Goodbye Knoppix - Hello Mandrake

[Drago]

My KNOPPIX disk cracked in my drive (I think that's where it cracked. A 1/2" crack starting from the middle outward. The CD felt warm, too - I wonder what's going on with that?

Anyway, I figured that since I have to replace the disk and I heard that the Mandrake installation was really easy (I'm a real newbie) I might as well order Mandrake. Then I thought of ordering Debian, and I wonder in fact whether Mandrake is Debian-based - I hope so. Debian has so many disks, and I only have 5.5 Gigs from my 20 Gig hard drive for LINUX.

I don't know whether this forum could support Mandrake questions, but thanks for your help getting started anyway.

Steve

[Wirf]

Mandrake is not Debian-based, its Redhat based.

If you're a real newbie then stay away from doing a Debian installation, Debian by itself is pretty hard to install. Knoppix is a far easier way to install Debian.

And i don't know about the rest on this forum, but i don't mind anwsering questions about other distro's as well, just don't flame me if i get the location of a config file wrong :)

[rickenbacherus]

My KNOPPIX disk cracked in my drive (I think that's where it cracked. A 1/2" crack starting from the middle outward. The CD felt warm, too - I wonder what's going on with that?

Perhaps it is the long arm of Bill's evil empire!


I don't know whether this forum could support Mandrake questions, but thanks for your help getting started anyway.

Steve

Not really- there is a Mandrake experts forum that shouldbe able to answer your questions. MDK is nice for noobs but IMHO rpm's really bite! At least your using Linux tho right?

[Dave_Bechtel]

1. Stop using cheap media.
2. Get the drive checked out by a repair facility, and consider replacing it.

--I'm guessing it's a 48x or 52x, right? I have bad feelings about those, they run the discs too close to the failure point. (Too much centrifugal force on spinning plastic media.) Look into getting a slower drive, or even a DVD drive. Personally I never run anything past 32x, even while burning. CD's in my dad's 52x burner always feel warm after being ejected, could be the friction from spinning too fast or a cooling problem.


My KNOPPIX disk cracked in my drive (I think that's where it cracked. A 1/2" crack starting from the middle outward. The CD felt warm, too - I wonder what's going on with that?

Anyway, I figured that since I have to replace the disk and I heard that the Mandrake installation was really easy (I'm a real newbie) I might as well order Mandrake. Then I thought of ordering Debian, and I wonder in fact whether Mandrake is Debian-based - I hope so. Debian has so many disks, and I only have 5.5 Gigs from my 20 Gig hard drive for LINUX.

I don't know whether this forum could support Mandrake questions, but thanks for your help getting started anyway.

Steve

[Drago]

Thanks for your feedback. I did hear about an unusual long five-fingered formation emanating from Redford across the country on the Weather Channel. Hmmm... They said that people were advised to stay indoors, avoid any object that says "XP Professional" and watch their wallet.

I /do/ have a 52x 48x 52x cd burner. I think if anyone knows of a Windows (oops!) utility to set the read speed of a cd-rom lower than max, that would be the best solution for me. I can do it in Nero, but I don't think I can do it in Windows.

I didn't download the image - I ordered it on the Internet and had it delivered. Maybe the first thing I should do is burn copies of the disk(s). I just bought a bunch of Verbatim CD-R's - you know, the ones that look like little 45's.

It is really annoying that I could never properly install KNOPPIX in a bootable partition, good that I didn't have to deal with any of my own data, but annoying that I'm stuck for a runnable LINUX installation and in a state of only partial success until I get the new one.

[j.drake]

I think if anyone knows of a Windows (oops!) utility to set the read speed of a cd-rom lower than max, that would be the best solution for me.

I just bought a DVD reader at Circuit City for $29 after rebates ($49 before). Why not get the extra functionality? AND, OfficeMAX has a DVD+-R/RW drive on sale for about $149, which will allow you to burn or read anything on the planet!!

I'm a newbie and installed Mandrake. It is very easy. But I still use Knoppix. The quality of help and participation on this forum beats anything I've seen anywhere else!! It all generalizes pretty well. If you're a newbie, it will probably be quite some time before you know enough for the distro to make a significant difference.

[Dave_Bechtel]

--Contact the company you bought the disc from and say they sent you a defective product. Ask for free (free shipping, too!) replacement. Send/fax them a picture of the CD if they ask too many questions.



I didn't download the image - I ordered it on the Internet and had it delivered. Maybe the first thing I should do is burn copies of the disk(s). I just bought a bunch of Verbatim CD-R's - you know, the ones that look like little 45's.

It is really annoying that I could never properly install KNOPPIX in a bootable partition, good that I didn't have to deal with any of my own data, but annoying that I'm stuck for a runnable LINUX installation and in a state of only partial success until I get the new one.

[Drago]

WOW! Some really good ideas! All right on the money. There's absolutely no reason I can't run KNOPPIX off the CD even after I install Mandrake. Very cool idea. The rest too.

BTW, from my cracking experience, I think for those of you reading this who didn't download ISOs (that right?) and aren't installing it onto hd, it would be a good idea to start off by backing up that CD any way you can. :)

[Dave_Bechtel]

--You can turn the CD into an ISO image by booting it and doing the following:

' mkdir /mnt/blah '
' mount /dev/some-writable-partition-of-sufficient-size /mnt/blah -onoatime,rw '

' cd some-writable-area-that-has-700MB-free '
' time cat /dev/cdrom >knoppix-v999.iso '

--Then md5sum the .iso file and compare it with the md5sum from the FTP site:
ftp://ftp.uni-kl.de/pub/linux/knoppix/

--You may be better off doing this from a poorman's install; I don't know what would happen if the OS had to read something off the CD while it was doing the copy, but comparing the md5sums should catch any errors.


WOW! Some really good ideas! All right on the money. There's absolutely no reason I can't run KNOPPIX off the CD even after I install Mandrake. Very cool idea. The rest too.

BTW, from my cracking experience, I think for those of you reading this who didn't download ISOs (that right?) and aren't installing it onto hd, it would be a good idea to start off by backing up that CD any way you can. :)

[matt2kjones]

a 52x cd drive wont cause the disc to split if the drive or the disc itself isn't damanged.

If the cd spins flat, then there actually isn't much pressure on the disc, the only part that has that much pressure is when it spins up. but then, its not even that much

most likely cause is:

1. CD was damanged (ie, weakness in plastic)
2. CD Drive spins the cd slightly wonky, putting allot more pressure on the disc
3. The CD Loader mech is slightly damaged, and doesn't push the cd on to the spindle at the right plan, ie to slow, so it doesn't align with the hole correctly.

[Drago]

See, I think it was a defect in the material. Of course I don't know anything about the mechanics/physics of CDs/CD-RW 52x/24x/52x drives. I think maybe I can find something in Nero that could discount the possibility of positioning outside of specs, but I have never got a reported error on this drive, at least until the crack appeared - then I got plenty of read errors.

[Brute-Squad]

I /do/ have a 52x 48x 52x cd burner. I think if anyone knows of a Windows (oops!) utility to set the read speed of a cd-rom lower than max, that would be the best solution for me. I can do it in Nero, but I don't think I can do it in Windows.



Try the tool "CD-Bremse". You can DL it here: http://www.cd-bremse.de/
If you don´t speak german or need some help about it, just send a PM.

[Drago]

Well, I got the Mandrake 9.2 "Discovery" 3-disk distro today and installed it. I haven't really looked at it yet.

The install is not completely easy, but it has all of the functionality that you need, like hd partition, modem/network setup, and its own bootmanager, that actualy works. You /do/ have to know what you're doing, especially in the hard disk install/partition part, to successfully navigate the wizard's choices.

Without having looked at it (but having installed 11 graphical interfaces - ask me why?) I may not need to run KNOPPIX, unfortunately. Despite the hd install/partition/bootmanager problems I had, I have become attached to it.

[j.drake]

If you're like me, you will continue to be attached to it. There will always be times when Knoppix will be more convenient or more appropriate to a particular task than something you have on your hard drive.

Besides, this forum is much more interesting and educational than the ones for other distros. For example, when I was looking at the possibility of installing SuSE 9.0, I went to their forum, and it was really lame. The moderators got all heavy-handed and anal about stupid stuff, but really didn't offer nearly as much substance as you get here. IMHO, irrespective of which distro you settle on for installation, you will learn more about using linux here. Oh, and FWIW, once I really looked at it, I really wasn't all that impressed with SuSE 9.0 - as far as I can tell, it's a whole lot of hype over packages that Knoppix users already take for granted. For example, they were all proud of their increased capabilities with NTFS partitions, which is what I wanted, but once I really looked into it, you still couldn't write reliably to NTFS, and their big point was the ability to read from and resize NTFS partitions. Well, woo-hoo!

[Dave_Bechtel]

(Offtopic) I switched from MDK to using SuSE 6.4 and upgraded to 7.3 DVD until I switched to Knoppix. Suse's big draw is the sheer amount of software that arrives on the cd's - it was 7 650MB CD's and 1 DVD for 7.3. According to what I've read about telephone charges in Europe, it's no wonder they're the leaders over there.

--The only problems are:
o It's all RPM
o The errata/fixes/security packages for 7.3 got to be over **1GB** and they never released 7.4 or an update-on-cd.

--Seriously, suse's text based installer is the best I've ever seen - they even let you save where you are in the install (package selection) which was a big selling point for me.

--The reasons I converted to Knoppix:
o SuSE 7.3 can't handle any files over 2Gig. :(
o Everything after that went to GUI for install - not an option for older machines, or even an option that I like. Personally, the text-based install gave me the most control.

--Things are up in the air now with Novell acquiring them, anyway. Let's hope they don't screw it up. (I used their 8.2 Live-cd to make make my XF86Config file, and now Vmware works under all resolutions.)


If you're like me, you will continue to be attached to it. There will always be times when Knoppix will be more convenient or more appropriate to a particular task than something you have on your hard drive.

Besides, this forum is much more interesting and educational than the ones for other distros. For example, when I was looking at the possibility of installing SuSE 9.0, I went to their forum, and it was really lame. The moderators got all heavy-handed and anal about stupid stuff, but really didn't offer nearly as much substance as you get here. IMHO, irrespective of which distro you settle on for installation, you will learn more about using linux here. Oh, and FWIW, once I really looked at it, I really wasn't all that impressed with SuSE 9.0 - as far as I can tell, it's a whole lot of hype over packages that Knoppix users already take for granted. For example, they were all proud of their increased capabilities with NTFS partitions, which is what I wanted, but once I really looked into it, you still couldn't write reliably to NTFS, and their big point was the ability to read from and resize NTFS partitions. Well, woo-hoo!

[j.drake]

--Things are up in the air now with Novell acquiring them, anyway. Let's hope they don't screw it up.

Aww, c'mon Dave, they acquired WordPerfect, after all, and didn't screw . . .

well, on second thought, never mind. :wink:

[andrei]

My KNOPPIX disk cracked in my drive (I think that's where it cracked. A 1/2" crack starting from the middle outward. The CD felt warm, too - I wonder what's going on with that?

Anyway, I figured that since I have to replace the disk and I heard that the Mandrake installation was really easy (I'm a real newbie) I might as well order Mandrake. Then I thought of ordering Debian, and I wonder in fact whether Mandrake is Debian-based - I hope so. Debian has so many disks, and I only have 5.5 Gigs from my 20 Gig hard drive for LINUX.

I don't know whether this forum could support Mandrake questions, but thanks for your help getting started anyway.

Steve

I am a long time Mandrake user and, frankly, I think it's the best distro out there. HOWEVER, if you switch to Mdk you willl not be able to use Knoppix -type binaries as Mdk is uses RPM whereas Knoppix uses the Debian format *.deb. (Red Hat and Suse also use RPMs). RPMs are not nearly as bas as some say, and in fact Mdk as something called urpmi which is really as good as apt-get (the Debian install/update command). Anyway - I doubt very much that it is was Knoppix which crashed your drive. Get good quality CDs and stay a while longer with Knoppix and read about Mdk versus Debian (in my opinion the two best choices out there) and take your decision to pick either only after playing around with both. Also - I would check the Debian and Mdk websites, dicussion groups, utilities, etc. You really want to get a good feel for what makes them different and their strengths and drawbacks. Or if you have two machines - install both (in the Debian case - install Knoppix: the Debian install is not something you are likely to enjoy very much).

Anyway HTH and good luck!

[jims]

Getting started with Linux has been hard. I was trying to put Linux on an older machine and suffering. I had be poor copy of Knoppix 3.2 that would run some features. Knoppix 3.3 wouldn't run at all. Gnoppix 0.5.4 same as Knoppix 3.2. Mepis hung up. I really wanted a Debian install, but I needed to start somewhere. I did the text install for Mandrake and it installed great. No chance yet to test the modem, everything else seems to work great. :D

But I still want Debian, and when I finally have figured out a little more, I will probably do a Knoppix or Mepis install on new E-machine. It accepted all of Knoppix, Gnoppix, Mepis, but have not installed to it yet. Need to know how to configure the network- but Knoppix or Mepis is where I will go.