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RE: Knoppix question
by Brian Densmore 30 Dec '04

30 Dec '04

> -----Original Message----- > From: Leo Mauler > > --- Brian Kelsay <Brian.Kelsay(a)kcc.usda.gov> wrote: > > > Define "real rescue disk". If your drive is fubared > > and swap part. is damaged, then it won't mount it. > > Does it really have that level of detection? I'd > think it doesn't, and that undetected physical damage > is going to cause problems when it tries to mount the > swap partition in the physically damaged section of > the hard drive. > Yes, this is the most likely outcome. Knoppix detects a swap partition, tries to mount it and either fails or locks up. If it merely fails and goes on, life is good and Knoppix can be used to fix the machine, or attempt to. If it locks up then one would have to reboot and do the "noswap" option. Whereas a liveCD made specifically for this type of task would only try to launch a bare minimum of software. If all you want to do is check the hdd, then Knoppix is really a Rube-Goldberg machine. Sure it has all the tools and bells and whistles, but all you really need is a command line and a scandisk tool (and possibly cfdisk and mkfs). And if a person is not knowledgeable enough to do some disk analysis from the command line, then that person has absolutely no business trying to fix a broken system.

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RE: hand powered Linux box
by Brian Densmore 30 Dec '04

30 Dec '04

> -----Original Message----- > From: Leo Mauler > > ("bicycle power" is inadequate to the task of charging > car batteries, though it might run a laptop) and use Says who? Bicycle power can be used to power a wide range of devices. I would be willing to bet that the average bicyclist could easily put out 1/10HP and quite probably more depending on a number of factors (including gear ratios). > directly, but stepping down the car battery to the > laptop battery power level might require enough > complexity that just an inverter with the existing AC > adapter might be more workable. This should be easily accomplished with a resistive series and resistance added in parallel with the laptop portion of series of the entire the circuit. The most difficult part being figuring out the effective resistance value of the laptop. Of course, one could always go the route of using the cigarette adaptors spoken of earlier, and forego the calculations. And on your latest post. The fact that your light wasn't steady might not have as much to do with constant power output as with other conditions and factors. A stationary bicycle that is properly configured should produce better output than a moving bicycle that is varying in angles relative to the road surface, rattling, bumping, climbing, descending, friction, etc. Don't forget you can get a lot more energy from a stationary bike than one that also has to power forward motion. But all that aside. A proper configuration would be for the bicycle to be used as a charging device, and the power drawn from a battery/fuel cell.

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RE: Knoppix question
by Brian Kelsay 30 Dec '04

30 Dec '04

Define "real rescue disk". If your drive is fubared and swap part. is damaged, then it won't mount it. If you have a Winders PC and no swap, it won't detect or use one. Where's the problem in that? If you want to repartition or use some bit level recovery tools, use noswap. If the FAT is damaged, then you couldn't use the swap and it wouldn't be detected. For the average user, with Winders only, no special attention is req'd. Brian Kelsay >>> Leo Mauler <> 12/30/04 02:18PM >>> So to use it as a real rescue disk, you have to use the "noswap" KNOPPIX cheat code at the boot prompt. --- Brian Kelsay <> wrote: > Read the post. From version 3.3 on, Knoppix > auto-detects and uses Linux Swap partitions if > found. No key presses. If you want to alter the > disk, as I said, you have to use "noswap" so that > Knoppix runs without a swap file. If you have > anything mounted on the drive, you can't repartition > w/ qtparted or parted.

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RE: Knoppix question
by Brian Kelsay 30 Dec '04

30 Dec '04

Again, find the right tool for the job. DamnSmall boots fast and has GUI editors that don't need a lot of RAM. DamnSmall does have some quirks, but they are easy to figure out. Mounting HDD partitions RW was a bit stubborn, but doable and certain functions are best done from a Root xterm or from their hacked file manager. It has some features built-in to get around problems if you know what you are doing, but not allow a newbie to do stuff by mistake. Brian Kelsay >>> Leo Mauler <> 12/30/04 02:16PM >>> True enough. I've always thought a "crawl" basically meant "a speed wherein it takes longer to open the application than it does to finish some real work on the application." KNOPPIX in 96MB means I usually type things in a CLI editor anyway, even if its in an XTerm window. KWrite or GEdit if I'm desperate for a GUI Editor.

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RE: Knoppix question
by Brian Kelsay 30 Dec '04

30 Dec '04

Knoppix boots w/ a lot of services on by default. Remember, it's meant for people to try out Linux and see what it can do. If you just need a LiveCD to test drives, use one of the lighter LiveCDs or build your own. Look at that frozentech website that has many, many LiveCDs on it. They each have their place. You could probably get away with using System Rescue CD LiveCD to test drives. It is around a 20-30MB download. Knoppix is also like a Swiss Army knife. Many uses, but you may never use the corkscrew or the leather punch. Brian Kelsay >>> "Brian Densmore" <> 12/30/04 01:41PM >>> > -----Original Message----- > From: Leo Mauler > The short answer is "yes". The stated minimum for the > GUI is 80MB, 128MB for using any Office applications > (such as OpenOffice). I think 64MB allows you to boot > into text mode. 256MB is ample RAM for running > KNOPPIX. > 64 MB needed for text only mode Linux!? That is an insane number! Text only Linux should be able to run in 4MB, or even 1 MB. Or hey how about in 64KB? Or <shudder> even 16KB? Nobody will ever need more than 1MB of RAM... JMHO, Brian D.

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RE: Knoppix question
by Brian Kelsay 30 Dec '04

30 Dec '04

Read the post. From version 3.3 on, Knoppix auto-detects and uses Linux Swap partitions if found. No key presses. If you want to alter the disk, as I said, you have to use "noswap" so that Knoppix runs without a swap file. If you have anything mounted on the drive, you can't repartition w/ qtparted or parted. Brian Kelsay >>> Leo Mauler <> 12/30/04 01:40PM >>> True, but you have to "press keys" to use the available swap partition or to create a swap file. --- Brian Kelsay <> wrote: > >From Knoppix 3.1 or 3.3, it will search for a Linux > Swap partition and use it if available. Current > version is 3.6. You can also specify "Knoppix > noswap" at boot in case you want to repartition or > format the HDD in the PC. > > Brian Kelsay

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RE: knoppix question
by Brian Densmore 30 Dec '04

30 Dec '04

> -----Original Message----- > From: Leo Mauler > > ... KNOPPIX boots into the GUI in 80MB > or more, though anything resource-intensive (like > OpenOffice) will slow it to a crawl. > Well crawl is a relative term. A crawl for an inchworm is far, far slower than a crawl for a Komodo dragon. I think Knoppix opening OpenOffice on a laptop with 96MB is somewhere close to inchworm slow. ;')

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RE: knoppix question
by Brian Densmore 30 Dec '04

30 Dec '04

> -----Original Message----- > From: Leo Mauler > > --- lerninlinux(a)comcast.net wrote: > > > I have taken old parts and assembled a test system, > > I would like to know if Knoppix will boot into 256 > > mb of memory only. No hard drive, no floppy. I am > > wanting to use it as a test station for hard drives, > > (checking if they are bad and fdisking and such). > > The short answer is "yes". The stated minimum for the > GUI is 80MB, 128MB for using any Office applications > (such as OpenOffice). I think 64MB allows you to boot > into text mode. 256MB is ample RAM for running > KNOPPIX. > 64 MB needed for text only mode Linux!? That is an insane number! Text only Linux should be able to run in 4MB, or even 1 MB. Or hey how about in 64KB? Or <shudder> even 16KB? Nobody will ever need more than 1MB of RAM... JMHO, Brian D.

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RE: knoppix question
by Brian Kelsay 30 Dec '04

30 Dec '04

>From Knoppix 3.1 or 3.3, it will search for a Linux Swap partition and use it if available. Current version is 3.6. You can also specify "knoppix noswap" at boot in case you want to repartition or format the HDD in the PC. Brian Kelsay >>> "Brian Densmore" <> 12/13/04 08:48AM >>> I've booted Knoppix on my laptop which only has 96MB RAM. I didn't touch any keys to do this. Now to be fair there is a swap partition on the drive and it may have seen this and used it. In fact the creators would be foolish not to look for and use it.

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RE: knoppix question
by Brian Densmore 30 Dec '04

30 Dec '04

I've booted Knoppix on my laptop which only has 96MB RAM. I didn't touch any keys to do this. Now to be fair there is a swap partition on the drive and it may have seen this and used it. In fact the creators would be foolish not to look for and use it. > -----Original Message----- > From: Brian Kelsay > > It will boot into 128MB w/ no swap. It's a little slower at > 128, but useable. 256 should be fine. I don't know what the > low end ram is. One possible Knoppix problem is the large > number of daemons that auto start at boot. > > Brian Kelsay > > >>> <lerninlinux(a)comcast.net> 12/12/04 11:37PM >>> > I have taken old parts and assembled a test system, I would > like to know if Knoppix will boot into 256 mb of memory only. > No hard drive, no floppy. I am wanting to use it as a test > station for hard drives, (checking if they are bad and > fdisking and such). > Your need sounds more like a task for Tom's rootboot (tomsrtbt). Why waste all that effort in launching knoppix? Tomsrtbt is surely much faster loading and is tuned for such tasks.

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