Knoppix 7.6.1

Hello,
It looks like that Knoppix 7.6.1 DVD is out of the bakery and is available on some of the mirrors:
0db0b36fc7bad7b50835f68c369e854c *KNOPPIX_V7.6.1DVD-2016-01-16-EN.iso (md5)
Have fun,
Gilles

No release notes? What are the main changes?

@ruymbeke Many thanks for the newsflash. Cannot wait for the release of CD (or CD-ish) flavour...

A new kernel version hit the Knoppix repository the same day the 7.6.1 torrents went up on the tracker, so there's probably a new kernel in the latest release.

There are many small-number version upgrades in Knoppix 7.6.1 relative to 7.6.0.
The more likely significant upgrades in programs I use include:
Kernel 4.2.6
Flash 11.2r202.559
GParted 0.24.0
Gedit 3.18.2
Nautilus 3.18.4

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by philo

No release notes? What are the main changes?

---

Excerpt from Klaus K comment regarding Knoppix 7.6.1 DVD

Quote:

---

7.6.1 is actually a bugfix release which
addresses many of the glitches reported for 7.6.0, but I did not manage
to write release notes or an announcement yet. The main change is that
compiz is only started if the graphics adapter supports acceleration, so
a few graphics cards which were, in theory, able to run compiz, but very
slow, will now happily start the 2d window manager unless you use the
"3d" cheatcode. Also, the harddisk installer has been fixed and the
terminalserver works again.

I don't know why systemd invokes aumix restore, it really shouldn't.
HOME=/var/run/alsa looks wrong to me anyways. I wish I could get
completely rid of systemd, but some essential programs like
network-manager require it in Debian. At least, using the real sysvinit
instead of systemd's idea of init has been kept for now, which
circumvents a lot of boot problems introduced by systemd.

Regards
-Klaus

---

In my case, I noted that Gedit and Nautilus had improved.
I also noted a strange response to dmesg | grep fail
which mentioned some '/var/run/alsa' restore problems.
I'm using aumix to tweak my audio which may have provoked this.
I'm ignoring that dmesg for the present.

Thanks. Do you have the link to those comments?

Good morning!
I have downloaded KNOPPIX_V7.6.1DVD-2016-01-16-DE.iso from many mirrors listed at knopper.net and they all default boot to the English Language instead of the German Language; however, when I downloaded the KNOPPIX_V7.6.0DVD-2015-11-21-DE.iso, this version default boots to the German Language. I'm concerned that my computer may be making mistakes when downloading--or did Professor Knopper make the newer version (7.6.1) to default to the English Language? I know about the boot code of "lang=de" and/or "lang=us" but I liked the way that the KNOPPIX_V7.6.0DVD-2015-11-21-DE.iso image booted default to the German Language without needing any additional "lang=de" code added to the command line before booting the OS.
Blessings

Please look at the file '/boot/isolinux/syslnx64.cfg' within your DVD - not within your USB and/or HD installation - and tell us the output of

Code:

---

sed -n '/lang/p' syslnx64

---

For me with "KNOPPIX_V7.6.1DVD-2016-01-16-DE.iso" I've got for each line "APPEND lang=de ..."

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Werner P. Schulz

Please look at the file '/boot/isolinux/syslnx64.cfg' within your DVD - not within your USB and/or HD installation - and tell us the output of

Code:

---

sed -n '/lang/p' syslnx64

---

For me with "KNOPPIX_V7.6.1DVD-2016-01-16-DE.iso" I've got for each line "APPEND lang=de ..."

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Werner P. Schulz

Please look at the file '/boot/isolinux/syslnx64.cfg' within your DVD - not within your USB and/or HD installation - and tell us the output of

Code:

---

sed -n '/lang/p' syslnx64

---

For me with "KNOPPIX_V7.6.1DVD-2016-01-16-DE.iso" I've got for each line "APPEND lang=de ..."

---

Hi Werner.
When I look at the file '/boot/isolinux/syslnx64.cfg' within my -DVD, the output of

Code:

---

sed -n '/lang/p' syslnx64

---

is the following:


APPEND lang=en apm=power-off initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1
APPEND lang=en apm=power-off video=640x480 initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 adriane
APPEND lang=en apm=power-off video=640x480 initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 adriane
APPEND lang=en apm=power-off initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1
APPEND lang=en apm=power-off initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1
APPEND lang=en apm=power-off initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 debug
APPEND lang=en apm=power-off initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 debug
APPEND lang=en apm=power-off vga=791 video=1024x768 xmodule=fbdev initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1
APPEND lang=en apm=power-off vga=794 video=1280x1024 xmodule=fbdev initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1
APPEND lang=en apm=power-off vga=788 video=800x600 xmodule=fbdev initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1
APPEND lang=en apm=power-off vga=785 video=640x480 xmodule=fbdev initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1
APPEND lang=en vga=normal atapicd nosound noapic nolapic noacpi pnpbios=off acpi=off nofstab noscsi nodma noapm nousb nopcmcia nofirewire noagp nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 nonetwork nodhcp xmodule=vesa initrd=minirt.gz


Werner, I very much appreciate your help with this. I now realize that I must have renamed the .iso improperly with DE instead of EN after I downloaded it because the output that I got from

Code:

---

sed -n '/lang/p' syslnx64

---

shows each line "APPEND lang=en instead of "APPEND lang=de ...


Blessings

Just a question here, because I couldn't find a better place for it: Has anyone got VMware Workstation to run under 7.6.1? I couldn't get WS10 to compile, trouble with vmmon and vmnet modules.
Seems there have been a few problems with VMware recently.
Tips or links to workarounds appreciated!

VMware update: It seems that the general advice for newer kernels is to upgrade to Workstation Pro 12. But that is exclusively 64 bits, and that is not likely to work with Knoppix. At least I was not able to install the WS 10 x86_64 bundle with Knoppix, even though the arch command reported x86_64, and kvm could run 64-bits guests.
It is probably possible to produce a patch for WS 10, but maybe it is not worthwhile?
Being kernel 3.16.0-based, Debian 8.3.0 is easier in this respect, only vmnet fails to compile, and there are patches reported to work.

I can confirm that with a simple patch, I was able to compile the vmnet module in Workstation 10, and get it up and running on a poor man's install of Debian 8.3.0 Live, kernel 3.16.

Will 7.6.1 be available in CD format? Do you know if Knoppix will be made available in CD format?

Did somebody tried to slim down Knoppix via remastering? We did several tests but managed to get only to a size about 3.6 Gb for our project (www.batpro.org).

The problem that we face is that we had requests to install Knoppix on Asus EeePCs that have a 4Gb SSD and there is no room for a small persistent partition.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rbenea

Will 7.6.1 be available in CD format? Do you know if Knoppix will be made available in CD format?

Did somebody tried to slim down Knoppix via remastering? We did several tests but managed to get only to a size about 3.6 Gb for our project.

The problem that we face is that we had requests to install Knoppix on Asus EeePCs that have a 4Gb SSD and there is no room for a small persistent partition.

---

Why do you want or think you need Knoppix for this? Knoppix contains way too much stuff that you will never use and will take up too much precious space. I suggest that you would be much better off using a Linux distro that was intended for such a purpose, such as Debian (the Linux distro that Knoppix is based on). That way you can install only what you need. You will have a much more stable system that can be updated and added to much more safely.

Quote:

---

.. for our project (www.batpro.org).

---

→ BatPro - Computer for blind people

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by rbenea

Did somebody tried to slim down Knoppix via remastering? We did several tests but managed to get only to a size about 3.6 Gb for our project (www.batpro.org).

---

I suggest your pm Jeffery Mewtamer to see if he has something you can use.
If that doesn't work, try looking at some of his forum posts and see if you can start a dialog with him.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Werner P. Schulz

→ BatPro - Computer for blind people

---

Thanks Werner. That explains, at lease some. I generally don't follow links that I find in forums, particularly when they go to domains that I don't know.

But is the support for the blind that has been built into Knoppix not available for Debian? If not, does anyone know the license for the code?

Hello Harry!

"ADRIANE systems" is a speciallity of Knoppix, a co-operation of Prof. Knopper and his wife → http://knopper.net/adriane/index-en.html. Therefore KK modified so many parts of Debian last but not least the kernel, so that it works together with all the adriane-packages.

Greetings Werner

In the first place, I think it may be reasonable to ask why anyone should be confined to 4GB storage in 2016. Most smartphones, even the very cheap ones, have at least the double of that. But, on the other hand, this can be done.

1. As has been suggested, start from Debian live, and modify that by adding packages, using persistence much the same way as in Knoppix. Simplest and safest, but it might not get you where you wanted.
2. Knoppify Debian live. There is a recent thread about this here.
3. Purge and remaster. It is possible, not even very hard, to slim DVD Knoppix down quite a bit. I routinely purged a couple of GBs worth from stock Knoppix before starting to add packages, so I guess the basic image would be around 3.3 GB. I'll detail this a bit here.

Do test runs without persistent store mounted (knoppix noimage). You might not believe it, but the Debian package system seems to be very buggy when it comes to package removal. I believed this was fixed, but it isn't. So when you remove a package, it has the tendency to remove everything that package is dependent on, even if other packages depend on it, making a potentially huge cascade. Maybe this is due to circular dependencies being introduced (which should not have been allowed in the first place), I don't know. But the effect is that if you try to remove something as peripherical (to the average user, not to me) as TeX, you end up having things like LibreOffice, Okular and Pidgin removed. (Aptitude is even so rude as to complain about it, but say "as you requested" when it performs some of these faulty removals. I guess there are quite a few infallible popes around.)

Removing games seems to be safe (freeing about 750MB uncompressed)

Code:

---

sudo aptitude -y purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep ^games | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude -y purge `deborphan`

---

But this one upset Knoppix completely

Code:

---

sudo aptitude -y purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep ^tex | cut -d' ' -f2`

---

After the two purge command, about 500 packages were removed (down from 3872, ie. average compressed size on the DVD about 1M)
It should be possible to fix the situation afterwards also in this case, though. Starting with something less essential (to Debian it seems) than TeX might be safer.
Also removing whole sections, like it is done here, is very dangerous compared to removing on a package basis

For example, removing inkscape should free at least about 100MB

Code:

---

sudo aptitude -y purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep inkscape | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude -y purge `deborphan`

---

Omitting the -y switch with aptitude gives you more of a negotiating mode of operation. So the catastrophes may be stopped. :-)

Quote:

---

Will 7.6.1 be available in CD format? Do you know if Knoppix will be made available in CD format?

---

The uncompressed size of Knoppix V7.6.1 (without 'KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX1') is 9500 MB. To strip it down to CD size of 770 MB compressed (2200 MB uncompressed) you have to remove stuff of nearby 7300 MB (uncompressed) and you have to solve many hundreds of violated or broken dependicies.

Even Prof. Knopper hasn't been sucessful until now, as he told me - among other things - sometimes ago in pm.

When doing purging operations, I have found it to be fairly safe to do the purging without persistence, then remaster and test, and continue with the next step also without persistence. The occasional packages to install during the process, don't need persistent store.
Here is a fairly simple and safe way to get down to ca 3 GB: Drop games, science, education, tex and kde, plus a few other packages.
The image produced by squashfs compression is ca 150MB smaller than simple cloop compression in this case, so there may be a case for a squashfs version of minirt.gz here.
I don't think it should be impossible to get down towards 2GB, but the more we purge, the greater the risk for a crash. (And I don't think we should hope for doing better than Klaus Knopper himself :-) )
This will give a few hundred MB for user data. Question for the OP: How much is needed?

Code:

---

sudo apt-get update
#  Groups
sudo aptitude -y purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep ^games | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude  purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep ^science | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude -y purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep ^education | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep '^tex ' | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude  purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep '^kde' | cut -d' ' -f2`

# Single or small sets of packages
sudo aptitude -y purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep eclipse | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude -y purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep inkscape | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude -y purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep scilab | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude -y purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep scribus | cut -d' ' -f2`
 sudo aptitude -y purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep pidgin | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude -y purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep denemo | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude -y purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep amarok | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude -y purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep chromium | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude  purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep phpmyadmin | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude  purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep mysql | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude  purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep gnumeric | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude  purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep help-de | cut -d' ' -f2`
sudo aptitude  purge `dpkg-query -W --showformat='${Section} ${Package}\n' | grep ' vim' | cut -d' ' -f2`


sudo aptitude -y purge `deborphan`

---

Thank you Capricorny,

and sorry for the delay. We just returned from a conference where we started the BatPro program in another city in Romania.

With your script we managed to shrink down the ISO to 2.8Gb and probably if we search more we could go further. I like how targeted directly an entire category or set of programs.

Regarding the use of another ISO, it's possible that we could go with an Ubuntu ISO. I don't know why but we had problems with nvidia cards in old computers where Knoppix 7.4.2 was loading a wrong nvu module and we were ending up with a black screen in graphic mode. This problem did not appear with Ubuntu 14.04.

Please feel free to propose more strip down scripts. We use LXDE, wxPython, espeak and VLC.

Regards,
Rares