Knoppix 7.0.1

Hiren

Mehta



Aren't
you frustrated at having to wait for all of an operating

system's

services to load before you get to a usable desktop? Experienced

Linux users would know that the system initialization of a Linux

system, until recently, (by default, unless you know how to

customize

it) starts several services (some of which are either

unnecessary to

the user OR some are not needed instantaneously on startup, e.

g.

printing). Sounds familiar?

Well,

those days are gone by. The next time you are evaluating

potential

candidates for using Linux distributions and are about to

summarily

discard Knoppix by judging older versions of this distribution,

think

again.

Thanks

to the efforts of Klaus Knopper and his team, Knoppix 7.0.1

brings in

a lot of new features that clearly differentiate it from the

6.7.x

series of 2011 as a major new version. Let's go explore! And

don't

forget to check out Knoppix 7.0.1 hands-on by obtaining it from

the

DVD accompanying the July 2012 issue! Hop-in:

Transparent

ZRAM

Thin

clients with limited amount of RAM, rejoice! Let's make it clear

at

the outset that this is not the zero-capacitor DRAM technology.

Knoppix 7.0.1 includes a RAM compression technique called zram,

which

is a boon for systems with low RAM. It is claimed in the release

notes that up to 75% of main memory will be compressed if

running out

of RAM and with the use of this feature(i.e. zram), the system

can

use up to twice as much "virtual" RAM (for averagely

compressible data).

In

the case of live-DVD lang="en"> (or

for that matter live-USB) systems such as Knoppix, this opens

up

several possibilities. While running a thin client, you have

no local

persistent storage. Doesn't this sound too restrictive from

the point

of view of running programs that require large virtual memory?

Be at

ease. You won't face this problem in Knoppix 7.0.1. And you

won't

need to bother with it as well since the system handles it

transparently on its own.

Quick

boot-up

Before

delving into this, it would be worth to know that the Knoppix

7.0.1

DVD, as it stands uncompressed is well over 9 Gigabytes in

size. To

give you an idea, this is slightly larger than the size

occupied

post-installation of Windows Vista Gold (RTM, size="2">

without any service packs). How long do you think such a large

OS

would take to boot? (The ISO image of the Knoppix 7.0.1 is

cloop-compressed so as to fit on a single-layer DVD)

On

an Asus Eee PC 1201T netbook lang="en">

(this model is more than 2 years old as of today) , the time

between

pressing the power-off button to the notification confirming

successful mobile broadband connection on the GUI (on the

default

LXDE environment) was less than a minute. The earlier 6.7.x

versions

were not as fast.

So

how has this change been made possible? As discussed above,

now

Knoppix first detects and initializes only THAT hardware which

is

needed to get to a usable desktop, postponing these tasks for

other

hardware. The difference is more noticeable when you use it

from a

USB Flash drive because of the absence of moving parts. Once

again,

experienced Linux users would know that detection of USB

devices

(including printers) took lots of time in earlier versions of

Linux,

increasing the time taken till reaching a usable desktop.

Quick

live-USB creation and encryption

Now

this is something that would greatly aid administrators

distributing

USB Flash drives to employees who are constantly on the move

without

access to any personal/dedicated system of their own. The 6.7.x

versions had an installer meant for preparing a live USB version

of

Knoppix which required a reboot (for booting FROM the freshly

prepared live USB Flash drive) in order to create a persistent

overlay image as well as for encrypting it. It may be noted that

this

image can be of any maximum size (depending on the available

free

space) although with an enforced minimum limit.

Now,

with the improved installer, imagine the scenarios where

administrators can put it to use: Without needing reboots,

administrators can quickly create persistent overlay images for

the

employee's USB Flash drive(s) as a post-installation step. The

administrator is presented with a nice slider to choose the

desired

size of the overlay image (which bounds itself as per the

available

free storage space).

What

is more, you can even choose to encrypt the resultant image (as

well

as provide the key for the same) right there itself, once again

without rebooting.

End

results

Employees

have their own live USB drives which they can use wherever they

get

access to a system (and given Knoppix's key strength of hardware

detection, it would be rare that the system which they get

access to

wouldn't be usable)

They

can immediately begin working on whichever system they get,

create

data, install applications needed AND carry all of these,

including

their user preferences and customization settings, with them

wherever

they go , since these would be stored persistently in the

overlay

image and hence survive reboots, overcoming typical restrictions

provided by a pure live OS.

AES

encryption of their overlay images ensures high privacy of their

work

products and carefully customized settings are maintained in an

encrypted form.

Scratching

the surface

There

are far more changes that are exciting. We have just seen the

tip of

the iceberg. Want to know more about a particular feature?

Didn't

understand some terminology? Want to see how to perform a

particular

task? Want a video/screenshots of the same? Let us know! We are

here

to help.

There

are also several tips and tricks for further enhancing the

usability

of Knoppix 7.0.1, most of which require usage of live-USB with a

persistent overlay image. Just tell us how do you plan to use

Knoppix.

Also,

those of you who want the absolutely latest version of Knoppix

(which

is 7.0.3, dated 25 June 2012 as of the time of this writing)

can go

to this link, which will take

you to

the (English) Mirrors' webpage listing all known mirrors

supporting a

variety of protocols like HTTP, FTP and RSYNC. It may be noted

that

official Torrents for version 7.0.2 or 7.0.3 are not yet

available

and as far as 7.0.1 is concerned, we have already provided the

distribution in the July 2012 DVD. In case you are on your

tablet/phone and just want to know more about Knoppix

(although the

release notes for 7.0.3 are not yet available as of the time

of

writing this), scan the given QR code and let us know how you

find

it!