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View Full Version : I need a distro like Knoppix, with its apps, apt-get & m



merrik
11-17-2005, 04:28 PM
Hi:

I am looking for a distribution as Knoppix. Knoppix is perfect for me, but it is too big for my needs. I need a distro with Knoppix's apps, like netcardconfig -it is excellent-, autoconfiguration and a good hardware detections, as Knoppix. I need also a good compatibility with Debian, so I can install and upgrade packages through apt-get, without getting corrupted.

As I had said, Knoppix is too big for me. I do not need X, KDE, multimedia, everything but a base system Debian compatible.

I had tried Damn Small Linux, but it is not enough compatible with Debian. I installed some packages on it and when i rebooted it from Live-CD it was corrupted.

Is there any light version of Knoppix, any striped out version without X and KDE? I think it would be a great idea to provide it, in a tarball or whatever.

Do you suggest me other distro? I prefer an updated distro. Thank you!

tdjokic
11-17-2005, 09:58 PM
I need also a good compatibility with Debian Did you think about Debian itself? I don't have any experience with it, just a sugestion. http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=debian

ccwufu
11-22-2005, 12:56 PM
http://www.finnix.org
Finnix is a self-contained, bootable Linux CD distribution ("LiveCD") for system administrators, based on Debian testing. You can mount and manipulate hard drives and partitions, monitor networks, rebuild boot records, install other operating systems, and much more. Finnix includes the latest technology for system administrators, with Linux kernel 2.6, LVM2, encrypted partitions, etc. And above all, Finnix is small; currently the entire distribution is over 300MB, but is dynamically compressed into a bootable image under 100MB. Finnix is not intended for the average desktop user, and does not include any desktops, productivity tools, or sound support, in order to keep distribution size low.



Why the name "Finnix"? Is it related to "Knoppix"?
Finnix actually predates Knoppix. It is a play on my name, Ryan Finnie, combined with Linux.

Is the Finnix distribution a derivative of Knoppix? The bootup looks similar.
I wouldn't consider it a derivative. Finnix is based on Debian, but uses scripts modified from Knoppix to do hardware autodetection. In addition, Finnix uses some of the same base tools as Knoppix, such as Unionfs for merging the CD with a ramdisk. However, Finnix is (IMHO) more true to Debian than Knoppix. In most cases, you can bring the CD up to date via a simple "apt-get -u dist-upgrade".

What are the differences between Finnix and Knoppix?
Finnix is based on Debian "testing"; Knoppix is based on Debian "unstable" and several other repositories.
Finnix is available as a ~100MB ISO; Knoppix is available as a 700MB or 3.5GB ISO (CD/DVD editions).
Knoppix includes XFree86 and many, many desktop and productivity tools and games; Finnix does not.
Finnix includes utilities not found in Knoppx, such as LVM2, cryptsetup, cdpr, iftop, irssi, an OTP calculator, VLAN tools, and the essential robotfindskitten.
Finnix uses a different Linux kernel than Knoppix.
Finnix uses an almost completely reworked initrd, a compressed ROM filesystem with BusyBox; Knoppix's initrd uses a compressed ext2 filesystem with statically compiled tools.
Finnix uses squashfs for the compressed loopback filesystem; Knoppix uses cloop.
Knoppix can be installed on a hard drive; Finnix cannot.
Finnix can be copied to RAM and run in only 192MB; Knoppix requires at least 1GB.
Knoppix is available in several languages and has an impressive array of internationalization tools; Finnix is English only.
Finnix includes CDs for both x86 and PowerPC architectures; Knoppix is x86 only.
What are the differences between Finnix and Debian?
Finnix is essentially Debian testing, modified to run in a small environment on a CD. The key modifications are:

Replaced standard rcS.d initscripts with scripts that are more suited for a LiveCD environment.
Replaced standard kernel with a newly-compiled kernel.
Removed contents of /usr/share/doc.
Removed localization tools, locales and non-english manpages (English manpages remain though).
Includes packages not found in Debian's apt repository (currently, the only package is cdpr).

merrik
11-22-2005, 05:38 PM
Now I'm trying Morphix: www.morphix.org

Regards.