Knoppix 7.6.1

[Capricorny]

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!

[Capricorny]

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.

[Capricorny]

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.

[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 (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.

[Harry Kuhman]

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.

[Werner P. Schulz]

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

→ BatPro - Computer for blind people

[utu]

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.

[Harry Kuhman]

→ 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?

[Werner P. Schulz]

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

[Capricorny]

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)

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

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

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.