What is needed to make the Knoppix HD install better?

**aay** · 05-03-2003, 04:56 AM

Hi folks,

I'd like to start a little thread to get comments/suggestions as to what could be done to improve the Knoppix HD install situation.

In my mind there are a few things that I really ought to be done to improve the HD install.

Here's my list.

1. Partition icons that were detected from the cd should be left on the desktop. This doesn't seem like it would be a really hard thing to do. Perpahs rw and mount permissions could be given to users as well.

2. Knoppix needs to be able to create other users. Most people who have installed Knoppix to the hd have seen that things get messy when you try to add new users. Stephen recently wrote a howto here that deals with the issue nicely. But it would be good to it dealt with automatically at the time of install.

These are two small ways that I think that the Knoppix install could be improved. Other ideas?

**qa1433** · 05-03-2003, 05:14 AM

Well, for us folks that like to stay bleeding edge.
1.) Do an upgrade without a complete format and fresh install.
2.) If the above cannot be accomplished then a way during install to setb up usr partitions and set up diffrent partitions.
3.) Make it so the live scripts migrate over with the hd install.

However, I want to stae one thing. Linux installs do not get much easier the a Knoppix HD Install

Thanks for a great work of art to/on a Debian install.
paul

**probono** · 05-03-2003, 06:07 PM

Don't touch Knoppix - when installed to HD it should be 100% the same than when run from CD! (Or alternatively ASK the user for evey change to make). I *want* hardware detection on my HD install!

**aay** · 05-03-2003, 08:46 PM

For a quick way to resolve my problem 1 above look here at Fabianx's comments.

**Tortoise** · 05-23-2003, 07:24 AM

Yes, please, please, please leave at least the option for hardware detection.
If people don't like it, surely they can delete the autodetect file and then manually install everything to their heart's content?
Is there some blindinly obvious reason why every linux distro would not have a go at setting things up for you, especially seeing as livecd knoppix seems to do pretty well at it?
And yes! Leave the partition icons on the desktop! Macs and Win both do it that way, so noobs will be used to seeing them there - it is pretty intuitive, again, experienced users can always delete them and then used command scripts to try to find them again.

**aay** · 05-23-2003, 06:24 PM

Originally Posted by Tortoise

Yes, please, please, please leave at least the option for hardware detection.
If people don't like it, surely they can delete the autodetect file and then manually install everything to their heart's content?
Is there some blindinly obvious reason why every linux distro would not have a go at setting things up for you, especially seeing as livecd knoppix seems to do pretty well at it?
And yes! Leave the partition icons on the desktop! Macs and Win both do it that way, so noobs will be used to seeing them there - it is pretty intuitive, again, experienced users can always delete them and then used command scripts to try to find them again.

I agree with every bit of this. Although I can set these things up myself on a hdinstall without problems it's not currently possible to hand a cd to someone (who is new to linux), tell them to try it out, and if they like it they can install it on their hard drive. There is just too much tweaking that needs to happen for a newbie to do well at this. I don't mean to complain especially since it wasn't Klaus' original inention to have Knoppix used as a way to install linux onto the HD. The problem is that he made Knoppix so damn good that now that's what everyone wants to do!

Oh well, maybe a subproject of knoppix will develop to take care of this.

One note: Can anyone tell me how Morphix hdinstalls compare? Are they pretty much like the live version? I was going to install Morphix last night on the laptop I'm typing on but I had problems with my wireless card so I didn't. I'm thinking that a hdinstall of Morphix may be a better way to go than with Knoppix (for the newbie), but feel free to challenge/correct me on this one.

**Tortoise** · 05-23-2003, 07:27 PM

Absolutely, the stage at which Linux starts to make inroads into the home user market is when there is an install where the user does not have to edit a text file to get their soundcard to work. There is a whole generation of people who have grown up with computers that necver require you to type anything into a config file to set them up, and that isn't a totally bad thing from most user's perspectives.