KNOPPIX 8.1.0 Public Release

Also see article about the older Knoppix 8.0/CeBIT Edition on --> Golem.de

A lot of thanks for intense testing, hints and bugreports go to the participants of the Austrian Knoppix Days 2017 and the Linux User Group Hamburg Team, your feedback and bugfixes have been integrated into the public 8.1 release!

Contents

New partition layout

Hybrid DVD or USB Flash disk (Original.iso) Partition Size File system Content 1 4GB iso9660 (ro) Compressed Knoppix-filesystem (KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX*), Bootfiles, Info 2 20MB FAT32 EFI-Bootloader and boot files (copy). Invisible on DVD 3 4MB Reiserfs Empty Linux file system which, in case of a writable medium, will automatically get expanded to maximal available size and is used as writable overlay. Invisible on DVD.

With the new Hybrid layout of the ISO file, the file can be copied directly to USB flash disk, either using standard Linux tools like dd or cp , or programs like Win32 DIsk Imager. In this case, the first partition is read-only because of the iso9660 file system. Because od that, boot options cannot be changed permanently.

dd if=KNOPPIX_V8.1-2017-09-05-EN.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=1M

A better way of installing, is using --> flash-knoppix , which will create the simpler and writable layout with one FAT32 and one Linux partition on USB flash pen. Optionally, a personal remastering can be chosen in version 8.1.

UEFI Secure Boot

KNOPPIX 8.1 generally supports booting in UEFI and Secure Boot after installation on USB flash disk. But in order to use this feature, an entry in the UEFI firmware is necessary at first boot attempt. --> Find quick instructions here.

Special Feature "Everything 3D"

"3D Design and 3D printing" is a great field of play for creative persons and makers. Also, many lectures and talks held be Klaus Knopper have touched the topic this year. Because of that, the KNOPPIX DVD version 8.1 features the following popular 3D programs: OpenScad - 3D construction without drawing skills

Slic3r - G-Code printing preparation for 3D models

Blender *) - extensive 3D modelling and animation program

- extensive 3D modelling and animation program Freecad*) - Draw 3D models *) Because of space considerations, included inside the second overlay image KNOPPIX/KNOPPIX1

Known bugs in version 8.1

Because of a controversal design decision of its developers, the popular Firefox web browser ceased to support direct audio playing under Linux starting from version 52. An error message displaying on pages like youtube, suggesting to install "pulseaudio" (which is already installed), is misleading and provides no solution. More about this at the Mozilla bugtracking pages at: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1345661.

Workaround: The Chromium web browser, like all other programs using sound in Knoppix excepting Firefox now, does not have this problem and is therefore now set as default browser in the LXDE desktop menu starting from Knoppix version 8.1.

ADRIANE

A.D.R.I.A.N.E. (Audio Desktop Reference Implementation And Networking Environment) is a talking menu system, which is supposed to make work and internet access easier for computer beginners, even if they have no sight contact to the computers monitor. A graphical environment with also talking programs and arbitrary magnification using compiz, is another option.

Booting from Flash

In order to create a bootable USB-medium (memory flashdisk, SD-card, digital camera with USB connector, cellphone with microSD, ...), the program flash-knoppix can be started from a running KNOPPIX system. This program installs all needed KNOPPIX files onto the FAT-formatted flashdisk, and creates a boot record for it. If desired, the target medium can be partitioned and formatted, or left in its inistal state, so that existing files stay intact. The KNOPPIX Live System starts and runs about factor 5 faster from USB flash disk than from CD or DVD!

After having copied the system to flash, using the persistent KNOPPIX image (overlay feature) or an additional Linux partition, it is possible to also store files permanently in live mode. That way, personal settings and additionally installed programs survive a reboot.

Update: Computers without DVD drive

The flash-knoppix script since Knoppix 7.4.0 supports on-the-fly conversion of a DVD ISO image for direct flashing of a USB pendrive or disk. By using this, the intermediate step of burning a DVD and booting from it, can be skipped. For burning a CD or DVD, only one single .iso file matching your language and version choice, is sufficient. For using this feature, just add the name of the .iso file as commandline parameter to flash-knoppix like this: flash-knoppix KNOPPIX_V8.1DVD-2017-09-05-EN.iso

Boot options and controls

Overview of the most important functions. A complete description and listing of shortcuts can be found in the configurations of sbl, orca and compiz.

Boot options (can be entered in the startup screen) adriane Start ADRIANE (32bit) with talking text desktop knoppix Start KNOPPIX (32bit) with graphical environment knoppix64 Same as above, with 64-bit kernel (DVD version only) knoppix/adriane acpi=off noapic nolapic pci=bios ... problem solvers, if computer doesn't start knoppix testcd Check CD/DVD/flashdisk for errors knoppix tohd=/dev/sda1 Copy CD content to harddisk (sda1: 1st partition on 1st SATA harddisk) and start from there (free CD-rom drive) knoppix toram Load CD content to memory and start from there (free CD-rom drive) ADRIANE navigation in text mode CapsLock + space read current line CapsLock + arrow up read previous line CapsLock + arrow down read next line CapsLock + pageup read from beginning of page to current position CapsLock + pagedown read from here to end of page CapsLock + arrow left/right spell charwise Navigation with compiz and orca in graphics mode Super + mouse wheel Set zoom scale Super + m small mouse lens mouse to upper right corner window overview CapsLock + space start orca preferences (if startet) Control + Alt + MousebuttonLeft Rotate Desktop cube manually Super + AltLeft + MousebuttonLeft Comment on screen Super + AltLeft + k Remove screen comment Super = penguin- or "window"-key left

Micro-Remastering

Boot options like "adriane" can easily be preset by changing syslinux.cfg after having copied the CD to a bootable memorystick using "flash-knoppix":

DEFAULT auto

DEFAULT adriane

for automatically starting ADRIANE on boot. This is already default in all ADRIANE iso files.

Availability

KNOPPIX 8.1 / ADRIANE 1.7 is available for download via Bittorrent and from the usual KNOPPIX mirror sites.