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| 2nd October 2003 | KNOPPIX |
Brian Grainger |
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Introduction In April, on the blog, I announced I had found a version of GNU/Linux I could try out on my PC, simply by booting from CD. This was Knoppix and since then I have spent more time with the system. The purpose of this article is to describe in detail the Knoppix system and how I feel it could form the basis of a Desktop Linux distribution to break the stranglehold of Microsoft Windows. Background to GNU/Linux Until recently, GNU/Linux has made its greatest inroads as a server operating system, in particular as a web server. It makes up the greater portion of Web servers at the moment. With the advent of the commercial versions, Red Hat Linux and SUSE Linux, GNU/Linux has started to make inroads into the standard server market. Businesses demand support for their software, which is what Red Hat, SUSE, IBM and others provide. When Microsoft changed their licensing model, which increased costs, GNU/Linux had been given new impetus. In the public sector, where low costs are paramount, GNU/Linux presents an appetising prospect and, in Germany particularly, this has been grasped. There was much publicity given to the decision of Munich's local government to use GNU/Linux over Windows. On the Desktop Running GNU/Linux on the desktop has been restricted to the technophiles in the Linux community. It is not an easy matter to set up Linux on the desktop, especially if one wants to coexist with Windows in an interim period, so only the more technical will attempt it. In addition there is the inertia problem. Why will the man in the street turn to something new when they are perfectly served by Windows? Until recently it has not even been possible to try out GNU/Linux as an alternative. In the 2nd quarter of 2003 a number of GNU/Linux versions appeared that were bootable from CD. They were meant as trial versions so users could see what GNU/Linux was about. To use GNU/Linux everyday would still need an installation on the hard disk since CD access is just too slow. One of these versions was Knoppix. This had been around since before August 2001 and was heavily supported by LinuxTag, a German annual event for the GNU/Linux community. Knoppix Development Knoppix was created by Klaus Knopper, but not primarily as a desktop Linux system! Klaus wanted a portable operating system (OS) that he could use to perform simple tasks in the field, like network debugging, converting file formats and recovering data from corrupt file systems. He did not want to carry around a laptop as it might get damaged or lost. These needs resulted in two of the prime points of uniqueness of the Knoppix distribution. First, it is on portable media, i.e. CD-ROM. Second, the OS had to automatically recognise the hardware it might be run on. Klaus did not want to set up drivers every time he went somewhere different. The first version of Knoppix was based on a 200MB core from the Red Hat Linux distribution. This left 450MB for the software tools. In version 1.2 a compression system was added, with on-the-fly decompression, so that more could be fitted on the CD-ROM. The latest version of Knoppix, at the time of writing, is version 3.2. It is now based on the Debian Linux distribution, which I personally find more in tune with the open source philosophy. Red Hat is a commercial organisation whereas Debian is a community of developers. However, such things are immaterial to Klaus Knopper. He found Debian Linux once installed, which he admitted was difficult, easier to keep up to date than Red Hat Linux! One other technical feature of Knoppix is that it is on an ISO 9660 file system on the CD-ROM and not the standard GNU/Linux Ext2 file system. This was for performance and stability reasons, but it also makes it nice and easy to create and copy the CD-ROMS in a non Linux environment. Despite the fact that Knoppix was not written as a desktop GNU/Linux, with the addition of appropriate software it would clearly meet the need. In addition it could be used without the need to setup your hard disk so would be very useful for newcomers to GNU/Linux. Knoppix Contents The latest distribution of Knoppix includes the very software a desktop user would need. First and foremost it includes the OpenOffice.org suite of Office applications that are so essential. Again, I favour OpenOffice.org over Star Office, because the former is true to the open source ideal. It annoys me intensely when I read about the 'open source' product Star Office. Star Office is proprietary. It includes open source OpenOffice.org code, but it also includes additional proprietary software from Sun. I thank Sun for setting up and supporting the OpenOffice.org initiative but they are trying to get a payback via Star Office, which as you may know was a free of charge product before Sun bought it! Apart from OpenOffice.org the Knoppix disk includes software for the majority of basic functions:
As well as the above there are numerous other utilities and games. I tried to list all the tools I could find but after one afternoon I gave up trying to identify them all. I consoled myself with a game of Asteroids, which will be familiar to pub goers of the early 1980s. Frozen Bubble, a Tetris like game is good too and there are the usual collection of card and board games. Klaus Knopper says that there are more than 900 installed software packages with over 2000 executable user programs, utilities and games. The Boot Sequence Having obtained a copy of Knoppix, (The Linux Emporium is a good place for UK readers), how does one use it? If your computer is set up to boot from a CD-ROM drive it is simply a matter of turning the PC on and sticking the CD in the drive while the memory check is ongoing. By default a PC may not boot from a CD. It may be necessary to enter the BIOS and change the boot sequence so that CD is checked before the hard drive. If you wish, you can avoid this by creating a boot floppy. A boot floppy can be created from Windows by running the MKFLOPPY.BAT file on the Knoppix CD. You can now leave this floppy in the drive and reboot the PC. Whichever method you choose the Knoppix boot sequence will start. The first part of the sequence loads the kernel. The second part goes hunting for the single compressed file which includes all the Knoppix tools and software. Ordinarily this exists on the CD-ROM but it is possible to copy it to a hard drive under Windows if you prefer to work without the CD. However, the boot sequence searches for CD-ROM drives first and then searches the hard disk so you do not speed up the boot process by copying the compressed file to the hard drive. After the file is found and dealt with the third part of the boot process takes place, which is to autodetect hardware, configure the Knoppix environment and, by default, load the K Desktop Environment (KDE). During this process one has the option to interrupt and set parameters so one could, for example, use a GNU/LINUX command line environment rather than KDE. In my case I use appropriate parameters to set the keyboard layout to UK, (the default being US instead of the German that the documentation says), and tell Knoppix I use a wheel mouse. The whole boot process takes a little while, I'd say 3 minutes with my Pentium 350MHz processor and 128MB RAM. On completion you have a fully functional Knoppix system running KDE. First Steps The first thing one does with a new system is to look at its constituents. The environment is similar to Windows so it should not be too much of a problem to realise one uses the K button at the bottom left of the screen to view the Program menu. Searching through the menu and trying some of the options should keep you busy for a few days! As you load various programs, especially OpenOffice.org, you will notice the speed constraint of the CD-ROM. It takes a while for the programs to open. The speed will improve if the compressed file is on the hard drive but, for OpenOffice.org at least, not by as much as you would like! When you become a serious user you will find you want a proper GNU/Linux installation on the hard drive. Knoppix uses a RAM disk to store system files and user settings. When you turn off your PC these will be lost. Consequently, each time you run Knoppix you are starting afresh. There are ways to get round this problem, which are documented on the unofficial Knoppix support site, http://www.knoppix.net. If you are a Microsoft Office user it is well worth looking at OpenOffice.org and seeing how easy it is to use - because it is so similar to Microsoft Office. KOffice, which is also on the CD, is not so compatible. Files, Directories and the Hard Disk If you are a techie, sooner or later you are going to start looking for the GNU/Linux equivalent of Windows Explorer. The Konquerer browser will do the trick. However, trying to navigate may be a little difficult. No more A, C, D, drives. These are a DOS/Windows nomenclature. You are using a UNIX system now so things are different. It is not my intention to teach Unix here but suffice it to say that the individual partitions of the hard drives are individual devices, e.g. hda1 could refer to one disk partition. The next problem you will find is that you cannot read/write to a device, including a hard drive partition, until it is mounted. Users of the Amiga will remember such things. It is all part of the more secure system that Unix is, compared to Windows! Having properly mounted a partition with read/write access you will find you can save created data to files and be able to read them from Windows. Similarly you can read files that have been created under Windows. WARNING - Do NOT try WRITING data to an NTFS partition. That rules out Windows NT users and most Windows XP users. You will lose your NTFS data. The other thing you will eventually find is that you do not have permissions to read certain files or directories, or perform certain tasks. This is because you are logged in as user Knoppix and you do not have Administrator rights, or root permissions in Unix speak. Knoppix was written to be fairly secure and therefore, by default, security rights are limited. It is possible to get root permissions. The unofficial Knoppix support site tells all. Printing Probably the next thing you are going to want to try out is printing. It is here that a little (Windows) knowledge is a dangerous thing. Having found the equivalent to Control Panel in the search through the K menus the most obvious thing to do is start it and then select the Printing Manager. Unfortunately this results in an error message that suggests the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) has not started. Why, I am not sure yet, but the solution to the problem is again on the unofficial Knoppix support site. To configure a printer one follows the sequence K-Knoppix-Configure-Configure Printers on the K menus. You still go to the Printing Manager but this time without the error message! From there it is a simple matter to select Add Printer and follow the KDE wizard for adding a printer. It was simple and I was pleased to find my printer, an Epson Stylus Colour 640, was among the numerous printer drivers on the Knoppix CD. At the end of setup one can print a test page and very pretty it is too. The printer setup is one of the settings that gets held in RAM disk so they will be lost when your Knoppix session is finished. Adobe PDF File Creation When setting up the printer is complete you will notice a printer icon gets added to the Printing Manager window. It was then that I noticed that there were already some icons set up. One was to send a fax. Another was to print to a file as a .pdf document. This interested me a great deal. Under Windows I have investigated the problem of how to create PDF files at no cost. The free software from Adobe only allows the reading of PDF files. The creation software costs money! However, Ghostscript, another piece of free software, has been produced to allow the creation of PDF files. It appears somewhat messy to setup and further investigation found that PDF995 has also been produced. This uses Ghostscript as the engine for its PDF file creation capability. PDF995 can be downloaded free of charge, (from http://site3.pdf995.com/download.html), and appears to be the solution for Windows users. It appeared from this predefined icon that creating PDF files was built into the Knoppix system. I ran a test. I opened KEdit, a simple editor program, and typed a few words. I then selected File - Print and chose the 'print as a PDF file' printer, saving the selected file in the Knoppix Home directory. Using the Konqueror browser I then found this file and opened it. Adobe Reader was loaded and my file was displayed. Quite clearly, my edited file was now a PDF file. A wonderful built in function to Knoppix. I should point out that Knoppix also uses Ghostscript to perform the magic but it is nice to find the setup has already been done! Unanswered Questions From this initial tour of Knoppix have I found any problems? Well, yes. I have not yet got my sound card, modem or TV turner working in Knoppix. I had found my internal modem had been a problem when I experimented with the QNX operating system. It was not supposed to be a Winmodem but clearly it does not seem to work with anything other than Windows. The GNU/Linux community is working on the problem of Winmodems, but my advice to would be future GNU/Linux users is to get an external modem and save the hassle. I did not expect the TV tuner card to work with Knoppix. It is a rather specialist application after all. The lack of a sound card is a little more serious. I can see from the boot sequence that the card is recognised, but no sound emanates from applications run under Knoppix. I noticed recently, when running the equivalent of Device Manager, that all my PCI devices, including the TV card, sound card and modem card, had been recognised, but a status message implied root directory privileges were needed to make use of them. Whether the problem is one of user access rights I am not sure. It remains an unsolved problem. Beyond the Basics At this point I has pretty much covered the basic introduction to the Knoppix GNU/Linux system and I hope you can see that it is a very powerful demonstration tool that allows Windows users to have a look at Linux without having to reconfigure their PCs. I have been sufficiently impressed to look beyond its demonstration capability. I have dispensed with the CD-ROM by copying the Knoppix image to my hard drive. Having deciphered the instructions it is a remarkably simple process.
Doing the above plus making a boot floppy makes it very simple for me to start Windows or Knoppix. Stick the boot floppy in the drive when booting the PC and I get Knoppix. Leave the drive empty and I get Windows. I guess the next stage maybe keeping my configuration between Knoppix sessions. I have yet to decipher the instructions on this. Going all the way The time will come when I want to have an installation of GNU/Linux on my hard drive. Actually, that time is not far away. Microsoft's actions since the new licensing regime, together with their software's never ending vulnerability to viruses, worms and other intrusions, have made me much more determined to have an alternative. One feature of Knoppix is that it is possible to install it as a full blown GNU/Linux operating system on the hard drive. The instructions are not totally clear but the tools to do it are hidden away on the CD. Klaus Knopper has said he does not want to publicise the tools because he cannot provide the support. The GNU/Linux community are less supportive of users coming from a Windows background, especially if they want to dual boot. I want to see some clear unambiguous instructions on how to turn a Windows machine into a dual booting Windows - GNU/Linux machine. I don't know if it is possible but I certainly want to try because I see this as the only way to get Windows home users to convert. Whether one uses Knoppix or some other GNU/Linux the hard drive must be partitioned before the distro can be installed to the hard drive. This is the hard bit - getting instructions for the average man in the street when the consequences of failure could be total loss of data. A friend has been experimenting with Red Hat Linux, which is very installation friendly, but it was still possible to get it wrong first time. It is an interesting problem. When the partitioning problem is solved the question will be which GNU/Linux distribution to install? I am coming to favour Knoppix because:
Conclusion Until recently it has been easy to discount GNU/Linux on the desktop because it has been impossible to evaluate in a risk free environment. A commitment was needed to make the jump from Windows. Knoppix now provides an easy way for Windows users to try GNU/Linux and, with its wealth of applications, be genuinely useful as well. If you are a Windows user and want to see what the GNU/Linux fuss is all about then give Knoppix a go. You have nothing to lose, except the shackles to the expensive, insecure OS that is Windows. |
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