[6.2.1] Screen + keyboard issues

[kl522]

I take exception with a few things here:

1) IF you manage to install it, Knoppix needs some space on the hard disk for its partition. Unless there is unallocated space that is not in another partition (unlikely), then partitions need to be modified or deleted and recreated, not a simple and easy task for a novice.

True but not that bad if you use a Gparted LiveCD.

2) If the disk contains a NTFS partition taking all of the available space (likely for a Windows user, even if the partition is nearly empty ) then writing to it at all with Knoppix is considered dangerous and may corrupt all of your data.

I won't recommend this but I am using this myself. I discovered that Knoppix 6.2 will not umount cleanly but ever since I fixed that, and plus I am using a newer ntfs-3g driver, I am pretty comfortable with this. Knoppix appears only as a few files to the host file system, most of them readonly, the only writable one is knoppix-data.img. My Usb is just too slow.

3) Knoppix is a live CD or DVD, and isn't really intended to be installed to hard disk or suitable for it. There are a few hacks for doing this, but they are for special cases such as class room use. If you want a knoppix like Linux installed to a hard disk, you are much better off installing Debian rather than Knoppix, this is what Debian is intended for. (Same space issues still apply).

I prefer ubuntu as Desktop because they always put out new things on it.

Cheers

[Capricorny]

I used Windows' own resizing tool with Vista to make room for Linux and FAT32 partitions. So it is not always so difficult any longer to make room on the harddisk. And there are a number of OK tools for doing it. My main issue is not the repartitioning thing, but why on earth install a brain-damaged Debian on that hard-earned space? Much better to install GRUB, and copy Knoppix to a suitable place, and have GRUB boot it.

NTFS writing is, in a sense, unsafe at any speed, but the question is how unsafe? And updating the fixed-size knoppix-data.img is a good candidate for relatively safe NTFS writing operations, it seems. So, if it's impossible to resize the NTFS partition, writing to it IS an alternative. But, it seems to me, in practice, it's almost never impossible to resize. So, the writing project is not a chance you are forced to take.

Whether Ubuntu, Debian, Suse, Fedora etc... The basic principle is, for permanent installs, use a Linux version that is made for permanent installs. Knoppix isn't, but in my experience it can be extremely good at simulating a permanent install.