Knoppix 7.0.1-EN DVD notes & comments

[utu]

.
Background:

These notes apply to a LiveDVD made from an iso d/l-ed on 5/29/12 that passed
testcd. I d/l-ed my iso from one of the sites at:
http://knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html
I used for convenience a LiveUSB made from this LiveDVD, but expect that
most of the observations reported here may be confirmed to exist as well in
a valid LiveDVD. My LiveUSB uses an 8 Gb Class 10 SanDisk with
1.4 Gb persistence and 2.4 Gb free in /mnt-system.
My computer has 4 Gb ram and uses a Broadcom wifi.

General Observations:

Klaus K has just presented his latest 'download version' of Knoppix 7 with
significant improvements over the CeBIT version released in March 2012.
These differences include faster booting; a very late kernel; a greatly
improved installation technique for Broadcom wifi drivers; and a new
experimental capability, zram. Klaus K has also included numerous bug fixes
identified by Gilles.

Detailed Observations:

1 The new Knoppix LiveDVD is a real feast of material: it includes
incredible numbers of fonts, screen-savers, games and educational programs;
IceWeasel 10.0.4 and LibreOffice 3.5.3.2 are included. It has a 3.3.7 Linux
kernel, CeBIT's was 3.2.4.

2. My DVD-size LiveUSB boots to wifi online in 42 seconds; this compared
to 50-to-60 seconds for my 6.7.1 CD-size LiveUSB.

3a The usual extraordinary hardware discovery and installation for keyboard,
video, and peripheral devices was made even better by a wholesale improvement
in adapting the Broadcom catalog of wifi devices designed for Windows to
a useful afterlife in Linux. Now virtually all Broadcom wifis may now use
b43 drivers with the same ease & simplicity as wl, which worked for some
Broadcom owner/users, but not all.

3b. The following references provide a lot of pertinent detail concerning
both the b43 and wl Broadcom driver approaches:
linuxwireless.org/en/users/Drivers/b43#Supported_devices; and
http://www.broadcom.com/support/802.11/linux_sta.php

4a. Unlike the CeBIT version, the download version of Knoppix 7's Iceweasel
does not initially include Flash. Apt, Synaptic or Install Components may
be used to install a flashplugin-nonfree package. License restrictions make
this necessary.

4b. LibreOffice 3.5.3.2 now has Liberation-fonts by default. There is thus
less reason to use Knoppix-Install-Components or Synaptic to bring in
ttf-mscorefonts-installer(3.4), but this option is still available.

5a. Keyboard handling may have changed recently. I used-to disable the
touchpad because of extraneous text and display interference while editing,
and use instead a wireless mouse as a pointing device. Disabling my
touchpad no longer seems necessary with Knoppix 7.

5b. Knoppix 6.7.1 included a package xserver-xorg-input-synaptics version
1.4.1-1 +b1; 7.0.1 uses version 1.6.1-1. Each of these contains a program,
syndaemon, one purpose of which is to disable some touchpad gesture functions
while typing. See man syndaemon for details. Perhaps the default value
choices are just better now. See also Synaptic (dpkg mgr gui) description
found at package>properties>description.

6. Both lxpanel and LibreOffice have been upgraded in Knoppix 7.
The Mandriva LXPanelX 0.5.6 fork adapted by Klaus K to debian-knoppix.alioth
0.5.8-3 lxpanel used by some Knoppix 6 users to overcome an LO/lxpanel bug
may no longer be necessary. However, if the 0.5.9-4 upgrade fails to serve,
0.5.8-3 is still availabele via Synaptic or apt.

7a. Compressed swap in RAM, zram is an experimental linux innovation that
provides swap performance improvement in systems that might otherwise swap
to other media, such as hard drives or SDDs, for examples: older computers,
netbooks or any computer 'low on ram' considering the random access memory
demands of all its program(s) being used concurrently.

7b. This new capability configures and installs itself behind the scenes,
without need for user intervention. It may effectively nearly triple the
apparently available ram, under ideal circumstances, without nearly the
performance penalty associated with swapping to hdds. Enjoy.

[jacksonon]

My goodness!!!!!! Is there someone happier than me?
Thank you, thank you so much for sharing this! It was neither announced on the website nor are the official Torrents listed yet but anyway, this is BIG news....... seriously BIG.

A BIG THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!

The level of detail is brilliant!!! Very informative post.

Unlike the CeBIT version, the download version of Knoppix 7's Iceweasel
does not initially include Flash.

No problem at all for me. Since the second week after I started using Knoppix, I have always maintained a list of tweaks to be applied and programs to be installed in a given sequence within Knoppix (whether live or HD install) to suit my requirements(and hardware as well). And anyway it is better if the Flash player plug-in is not provided built-in since it issues regular updates and therefore it is better for me to manually install the latest available version known to be secure at that point of time.

Thank you once again!

Here I go, beginning my HTTP download.

[utu]

.
Klaus K ha posted his own summary of 7.0.1 contents at:
http://knopper.net/knoppix/knoppix701-en.html

Enjoy.

[ICPUG]

Just to let you know that on the Knoppix mailing list Klaus is suggesting there may need to be a quick 7.0.2 revision to deal with what he considers a major printing bug.

See here:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-knopp.../msg00003.html

[Blacksimon]

Hi,
First I've set root password using Menu/Knoppix/Set password for root.
Then I try to customize active services using Menu/Preferences/Services but every changes is impossible to do. To enable or disable the services you need to enter a password, but the root password is not accepted.

Only when I run services-admin in Root Terminal I can able to activate or not the services
For now is what was found on first use.

Bye

[utu]

@ Blacksimon

You may want to follow this dialog on debian-knoppix:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-knopp.../msg00004.html

And, good luck.

[Karibu]

Hello,
I downloaded Rev.7.0.2 and I would like to know if the size of the
USB flash of 8 GB is enough for this “real feast of material” offered by the new Knoppix LiveDVD?
Can somebody be so kind and confirm it, please?

[jacksonon]

The new DVDs are large....pretty large....both 7.0.1 as well as the slightly larger 7.0.2..............how do I fit any of them onto a 4 GB flash disk or even a 4 GB micro-SDHC card ? Anybody successful in doing so ? I know that in terms of storage, 4 GB = approx. 3.725 GBs usable(unformatted) and the DVD ISO is around 3.89 GB,so at first glance itself it seems silly. However, I wish to know whether there are work-arounds.

[wspc]

is touchpad enabled in 7.01?
can we scroll etc and is there a user definable menu as with oth linux distros?

[utu]

... is there a user definable menu... ?

Yes.
See Main Menu>Preferences>Main Menu. It's called Alacarte, and has more capability than lxmed.
See also:
http://knoppix.net/forum/threads/298...s-in-Knoppix-7