questions about Knoppix versions

[w0lfinator]

I have a very old laptop..(circa 1998..) I bought it off Ebay and only know a few things about it. I am currently running DSL on the laptop but I do not like DSL very much at all. I have looked at the Knoppix screenshots and the GUI is what I was looking for more or less. The important specs I currently know are these: 400 mhz Intel Celeron Processor, 32 MB RAM, 4.3 GB Hard Drive.. Now my question to anyone willing to help is, is there any version of Knoppix you would suggest me using?? I am planning on upgrading the RAM to 160 soon; but for now, is there any version I should try out?

[Harry Kuhman]

That ram is going to be a real bottleneck with any version, particularly on a laptop that may share some of the ram for video. Having a swap file would be essential for Knoppix, but it will only help so much and I doubt it will be enough, particularly with a slow laptop hard drive as the swap device.

As to versions, 5.0.1 seems to be a bit of a dsapointment. At least among people who respond to polls (http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24865) more people seem disatisfied with it that happy with it. So I would suggest starting with 4.0.2, which is still available by BitTorrent and on most servers. But the best advice is to get some 700 meg CDRW media and try a lot of things yourself to see what works best for you.

[w0lfinator]

alright..so you suggest 4.0.2? Do you think I will be able to experience everything I'd like to right now with 4.0.2 or will memory still be the issue until I upgrade it?

[Harry Kuhman]

Memory will still be an issue, 32 meg is just not that much for any modern Linux GUI, and both 4.2 and 5.0.1 versions of Knoppix default to useing KDE, which is very memory hungry. I think there is a cheat code that will bring up a less memory intensive GUI (I have never used it myself), but even then I think you will find that 32 megs is not giving you the performance you expect; the system will be thrashing itself to death with the swap file. If you want to boot into text mode with knoppix 2 at the boot prompt that should work fine, but GUI based stuff on that system with that memory is not going to be great. This may also be part of why you are unhappy with DSL, although DSL does inded use a lighter GUI than KDE.

[Harry Kuhman]

By the way, is there a reason why you want this in the Hard disk install/Debian/Apt forum? I'm thinking it would be better moved to a different forum.

[w0lfinator]

oh..not really..I just wasn't sure where it would best be suited because I figured this would end up being an installation issue anyway.

[Harry Kuhman]

oh..not really..I just wasn't sure where it would best be suited because I figured this would end up being an installation issue anyway.
Knoppix is not a good choice for installing, there are well know problems with trying. Some very experienced users can make it work, but I have not yet heard any good reasons for actually doing this over a Debian install. The Debain install will then let you install any application that is included with Knoppix. A Debian install will not resolve your memory issues if you have 32 megs. A Debain text based install should go quite well. But any GUI is going to tax that system. The default Debian GUI is Gnome, which is less memory intensive than KDE (KDE is always an option), but I think even Gnome eats too much memory for your hardware.

I'm going to go ahead and move this out of the hard disk install fourm, you may get better feedback from others on your original topic if it is in a different forum.

[ethyr2000]

Does the hd install of knoppix 4.0+ install unionfs and it's tools - although the configuration doesn't use them by default?

[hinachan]

I have a very old laptop..(circa 1998..) I bought it off Ebay and only know a few things about it. I am currently running DSL on the laptop but I do not like DSL very much at all. I have looked at the Knoppix screenshots and the GUI is what I was looking for more or less. The important specs I currently know are these: 400 mhz Intel Celeron Processor, 32 MB RAM, 4.3 GB Hard Drive.. Now my question to anyone willing to help is, is there any version of Knoppix you would suggest me using?? I am planning on upgrading the RAM to 160 soon; but for now, is there any version I should try out?
I tried to use an older version of Knoppix (3.7) on an older computer (400MHz Celeron processor with 256MB of RAM), and the results weren't nearly as good as I get on my own, faster PC. The older PC was just choking on Knoppix, so I finally had to just restart the computer and use a Puppy Linux live CD, instead.

Puppy is one of the lightweight distros for older machines, roughly the same size as DSL, but a LOT nicer. Plus, you don't get the awful flicker you get from DSL's horribly low refresh rate. Puppy also has a lot more software included, and an interface familiar to those who have worked with Windows 95 (though themes can be added to spruce it up).

For me, personally, I happily use Knoppix on machines that are capable of handling all the eye candy that I enjoy so much. But on the older PC's, Puppy is my favorite lightweight distro.

So that's one option you have for your aging laptop, if Knoppix doesn't work out. :)