guys use an English OS.



(I am indeed using only English for my OS and my apps - out of laziness. German may be my native tongue, but it's just too much trouble to google for something in English and then search for the German match in your system. So, if you wanna impress the babes in North America, just say "oh, that's German Linux because I'm too lazy to translate into English" )

[saikee]

Parcival,

I don't think German are known to be lazy but there must be exceptions, I suppose

[blackbelt_jones]

As always with all things Linux, there are a ton of options, and there are a ton of live cds out there. Knoppix is a live cd that is made expressely for running as a live cd, and I think that makes it especially useful for all the special functions that live cds are good for. But it's probably not the only one.

[blackbelt_jones]

So, if you wanna impress the babes in North America, just say "oh, that's German Linux because I'm too lazy to translate into English" )

Yeah, nothing gets women hotter than a German unix-based operating system!

[Alvis]

I just recently used Knoppix to recover data from a client's Windows hard drive. It would not boot in Windows, but with Knoppix I was able to recover the data that the hard drive hadn't already destroyed.

[sleepyEDB]

Good PSA, blackbelt!

I always keep a copy of the latest LiveCD of my distro (Mepis) to aid in repairing/restoring conf files should they get hosed, and an updated copy of System Rescue CD...it's the geek's Swiss army knife!


sleepy

[blackbelt_jones]

Yeah, nothing gets women hotter than a German unix-based operating system!

To steal a line from the movie "Superbad":
"That's the kind of world I hope to live in one day."

If I ran Mepis or Ubuntu, I'd want to keep those disks around, in addition to Knoppix or maybe Kanotix. (Kanotix may be my favorite all-around disk... great for installing to hard drive, great for live cd stuff).

One thing I'd add, whether you prefer KDE or Gnome as a desktop, my feeling is that KDE has the essential utilities, and so you're going to want to have a KDE-based live CD around. Of course, if you've got a decently high-speed connection, there's no reason not to download and burn a whole aresenal of live CDs, just for fun.

[enshum]

With Sabayon-Linux I have a live DVD with all the virtues mentioned for the live CD.

ed

[Davy]

..it's the geek's Swiss army knife!

funny... i thought this was the geeks' swiss army knife.