Knoppix
May 24th, 2006 — VyomaI happened to come across Knoppix when I was trying to recover some of my work from my crashed hard disk. (It was a 3d model designed using Blender). How I recovered the files, I will explain a bit later, but it seems like I have finally ventured into the world of Linux.
Linux is an Operating System (OS). Operating system forms the layer between the hardware (the computer) and the software applications that run on it. (To know more on Operating System, see this Wikipedia link: Operating System). Unlike other OS like Windows or Mac OS, Linux is Open Source. (Wikipedia link: Linux). That means that the source code is available for all to see and modify if they want to. Since anyone can create their own version of Linux, a number of variants have resulted. The term Linux is referred to the kernel or the core of the OS, and to refer to a specific variant, the term ‘Linux Distribution’ is used. Knoppix is one such Linux Distribution.
Linux is similar to the UNIX operating system. UNIX is notorious OS that is supposed to be so much cryptic in its usage, that it was quite frightening for a lay person. UNIX, and the early distributions of Linux, were said to be the OS of programmers, who were quite at home with the command line interfaces. But quite a lot has changed in the numerous distributions since the inception of Linux in 1990s.
One of the major hindrances of users to shift from Windows (or any other OS) to Linux was the difficulty in setting up the OS on a PC. There would be plethora of options given to the user during the install time, and it would be difficult to get everything right the first time. Knoppix eases life by auto detecting all the peripherals and choosing the right option for you. Then, there was a general tendency to resist the change from the familiar Windows environment to something very new. Knoppix, like many distributions comes packed with an X-Windows, which gives the similar look and feel with its Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Another major advantage is that Knoppix can be run right of the CD. This means that, the CD is put in CD-ROM drive, and the PC is booted. It boots from the CD, and loads the OS to the RAM. It is not required to create elaborate partitions on the hard disk and install Knoppix there. This feature can be quite useful for the beginners who do not want to shift from their present OS outright. They can get comfortable using Knoppix, and once they are sure, they could either get it installed on the hard disk, or go ahead for another distribution altogether.
Knoppix can also be used as an emergency OS to recover data from crashed systems – this is how I recovered my data from my crashed hard disk. I connected my CD-ROM drive to IDE-1 Primary, and a Combo (CDRW/DVD) drive to IDE-1 Secondary. Then, the faulty hard disk was connected to IDE-2 Secondary. I popped the Knoppix Live CD into the CD-ROM drive and booted the PC. Once the system was up and running, I analyzed my hard disk. Fortunately, all the data files were in a seperate partition on the hard disk and it had not been corrupted. Recovering the files was then easy. I put in a CD into my Combo drive, selected the data files from my hard disk and burned it onto the CD.
Now, I am contemplating on the Linux Distribution I would use, and after that I would continue my 3d work: Project Little Hikadorai. Here are some links relating to Knoppix that would contain more details on the OS: