Knoppix 6.7.0: A View from the Forest
Hi utu,
Thanks for letting me know a new Knoppix was out. I've been busy playing with Debian and thinking I'll get back to Knoppix when a new release came out. Of course I wasn't looking when it did.
I read the thread http://www.knoppix.net/forum/threads...noppix-V6.7.0? with interest until it wandered way off topic. You raised a number of questions I felt where not answered. No point in replying there.
So, 6.7.0 is not all that different from 6.4.4. People sounded disappointed. Is that because it's 6.7.0 and not 6.4.7 ? I think the Open Source community are trying to standardise the significance of version numbers. Under that scheme 6.4.7 would be bug fixes only and that, I guess, is not true. I guess Knoppix 7 will be based on Debian Wheezy.
Yes, there's probably all the bugs fixes between Debian 6.0.0 and 6.0.2.
Yes, there's a new kernel (2.6.39.3 instead of 2.6.37) but I don't know what that means. There is one new kernel cheatcode on the bootline (hpsa.hpsa_allow_anty=1) but I don't know what that means either.
Yes, there's a new X server (1.10.2 instead of 1.9.4 RC 1) but the experimental nouveau driver hasn't got a version bump. Maybe folks with Nvidia drivers will notice an improvement since the Knoppix releases notes don't really warn about this any more.
Firewire has reappeared in the kernel configuration. There used to be two firewire implementations in the kernel. Knoppix stuck to the old one until it was withdrawn in 2.6.37 and along with it went the Knoppix support. I don't have any firewire devices so I can't report that it is working.
The majority of changes in knoppix-autoconfig are beefing up of the recognition of the graphic and sound 'cards'. I also saw the comment:
Code:
# For now, it is OK to start network-manager before udev is complete
So that's why your system starts quicker. For now. ;)
I note also the keyboard has been fixed for those who use a UK keyboard. I don't but I tried it anyway and the cheat code lang=uk doesn't lock up the keyboard the way it did with Knoppix 6.4.4.
The cheatcodes ? Well, lang=uk wasn't documented and it still isn't. I checked the EN edition, CD and DVD. I downloaded both using the torrent. Along with the iso file, the torrent also downloads a copy of the cheatcodes. This file still lists home= so it has not been updated. Oops. However, when you get into the iso file, the copy in the KNOPPIX subdirectory was updated in February. There is no description of home= but the description of bootfrom=, which isn't in Knoppix 6.4.4 either, is still there. Hmmm ... so I still would not trust the file. :(
However, it isn't all bad ...
The changes in init are almost all labelled GvR. The biggest is an implementation of bootfrom= Hurray ! :-D
The withdrawal of home= and bootfrom= made Knoppix 6 so much less flexible than Knoppix 5 and other Live CDs that I've wondered if it was a deliberate attempt to make Knoppix unfashionable.
What's the big deal ?
OK. I download the Knoppix iso. I want to do a USB install but with Knoppix 6.4.4 and earlier I have to burn the iso to CD/DVD first. The first thing I'm going to do is remaster the USB. I'm never going to use the CD/DVD again - not without a home= cheatcode - so it's a waste.
The bootfrom= cheatcode allows one to boot the iso directly without burning a CD using what is called a loopback.cfg (see http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/Loopback.cfg). The loopback.cfg are what those folks who try to put 100 distributions on a single disk use.
So, using my Debian installation, I copied the Knoppix 6.7.0 CD iso file to the root directory of a disk partition with enough space - it happened to be /dev/sda9. I added the following to my menu.cfg file:
Code:
menuentry 'Knoppix 6.7.0cd' {
set root='(hd0,msdos9)'
loopback loop /debian/KNOPPIX_V6.7.0CD-2011-08-01-EN.iso
echo 'Loading Knoppix 6.7.0 ...'
linux (loop)/boot/isolinux/linux bootfrom=/dev/sda9/KNOPPIX_V6.7.0CD-2011-08-01-EN.iso [other cheat codes from the syslinux bootline for knoppix]
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd (loop)/boot/isolinux/minirt.gz
}
I reboot and select Knoppix from the grub boot menu and Knoppix booted. From there I could install the USB flash as normal.
Neat, if you run a proper Linux: I used the grub2 bootloader. I don't think you can do this with the syslinux bootloader used by the Knoppix LiveCd or LiveUSB and I know you can't do this with what is now called 'grub legacy'. Oops. Even Knoppix 6.7.0 still uses 'grub legacy' so if all you've got is Windoze and Knoppix installed on your hard drive this won't work for you.
Perhaps Knoppix uses 'legacy grub' because the install to HDD script needs it and no one wants to upgrade that old script. :rolleyes: I tried removing 'legacy grub' and installing grub2 but Knoppix wasn't having it. Oh well.
The obvious change in 6.7.0 among the applications is the withdrawal of the browser and e-mail client I've used for 10 years now ever since their first beta and my first dial-up internet connection. That's progress I suppose.
I still think Knoppix is a good distribution considering how much effort goes into it.
Ciao.
Iceweasel, Icedove and LibreOffice Backports
Hi Utu,
I see that some folks aren't too happy that Iceweasel/Firefox disappearing from Knoppix (and that KK has even asked for their opinion !). I also read mutterings that some are unhappy with the size of LibreOffice and wondered about chucking bits they did not want.
I had similar issues with Debian Squeeze but I didn't get Firefox direct from Mozilla nor did I start mixing packages from Wheezey and Sid in with my nice stable Squeeze. I went to Debian backports instead. This ensures I'm using packages built for my system so, I hope, minimises the risk of incompatibilities and sub-optimisation. So, I thought, why not do the same with Knoppix 6.7.0 ?
Iceweasel and Icedove
My understanding is that these are Firefox and Thunderbird simply re-branded for 'copyright' reasons. Otherwise nothing added and nothing taken away. Only they tend to be out-of-date versions and set to be more so as Mozilla intends to crank out a new release every three months.
You can find the Debian Mozilla Team's response at http://mozilla.debian.net/. There are some simple instructions there that allow you install up-to-date-as-you-like (yes, there's a choice) versions of Iceweasel and Icedove built for Squeeze, which is what Knoppix 6 is (was ?) largely based on.
Following the instructions, I added the backports repositories to my sources.list by adding a file I named backports.list to the directory /etc/sources/source.list.d:
Code:
deb http://mozilla.debian.net/ squeeze-backports iceweasel-release
deb http://mozilla.debian.net/ squeeze-backports icedove-release
deb http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports squeeze-backports main
Following the instructions, I then added the additional key for the mozilla.debian.net repository:
Code:
wget -O- -q http://mozilla.debian.net/archive.asc | gpg --import
gpg --check-sigs --fingerprint --keyring /usr/share/keyrings/debian-keyring.gpg 06C4AE2A
gpg --export -a 06C4AE2A | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
If you try this, following the original instructions on http://mozilla.debian.net/, not my copy.
I then installed the 'release' versions of Iceweasel and Icedove:
Code:
apt-get install -t squeeze-backports iceweasel icedove
That got me Iceweasel 6 and Icedove 5. I was able to install the (en-gb) internationalisation for Iceweasel but not for Icedove (it seems the latter is still for Icedove 3.2).
I hope this has stabilised. When I tried a couple of months ago I got Iceweasel 5 (no internationalisation available) and Iceweasel 3.1 (with internationalisation), which came from the main backports repository, not the Debian Mozilla repository.
LibreOffice
Debian Squeeze hasn't got LibreOffice so Knoppix uses the Wheezy version. I took off the Wheezy version and put on the version from Squeeze Backports and I did it so as to determine how much space you might save by installing just the word processor and spread sheet applications. This process regressed from LibreOffice 3.3.4 to 3.3.3.
Now for the bad news: it took three attempts. The first failed because of repository incompatibilities, second because I ran out of 'persistent' store. It failed when I started with an empty 'persistent' store of 512 Mb. :( It was OK with 1 Gb.
First I removed the existing LibreOffice:
Code:
libreoffice=$(dpkg -l | awk "/libreoffice/"'{print $2}')
sudo apt-get purge ${libreoffice}
That, it told me, freed 301 Mb of diskspace.
Next (don't do this) I did:
Code:
sudo apt-get autoremove
To remove other 'no longer required packages'. That freed another 42.2 Mb.
This was a mistake: most of these packages need reinstalling when I put on the Squeeze Backports version and that failed due to some version incompatibility.
Start again. Put back just the word processor and spread sheet applications.
Code:
sudo apt-get install -t squeeze-backports libreoffice-writer libreoffice-calc
This used 256 Mb of space suggesting a saving of around 45 Mb.
Just to confirm:
Code:
sudo apt-get install -t squeeze-backports libreoffice
sudo apt-get install -t squeeze-backports libreoffice-l10n-en-gb
sudo apt-get autoremove
Added an extra 35 Mb and another 11 Mb and freed 1 Mb giving a total of 45 Mb to the nearest Mb.
If you want to save some space when remastering and your English happens to be an American dialect, remove all the German language internationalisation, help and spelling packages. That's all as in not-just-for-LibreOffice-but-for-all-packages.
Repositories
The really bad news is the repositories. Especially if you are using an installation with 'persistent store'.
Just doing a:
Code:
sudo apt-get update
uses 160 Mb and after the installation of the Squeeze Backports version of LibreOffice alone a further 167 Mb of packages are sitting in the apt cache. You certainly would not include the latter in a re-mastering and I doubt you'd include the former.
Then
Code:
sudo apt-get upgrade
tells me that already 142 packages are out of date. Ouch. Most of these will be from Wheezy or Sid as there is a lot more churn in these respositories than in Squeeze (by definition).
Worse the upgrade would only upgrade 63 of these: the other 79 were held back. I suspect this has something to do with a pending upgrade to the gcc compiler and the C++ libraries. To my mind one thing 'stable' means is you don't go messing with the compiler.
To complicate matters further, it wanted to upgrade the LibreOffice packages but half of them would be held back. Install the Squeeze Backport version made no difference. I'm sure I could pin LibreOffice to 'workaround' this one but that is beyond my current experience.
My conclusion is that upgrading, and therefore remastering Knoppix, is for braver men than me with far more spare time to burn.
Have fun. ;)