From what I understand "knoppix-mode" basically acts just like you booted from the CD. "debian-mode" is a full debian testing/unstable distribution.
I've only done a "debian-mode" install, so I'm not 100% sure about "knoppix-mode".
hallo all
I've read that the new version's installer has two options: "knoppix-mode"
system and "debian-mode" system, and understood that "knoppix-mode"
does some hardware detection on every boot.
does someone know more details about the difference ?
thanks a lot
From what I understand "knoppix-mode" basically acts just like you booted from the CD. "debian-mode" is a full debian testing/unstable distribution.
I've only done a "debian-mode" install, so I'm not 100% sure about "knoppix-mode".
I've been running knoppix-mode on a PII 450 (384 M RAM) for 3 months. Every morning when I boot up I thank Klaus Knopper.
I used Partition Commander to create 4 FAT32 partitions:
8 G for Win98
2 G for the CD files, next version CD files and misc.
500 M for the swap file.
9 G for my /home.
Booted Win98, downloaded Knoppix, burned it to a CD with Nero, Copied the files on the CD to 2 G partition. Rebooted and set BIOS to boot from CD, booted into Knoppix, clicked K=>KNOPPIX=>Root Shell (I love this!) and put a floppy in and entered:
dd if=/mnt/cdrom/KNOPPIX/boot.img of=/dev/fd0
The rare time I need Win98 I take the floppy out. I enter:
knoppix home=/dev/hda4 at the boot: prompt tho this may no longer be necessary with 9-24.
I clicked K=>KNOPPIX=>Configure and created the swap file.
I clicked K=>KNOPPIX=>Configure and created /home.
When I upgrade Knoppix I copy the CD files to the 2 G partition and create a new start up diskette.
Upgrading doesn't get any easier. And that persistent /home can be copied to USB 'thumb' drive and easily moved to another computer.
I love surfing with a smug attitude, Root me!
Thank you, Klaus Knopper.
hallo all
two more questions:
are the files still compressed when copied to HD as knoppix-mode ?
can you use apt-get for installing programs from the debian tree ?
thanks
1. Yes, frees your CD player, great security online.Originally Posted by violinist
2. No, but you can with debian-mode. I use knoppix-mode and haven't tried debian-mode but many people (Joe Barr for one.) say that it is the easiest Debian install.
EdlinUser,
Are you sure that the filesystem is still compressed when transferred to HD using Knoppix-mode?
My system shows that it takes up over 2Gb of the HD.
The installer itself sums it up best:
The Knoppix-type install simply uncompresses the compressed image onto your harddisk without any modifications. The only difference to the live CD's compressed filesystem is that now it's writeable. That's why you can use apt-get and other programs which require write-access to work properly.A Knoppix system will work exactly as from CD, but tools like apt-get do work. Debian-Type however is a full featured debian system and works like the 'old installer'.
The Debian-type install also modifies the extracted files to turn the system into a normal Debian GNU/Linux installation. It removes the single-user-autologin and shutdown-on-logout, among other things like auto-configuration, so it's a true Debian system.
Hope that helps...

Gigabyte 4U AI Server 10x Nvidia GPU 2x Xeon Gold 6150 36 Core 2.7GHz DDR4 RAM
$1625.00
Dell EMC PowerEdge R440 Xeon silver 4215 2.5GHz 16 GB ram 2x 550W PSU No HDD
$275.00
Microsoft Windows Server 2025 Standard 64Bit 16 Core-50 CALs DVD With Key Sealed
$49.99
867959-B21 HPE ProLiant DL360 G10 CTO Server W/ 2x 865414-B21 1x 840140-001
$245.00
Dell PowerEdge C4130 1U AI GPU Server | 2x E5-2680 v3 | 32gb Ram | 2x 1600W
$409.99
Dell EMC PowerEdge R740 8 Bay Server w/ 32GB RAM 2x GOLD 6132 2x 1600W PSU H730p
$499.88
Windows Server 2022 | Intel 18-Core Xeon | 32GB ECC DDR4 | 256GB SSD | 3TB HDD
$635.00
Dell PowerEdge R730XD 28 Core Server 2X Xeon E5-2680 V4 H730 32GB RAM No HDD
$378.93
Dell Poweredge R630 2x Xeon E5-2680 v3 2.5ghz 24-Core | HBA330 | No RAM or HDD
$149.99
Dell EMC VxRail E560F 10-SFF 2*Gold 6230R 2.1GHz No RAM HBA330 iDrac Ent Server
$349.99