I bought Rankin's "Linux Hacks" last fall after my first shot at Linux (Fedora on a 1999-ish laptop) crashed and burned. I'll go back to the machine when I get so I can use a shell better; old hardware needs simpler software. Early days with Knoppix were slow and frustrating, but not out of the ordinary after CDC to IBM (punch cards and time share), CP/M, DOS, and Wind.

Then I upgraded from Knoppix 3.4, which came with the book, to something more current (5.1.1).

Hoo, boy!

The download went fine, the md5 sum checked out, and k3d did a fine job, but the disk wouldn't boot. After more than a day searching forums and finding incomplete advice, I discovered that dma is on by default in Knoppix5 after having been off since before 3.4. So, for anyone in a similar situation:

* Downloads from mirrors work just as well as those from BitTorrent (check the md5 sum!).
* CD-RW disks work just as well as CD-R.
* Machine age doesn't matter, if it can burn a bootable 700MB disk.
* Machine age doesn't matter, if it can read a bootable disk.
* There is no magic (black or otherwise), or voodoo, just the usual mess of jargon.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the gotchas.

In addition to the nodma cheat code (my current laptop is only two years old):

The myconf and home cheat codes must now refer to /dev. Rankin uses /dev on page 67, so I probably tried it, but it must not have worked and /mnt did, because I'm not smart enough to switch from /dev to /mnt on my own. Probably a newB thing, since I sure didn't get the difference between /dev and /mnt, or why devices and their mount points require separate directories. (Still don't: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." (Arthur C. Clarke's third law).)

I know that myconf worked on 5.1.1 (the third time), because my desktop colors are back. I don't know what happened to my panel settings, though. The default program links came back too, and there was an awful lot of glitter.

I don't know whether home worked, since I can't find my data files in the new directory tree. I just hope they are somewhere in the new filesystem and that closing this session will not clobber them.

Knoppix 3.4 had no trouble finding my Logitech Marble Mouse drivers, but 5.1.1 says my mouse is "unrecognized." The cursor is awfully skitish, too -- the old line about a cat in a room full of rocking chairs comes to mind.

It's nice to see the boot log go by, but messages I'd like to read (like the character-graphic display about myconf and home that Knoppix showed when it found them (I was just trying to boot for the first time!) and the /dev thing, among others) go by so fast, I had to reboot (and reboot, . . .) to read them. I suppose that material must be saved somewhere, because it reappears at shut down, but I've looked and haven't found it (on line and directory searches).

What's the deal with changing to single user log on? I think that's what that message said, anyway.

I'm going to stick with Linux in general and Knoppix in particular, at least for maintenance. The 'nix and mess worlds are different, for sure, but the kinds of things that brought on this post seem familiar.

Well, that's my grumble for today. Thanks for your time!

HatGuy