OldGeezer

The answer to your question...

How many times has the question of password come up in this Forum?!
Is, by doing a Search Knoppix.net, which I did for someone else who asked this same question, last total was around 500 plus posts with the words root password in them...

But, the issue about no passwords, or having passwords is about something else, I think...

Security.

Just like Windows, when you first install it, it needs to connect, and get tons of security patches, before it can be secure on the internet, in fact, some of the programs are merely "stub" executables that have a link to download from a web page when they are first used... In a way, Knoppix is not secure on the internet from the CD.

Having no passwords for the two accounts, root and knoppix users, you would not want to connect to the internet without setting them first. Talk to anyone who is a "System Security" person in any company, and this is a "BIG" no no... I think the reason why no passwords are set, IMHO, is, to have the person running Knoppix set them, and to take the responsibility for there own security. This could also be the reason why, booting off the CD, has no, "forced" way of saving configs and home settings, you have to tell Knoppix to do this. The operating system is "locked down" for security reasons, drives are mounted read-only by default, you can't install programs/packages by default, and the two user accounts have no passwords, by default.

As for the "you would never connect to the internet without setting these two passwords" thing, I say this, because, if someone knows Knoppix, they know these two accounts "probably" exist on your system, if they have no passwords, a person can "connect" to your system remotely, login as either of these two accounts, and easily "become" root by a simple su command, thus, giving them complete access to your system. This is one of the biggest reasons why, I think Knoppix is "locked down".

These could just be "paranoia", or rantings from me, but, I ran the CD, and yes, I connected to the internet, but never without setting passwords to both accounts, even though I was running off the CD, which doesn't have anything "important" on it, nor, "permanent" because of the ram disk...
Ms. Cuddles