Knoppix And Newbies

[stokesg]

Okay, so, i have just managed to get my filthy little hands on a copy of Knoppix 3.3, i have been trying to get a copy of Linux for ages and this was the first i was actually able to get. How do you deal with WinModems, and how do you login as root, the default just logs me on as "Knoppix" which has no privledges. Mor later. Please send answers to [email protected] (don't click this, it don't work!)

[Cuddles]

Hmmmmmm, grab-bag o' questions...

Lets break them down, and see what I can answer, out of them (excuse my humor, if it gets loose in any of my replies...)

First, the complete post...

Okay, so, i have just managed to get my filthy little hands on a copy of Knoppix 3.3, i have been trying to get a copy of Linux for ages and this was the first i was actually able to get. How do you deal with WinModems, and how do you login as root, the default just logs me on as "Knoppix" which has no privledges. Mor later. Please send answers to [email protected] (don't click this, it don't work!)


How do you deal with WinModems?

Hmmmm, a "WinModem", huh? For me, I had a winmodem, it "kinda" worked, but what worked for me, was to not use it, go out and get a external "hardware" modem, something that ISN'T a winmodem. Though "some" winmodems have support in Linux, the best bet is to go with a modem that doesn't "cut corners" by using the Windows drivers to provide modem usage. Using a winmodem means that "some" of the modem "parts" are provided within Windows, and not actually part of the modem itself. Using a hardware modem, will work with Windows, and with Linux, and provide same usage for both of them. Don't get a USB modem, chances are, its still a WinModem, get a modem that connects to the Seriel Port, that way everything the modem can do, it provided strictly by the modem. You can try doing a search for "winmodem" in the "Search Knoppix.net" box above on this web page, and see how many posts have already been posted on winmodems, support, and resolutions of them.


How do you login as root?

Let me guess, running Knoppix off the CD, right? Ok, Knoppix 101 -=- Knoppix Live CD, if you read the documentation on "Security" found on the CD itself, you will find that Knoppix has been user dissabled, and write dissabled on any hard drives. Passwords for both the default user, Knoppix, and the Super User, Root, have no passwords, and the accounts have been "locked" for security and protection of the OS you are probably running the Knoppix CD on. If you installed Knoppix as a "full-blown" OS on your hard drive, it would install the Super User and the default user Knoppix with passwords you provide, and unlock all of the protections that you are running up against. If you want to use the Live CD, and unlock "some" of the protections you are hitting, you can do them the following way: (but take in mind, you are running your OS on a READ ONLY media, so these settings, and changes will "go away" when you exit, or reboot Knoppix)

in a Konsole screen: (icon looks like a monitor with a shell in front of it. Found along the bottom of your desktop.)

entering the following -=- does the following
------------------------- -=- ----------------------
su -=- makes you Root in that window, command is short for SuperUser
passwd -=- sets the password for the user you are in. If you do this command before doing the "su" you will be changing your Knoppix password, if you do this command AFTER doing the "su" you will be changing the ROOT password.

As stated before, both Knoppix, and Root, have no passwords, changing them while using the CD, will not be "permanently" changing them, and will only be "active" until the time you exit, shutdown, or reboot, Knoppix from the CD again. (you can use the "Save Configuration", and "Save Persistant Home" options to possibly save your changes onto your hard drive, so the next time you boot Knoppix off the CD, your changes will be "stuck".


Default just logs me on as "Knoppix" which has no privledges.

As mentioned above, by default, Knoppix, when booted from the CD, is trying to protect your "real" OS on your computer from either Knoppix, or you, from possibly trashing your current Operating System. By doing this, you take responsibility for "unlocking" protection, and possible dissasters to your current OS, if something happens. Not to scare you, but, considering that Knoppix is "way" different than (probably) the OS you currently have, doing something on your hard drives with Knoppix, (could) damage your current OS's files, if you start changing things "behind its back". So, for the reasons above mentioned, the Knoppix CD is released with almost all of the protection "enabled".


Please send answers to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (don't click this, it don't work!)

Sorry, I am a true believer of "Post here, answers here" thinking. If it was important enough to post in this forum, then its important enough to get the answers in here. Besides, I don't like to "publish" my email, it only gets me more "junk" and "advertiser" mail flooding.

Hope this helps,
Cuddles

[stokesg]

Okay, well i am using the Live CD version 3.3, and i want to know, if you used the "Save Knoppix Configuration" Option in the K-->Knoppix Menu, it would save the "Root" Password. What i am trying to do is to change the settings in the "Control Center", like the Time. It says that "This control can only be used by users with Admin priveledges" Or something along those lines. Would "Create Persistent Home Directory" work?

[Cuddles]

From using the Live CD on version 3.2, the "Save Knoppix Configuration", if I remember right, it does save the password information, as well as "configuration" changes that you make.

When using the "Persistant Home" option, if I remember right, will allow you to save user settings, like game settings for a user, or high scores, etc... the stuff that would "normally" be saved in your own "personal" area, or home folder.

If I remember how I made changes to the Control Center, I ran a shell "konsole", did a su in the konsole - giving me Root access, then did a passwd and entered a password for root, then exited out of the konsole screen -=- when you go into Control Center, it will either ask for the Admin (or Root) password, or will have an option at the bottom stating "Administrator Mode", in which case it will ask for this password. When asked for that password, enter the password you made from the konsole screen.

If you also do a "Save Knoppix Configuration" at this time, if I remember right, it saves your Root/Super User password with this saving.

Hope this helps,
Cuddles

[eco2geek]

How do you deal with WinModems

Never having had one (thank God), I can't tell you from personal experience. There are drivers for some of them for Linux. However, if you're running Knoppix from the CD, it's (mostly) a read-only file system, so you can't install drivers.

If you decide to install Knoppix (or another Linux distro), Linmodems.org (http://www.linmodems.org/) might help you turn your "Winmodem" into a "Linmodem."

[Edit - well, I messed that up, let's try again.]
A clarification on the password question: In Knoppix off the CD, you can't just type "passwd" in a console to change the normal user's (aka the "knoppix") password, because it'll ask you to type in the existing password, and, of course, one isn't set yet. Instead, either set the root password, and then use KUser (on the System menu) to set the normal user's password; or, as root, in a console window, type "passwd knoppix" to change it.

You will have to set a root password before you can use any of the admin tools in KDE, such as adjusting the date/time (as you've noticed, it asks for one).

Hey, my Knoppix 3.4 d/l just completed! :D

[Cuddles]

Eco2Geek,

First, thanks for the clarification on the normal user password setting, it has been a while since I used the CD only boot, many details are not "formidable" in my memory...

Second, going to try v3.4 huh??? Tell me if its worth the trials of upgrading? (and considering I but a "noobie" on the whole "distro" upgrading thing, give me some clues on the process too [hehehe])

Cuddles

[eco2geek]

econd, going to try v3.4 huh??? Tell me if its worth the trials of upgrading? (and considering I but a "noobie" on the whole "distro" upgrading thing, give me some clues on the process too [hehehe])

There's the problem -- since Knoppix isn't a "normal" distro, there's no CDs full of *.deb packages to upgrade from. So upgrading to v3.4 would be pretty much like installing it the first time. It'd reformat your hard drive and install everything from scratch. (You could back up your home directory, then install the new Knoppix, then restore it.) I haven't installed it to hard drive and I probably won't anytime soon.

If you were upgrading a "real" distro like Red Hat, you'd boot from the first CD, the installer would run, and it'd install or update everything from binary packages stored on the distro CDs. If you chose to update, it'd leave your existing home directory intact. Knoppix has an install script, but it's nothing like the Red Hat (Mandrake, SuSE...) installer. Nor does Knoppix have any *.deb archives on its CD to install from.

It'd be really neat if there was an upgrade script that would only, uh, upgrade a hard disk install from one "official" version of Knoppix to the next!

On cursory inspection this new version looks, acts and feels much like the old version, except it feels faster, espccially running kernel 2.6. It's got KDE 3.2, which is gorgeous (and has more apps than 3.1). It's also got the "klik and run installer" so you can install apps on it, even when running the live CD, as well as the Captive NTFS installer. It's supposed to have more/better wireless drivers and modem drivers, and better hardware detection, although I can't speak to those aspects.

When starting with kernel 2.6 it automatically boots in English, uses an English keyboard, and sets up the wheelmouse, so there's 3 "cheatcodes" you no longer have to use. You probably don't have to use "alsa" either, but I haven't verified that.

Like others have noticed, I have to use the "noscsi" cheat code when running kernel 2.6 or Knoppix hangs (segfaults) when loading "megaraid.o". (This doesn't happen when using the default kernel, so the boot scripts for 2.4 and 2.6 must be different.)

Saving configuration settings and saving a persistent home directory work just like they always did. The scripts seem to indicate that you can use a config archive and a persistent home file from the same partition, which hasn't been the case in the past. Have to experiment with that one, too.

[Cuddles]

Yikes :!:

No upgrade? OUCH !

I guess the next time I have to "gut and reinstall" might be the best time to go to v3.4 then.

This kind of surprises me though...

I always thought the whole reason for the Live CD was to "get you to hard drive install", and yet, as you said, it doesn't provide the ability for someone who has done this.

I thought you were supposed to use the Live CD to get comfortable on Knoppix, get excitted about it, to the point you were sold on it, and install it. Upon doing this, you truely unlock all the power of Knoppix, and Linux, and then they do something like this. I'm lost... From how version 3.4 sounds, it was designed for simply another Live CD, and not for those of us, who, walked into the "sales pitch", and installed a previous version. We've been damned for doing this, as it appears, by not providing an ability to simply "upgrade" our version to this new one.

Hmmmmmm, could this just be the "first roll out" to provide Live CD usage, and a "upgrade" will soon follow?

This is, yet another, reason, I consider using another distro - not just because it is a unstable version, but that it appears "support" is not being provided for the ones who "bought into" installing and running the distro on a hard drive. I liked the CD so much, I wanted it to be installed, and I just feel like I am getting "burned" for doing it. You can "upgrade" only so far, it seems, and yet, the important upgrades are not able to be done, unless you gut the system.

oh well, I guess I should have always considered Knoppix as a Live CD only OS [?]
Cuddles