Adding Applications to bootable USB key

[tcohoon]

I installled Knoppix 6.2.1 to a 16GB USB key Following the directions posted here:
http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Bootable_USB_Key

I set up a 1 GB Persistant Home Directory and the system is booting fine and loading my settings.

The question I have is that when I go to Preferences > Add/Remove Applications and select an application to be added I get two windows popping up.

The first says:

Enable the installation of officially supported Debian software? and I click a button that says enable.

The second says:

Granted permissions without asking for password.

This sounds all well and good except I still can't add packages. (Note: I have 10GB+ free on the USB key)

Can someone please tell me why I can't add packages and what I can do about it?

Thank you in advance for your time and advice.

[kl522]

I installled Knoppix 6.2.1 to a 16GB USB key Following the directions posted here:
http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Bootable_USB_Key


Wow if you enjoy reading piles of documentation, by all means please follow that instruction.
But knoppix 6.2.1 comes with a little script which automates all these. You can invoke it from the GUI as well as command line.

The script is called 'flash-knpppix'.

But I am curious why the author of the documentation prefer to use his commandline method. Looks like reinventing the wheel to me.

[tcohoon]

LOL it might have been a little bit complex but it did work. I tried to use the flash-knoppix script invoking it from the GUI, but when I tried to boot it I just got a message that said "Boot Error". After that happened I went looking for an alternative method :). As for the author's motivations, I couldn't say.

Also, I found that I could install additional packages from Preferences>add/remove applications after running "apt-get update" from the CLI as root.

[ICPUG]

LOL it might have been a little bit complex but it did work. I tried to use the flash-knoppix script invoking it from the GUI, but when I tried to boot it I just got a message that said "Boot Error". After that happened I went looking for an alternative method :). As for the author's motivations, I couldn't say.

Also, I found that I could install additional packages from Preferences>add/remove applications after running "apt-get update" from the CLI as root.

Lovely - Documentation works when the automatic script doesn't! I would suggest that is one of the author's motivations. Another is given in the second paragraph:
'However, if you want to learn how these tools work their magic, read on. '

Education is a marvellous thing and some people like to teach.

Although I have not tried either method, reading those carefully constructed command line instructions would give me confidence that the author knew what he was talking about and that the instructions would work.

[tcohoon]

The author definately knew his stuff!!! The instructions and information were very accurate. The page seemed long but the process was fairly quick and worked well for me.

[kl522]

If this is a documentation for something which there is no automatic script for it, I say a job well done. If this is for something there is already a script for it, I say it's reinventing the wheel.

Well you can say the automatic script is not working. As far as I know it
works most of the time, so if there is a bug, fixing the bug is more needed than writing a documentation to justify that the automatic script is bugged. Furthermore the automatic script was never mentioned in the documentation, so I would say the intention to reinvent the wheel is obvious.

If I am asked, which is better, with or without documentation ? Then I would say, of course, with documenation is much better. As a matter of fact, the mentoned article is good documentation, nicely written and accurate. It helps.

If I am asked, which helps more people, a good documentation or an automatic script, I say an automatic script helps more people.

[tcohoon]

The author did mention the script:

Knoppix 6 also has its own built-in utility to create a USB key after booting from the CD, so using that might work easier. Also, the UNetbootin (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/) package can perform this installation automatically for you. However, if you want to learn how these tools work their magic, read on. I would also say that, while some people are content to use an automatic script, others have a desire to understand the nuts and bolts of it's operation.

I am not sure why the scrpit did not work for me. I was tempted to try it again until i found those directions in the wiki. I was glad they were there, especially because they worked for me where the script had failed and I learned a few things in the process. Hopefully, it has had the same effect for others.

[kl522]

I want to be fair to the author who spent effort doing unpaid documentation. But the fact is that for a newbie, this is when someone needs a documentation. But for anyone, including a newbie, after reading the documentation 100 times, he is still not able to know what 'script' is the author talking about, he is still unaware of how to invoked it, wherea it's obvious from his documentation how to do things HIS way, manually!!! Am I being unfair to say that the authors' intention to reinvent the wheel is obvious ?

[Harry Kuhman]

A wiki is a group effort. If one sees ways that you believe would improve articles, they should feel free to make edits.

One of the big complaints about Linux is that so much seems obvious to the high priests but they haven't communicated it clearly to us mortals. I've worked with computers for forty years, have extensive knowledge of the internals of many different operating systems, but still feel that way about Linux. I have not gone back and read the original wiki post, so I'm not trying to comment on this issue specifically, but in general if you see a way that the documentation could be improved you are encouraged to do so.

It might be as simple as inserting a link to another article that explains something that you found confusing, such as "For further details on this see ..." or even a link to something additional that you have written yourself if you don't wish to make extensive edits to someone else's work.

[tcohoon]

The community is what makes Linux great regardless of the distro. It is people helping other people without the prospect of monetary gain for a motivation. I have gone through phases of using Linux off and on for approximately the last 5 years and every time I start using Linux again (I have used a couple of different distros) The community has always been there to help me when I run into an issue. I agree with Harry that Linux has a certain mysticism about it but it also has the community to lend a hand when you run into something you cant figure out on your own or find documentation for.

I love the idea of a worldwide community making software available, for free, to the rest of the world and helping others for no other reason than to be helping others. Documentation is a very important part of that effort and it enables people to educate themselves. My only complaint is that sometimes you can't find the information you are looking for, but this is where the community comes into play on the forums. Maybe if mankind could or would expand the concept of helping others to things other than operating systems and software then this world would be a better place for everyone to live in and people would be happier and not so cynical.