Newbie dream:)

**Jux** · 09-13-2003, 07:40 PM

Hi all konppix gurus - before i ask anithing i want to appologise for all the stupid questions that come to my mind that poison this forum, because i know very little about linux and less than that about knoppix.

OK - i found knoppix exiting becous of the live-CD feature. Becasue i AM a beginner and this is the thing for me. Well ... other than learning i want to get some practical use of this knoppix. I allso add that i have Win XP with NTFS file system, but for knoppix i am planning to make new 2G Fat32 partiton.

So i had an idea. Is it possible with live-cd (not hd install):

1. Make my own configuration of the op.system (sound card, internet, desktop...) and save it to this Fat32. Will there be the default linux folder tree (home, bin, mnt, dev ...) on my new 2G drive where i could find my own edited configuration files and other driver files?

2. With live-cd, can i install software. For example some small programming toolkit or somthing?

(so my idea of this knoppix was that, the system would work like so that all the files are from HDD and the ones that are not (most of them) it finds on CD - and i am not talking about any HD linux installation. I don't think that is possible, because i haven't find any info about that here. So is the small hd install and dual booting systems the closest solution fo my idea?)

**4season** · 09-13-2003, 08:33 PM

You'll probably run into problems because FAT32 isn't case sensitive, and neither does it support file permissions. When running Linux, it'll certainly be possible to mount your FAT32 and NTFS partitions (NTFS is currently read-only), though unfortunately, Windows itself doesn't yet come with built-in ext 3 or ReiserFS support. Maybe there's some 3rd party add-on which will do the trick.

I suggest partitioning the drive like this:

hda1 NTFS (your current XP install)
hda2 (linux swapfile)
hda3 / (ext3 or Reiser)
A /boot partition would also be nice, but it looked to me like the Knoppix installer only expects to see 2 partitions?

2 gigabytes is the bare minimum that Knoppix needs for a hard drive install (there's a lot on that compressed disk). I don't recall having to add on a C compiler afterwards-pretty sure it's already there.

Once installed on your hard drive, Knoppix is a somewhat customized Debian Linux, with a lot of packages from Debian's testing/unstable tree. So yes, adding/removing/configuring software to your heart's content is pretty easy. As far as having part of your operating system reside on CD, probably no, not in the way I think you mean. Technically probably do-able, but who's going to go through the fuss when hard drives are so cheap these days

**Jux** · 09-14-2003, 08:04 AM

thnx for the answer.

So there is no thatkind of linux available that boots up from cd and allows install software and writes conf. files to hd - ok.

But why to install knoppix to hd while there are so meny other (better) linux versions available?. What are the pros and cons - compared to others?

I had Red Hat linux v.8.X and i really didn't like it. The thing that annoys me is the damn packages updating/installing. If i downlaod a software and install it, it requires all sorts of packages. That pissed me off.

Is this annoyng feature part of knoppix version allso? I know that gentoo has this intelligent package updating feature over net. This is cool. One thing that i don't like about gentoo is that it is so big and takes ages to compile/download. Is there a "mini gentoo" int this unverse?

So, explain - why folks install knoppix to HD instead of others?

thnx.

**Superstoned** · 09-14-2003, 11:42 AM

Remember Knoppix is not really a distro in itself, like Red Hat. Knoppix is based on Debian. And Debian is known because of its very advanced package management! Portage, Gentoo's packet manager, is based on APT, the packet manager used and made by Debian!

But Debian is very difficult to install, and thats where knoppix comes to mind - Its the most easy way to install Debian on your system. And you just have to install Debian once, because APT can upgrade your system from then until ever

Even a major upgrade from lets say 2.0 to 3.0 on debian whould only take 2 commands:

Code:

apt-get update

to update the list of available software on the net and then perform an

Code:

apt-get dist-upgrade

to fully upgrade the system!
Apt-get will even solve all dependency's you where complaining about, the missing packages are automatically found, downloaded and installed.

So - you're distro should be Debian. And the best way to install it (at least the most easy), is Knoppix. So go on and start the

Code:

knoppix-installer

Good luck!

**Jux** · 09-14-2003, 05:38 PM

Ohh ... now i see why this is so popular in www.distrowatch.com rating and i think i'm gonna allso install this baby to my HDD.

**Dave_Bechtel** · 09-15-2003, 05:36 AM

--Once again, a warning: dist-upgrade is NOT recommended for Knoppix! It's already testing/unstable; dist-upgrade will take the system all the way to UNSTABLE, which is Really Not a Good Idea. Just so you know.

Originally Posted by Superstoned

Remember Knoppix is not really a distro in itself, like Red Hat. Knoppix is based on Debian. And Debian is known because of its very advanced package management! Portage, Gentoo's packet manager, is based on APT, the packet manager used and made by Debian!

But Debian is very difficult to install, and thats where knoppix comes to mind - Its the most easy way to install Debian on your system. And you just have to install Debian once, because APT can upgrade your system from then until ever

Even a major upgrade from lets say 2.0 to 3.0 on debian whould only take 2 commands:

Code:

apt-get update

to update the list of available software on the net and then perform an

Code:

apt-get dist-upgrade

to fully upgrade the system!
Apt-get will even solve all dependency's you where complaining about, the missing packages are automatically found, downloaded and installed.

So - you're distro should be Debian. And the best way to install it (at least the most easy), is Knoppix. So go on and start the

Code:

knoppix-installer

Good luck!

**Superstoned** · 09-15-2003, 03:27 PM

I'm using unstable now, for some time - and its not THAT unstable

I have no problems, but I guess there could be - I simply dont care that much, although I understand if you're pc is critical and you have nothing else (like a dualboot) then it is not recommended...