various problems with Knoppix 6.4.4 DVD on Toshiba A500 02-F laptop

[otropogo]

I broke the piggy bank and bought the cheapest 8gb usb flash card I could find - a $20 Class4 Dane-elec micro-SD. Luckily, it came with a direct USB adaptor, as well as an SD adaptor.

As with the LiveCD, I was able to install fs-Knoppix using my desktop Intel D865GLC, but couldn't boot that same system from it, no matter how I tried. So, as with the 6.4.3CD install, I sneakered it over to the Toshiba laptop. There, I was able to boot off it by sticking it into one of the USB slots using the bundled adapter.

And since that worked, (booting from the NB's internal card slot had already proved impossible, and I really don't want to lug a corded exterrnal card reader aroung with the laptop ) I decide to try some other low profile card readers.in the usb connector.

First up was a Core Micro Digital Film SD/minSD/MMC/RSMMC card reader. The laptop's BIOS recognized the presence of a bootable USB device, and I chose generic USB from the boot lineup.

Then Knoppix spent a good long while trying to configure DHCP with that device, before the Bios gave up and moved to the next device in the boot secquence; Apparently, Knoppix thinks this card reader is an ethernet adapter.

My second reader was an SD "Pocket Drive Model GFR202SD. Unfortunately, this one couldn't even get by the Toshiba's BIOS. When I hit the F12 key, the system basically locked up at the boot selection procedure until I pulled the reader out of the slot. No biggie, anyway, since the reader is so fat, I couldn't use the other USB slot I need for the mouse.

So I'm still stuck with having to carry a corded reader for booting from everything except micro-SD. and the microSD - USB adapter is not that great either. There's enough wiggle room when inserting it, that the card will fail to appear in the boot with the least crookedness. And I worry about destroying the USB port altogether with this adapter.

So much for the boot options. Now for the other hardware problems:

1. The Toshiba's touchpad isn't activated under Knoppix. It's no biggie unless the mouse fails, or I need to use both USB ports for something other than the mouse. Mice do fail, however.

2. Knoppix doesn't seem to support pivoting monitors. Or at least, it doesn't do it automatically. I've got a Samsung
Syncmaster 191TPlus, the portrait mode of which I find extremely convenient when composing long texts and when viewing and editing potrait-type photos.

Software problems:

1. The Knoppix firewall continues to give the "... need a persistent image" message when I try to save the configuration. I'm not certain whether the message is accurate, since the last time I opened the wizard, ithe firewall seemed to be active. But it's annoying and confusing.

2. I've been looking for an on-demand virsus scanner, such as X-fprot, but can't find anything virus related in the repositories except ClamAV/KlamAV. The latter wants a password for teh download, the formere supposedly downloaded and installed, but I can't find any tab or icon for it anywhere on the system.

Any suggestions?

[Forester]

I broke the piggy bank

Poor piggy bank ! If all of us treated our hardware with as much disrespect ...

Now for the other hardware problems:

1. The Toshiba's touchpad isn't activated under Knoppix. It's no biggie unless the mouse fails, or I need to use both USB ports for something other than the mouse. Mice do fail, however.

Please don't break you mouse.

The touchpad is neither a hardware problem nor a Knoppix problem. See http://wiki.debian.org/SynapticsTouchpad, particularly the bit after
Debian squeeze, kernel 2.6.32-4 and later, Xorg 7.5.

I fixed this myself by copying and pasting the InputClass example on that page into a file I named synaptics.conf and put the file into the directory /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d, which I had to create.

Works a treat.

Does anyone know how to do same for the keyboard or have I no option but to modify Knoppix's hugely scary /etc/X11/xorg.conf ?

Much more useful would be to know how to 'click the middle button' safely and reliably with a touchpad. Anyone ?

[otropogo]

Thanks Forester,

after "...Xorg 7.5" you say. And presumably before Xorg 7.4?

Will try to emulate your procedure next time I get time on the laptop.