Knosciences FAQ

As KnoSciences is Knoppix based, most of the FAQ overlap. So here is some question & answer adapted from : http://www.knoppix.net/docs/

KnoSciences is a Knoppix bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. It is not necessary to install anything.

From Knoppix's inventor, Klaus Knopper and obviously from the Science content of the CD.

Intel-compatible CPU (i486 or later), 16 MB of RAM for text mode, at least 64 MB for graphics mode with XFCE4 (at least 128 MB of RAM is recommended to use the various office products), bootable CD-ROM drive, or a boot floppy and standard CD-ROM (IDE/ATAPI or SCSI), standard SVGA-compatible graphics card, serial or PS/2 standard mouse or IMPS/2-compatible USB-mouse.

The links for the last Knosciences version will be always here :

http://knosciences.tuxfamily.org/

The preferred way is to download Knosciences with the bittorrent client (Thanks TLM!). (You can get bittorrent for windows, macos and linux here : http://bittorrent.com/ )

Howto download Knosciences : download

Thanks to all those who host the Knosciences CD.

If you can host Knosciences CD, please contact me at gistNOSPAM@wanadoo.NOSPAMfr

We NEED some HELP !!!

The files with the .md5 extension contain checksums for the actual CD ISO images. A checksum is a “matching number” for checking files. One can verify that the file matches its original down to the smallest detail. When you download both the ISO image for the CD and its corresponding .md5 file, you can verify that your download was complete and that the contents are unchanged by typing “md5sum -c filename.md5” under Linux/Unix/OSX.

Further information about MD5 and programs for various OS's can be found at http://www.linuxiso.org/viewdoc.php/verifyiso.html and http://www.fourmilab.ch/md5/. You can download a Windows(TM) version at http://www.toast442.org/md5gui.shtml.

knosciences-0.95 MD5 : ac9b98be13a93571c8a5e72784c067d1

knosciences-0.9 MD5 : 1c015ee37d7816acd7c654ceb7520730

knosciences-0.85 MD5 : 0fdce64c17e95d94cef5566290995e87

knosciences-0.81 MD5 : 499e5409e3923fc6c6150783a7abc00f

Several possibilities again:

• [Windows]Quick answer: You will need one 700M blank cd. Use a program such as Nero burning rom. You can get a free trial of Nero from their site. To burn with this program, skip the wizard and choose File>Burn Image. Select knosciences-x.x.iso file ,then Burn.

• [Linux]You can use the command cdrecord -v speed=4 dev=0,3,0 filename where dev=0,3,0 is your cdwriter (Attention, use “cdrecord -scanbus” before cdrecord to be sure that dev=0,3,0 is you cd-writer. If you own SCSI hds, you could lose all data of one hd when you use cdrecord with a wrong dev=(controler,id,partiton) !)

• [Windows]Long answer: Of course the answer depends on the individual program you are using to burn CDs, but all common CD-Writing programs should support the option of burning bootable ISO-Images, you probably just have to find the right menu option. At the address http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/docs/ and on some of the KNOPPIX-Mirrors in a directory with the same name, you may find some examples written as short step-by-step documentations from users who successfully completed the procedure. knosciences-x.x.iso files are ISO-Images, which uses “El Torito” Specification (http://www.phoenix.com/resources/specs-cdrom.pdf). In the ISO-Image there is not only user-data, but also information about the file structure of the CD itself. If you want to see the file structure, have a look at Isobuster (http://www.IsoBuster.com). To get the image-file on CD use RAW-Mode of your burning-software. Select the knosciences-x.x.iso as filename of the image. Select 2048 Bytes/Sector as the correct data format. Burn your CD as a “Single Session CD” or select finalize. The Mode “Disk at once” or “Track at once” should be irrelevant for a data-CD (have a look at the Online-Help of your burning software). If the CD boots, but they are read errors, try “Disk at once”.
• [Macintosh]Use Apple Disk Tools to burn the iso.

Some older writers or older versions of writer software cannot recognise the new playing lengths, because the groove is laid more narrowly. Check with your hardware and software manufacturer to see if these newer media are supported. In most cases, updating the writer software's current firmware (check out the web site of the software manufacturer) will solve these problems.

Look in your computer's BIOS (on many computers you need to push the “delete” or F1 key during the POST) to see whether it is set to boot from CD. If this is already set, your computer may not be able to read the CD (some notebooks have problems with black-coated CD's, for example). Some computers will only use the new BIOS settings after a hard reset.

Can't you add it in future versions of the download version? It doesn't cost anything!

Even on a 700MB medium, available space is limited. Aside from that, there are certain criteria for software licenses in order to be acceptable for KnoSciences, totally independent from price or fees. All licenses must guarantee that the CD can still be downloaded, modified and copied, free of charge. Licenses that don't allow incorporation into such a CD can't be accepted by us, at least not for the freely available/downloadable versions of KnoSciences. That also applies to licenses that would force the recipients to sign another agreement before download, or even pay royalty fees, and licenses that do not allow the CD to be distributed commercially (for example, customization, copying and mailing of the CD for an appropriate fee for the work done, is commercial distribution). Almost all programs on the CD fall under the GPL or similar Open Source licenses, which provide a lot of freedom for the recipients of the software (see also http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html). Exceptions regarding software that may, due to the wish of the vendor, only be distributed in binary form, are still tolerable if they fall under a liberal license that allows non-commercial as well as commercial distribution of the CD without essential restrictions.

You can still boot and run KnoSciences even if you have windows installed. Knoppix will not interfere with your windows install, when you are finished with Knoppix you can just remove the cd and you're back to your old windows.

Go to the CONFIGURATION menu and choose “Save Desktop Configuration”, you can save to floppy or to an already existing partition on the harddrive. (on a windows FAT32 partition is fine)

To restore it, at the “boot:” prompt type in “knoppix myconfig=scan”, and it should find and restore your saved settings at boot time.

First boot KnoSciences with the USB memory stick inserted. Go to the /mnt directory then write your files to /dev/uba1.

First boot KnoSciences with the USB memory stick inserted. Go to the CONFIGURATION menu and choose “Set Up Persistent Home”. When asked, choose /dev/uba1. When booting type knoppix myconf=scan home=scan at the boot prompt.

I see the partitions from my hard disk on Rox file manager and can access their contents when I click on them, but if I try to write to them I always get the error message “access denied”.

The general philosophy of KnoSciences is to allow as little write access as possible. For this reason, existing partitions are either not mounted or only mounted “read only”.

CAUTION: writing to NTFS partitions isn't allowed, since Linux does not really support this file system! However, DOS and FAT32 file systems are safe for write access. Tip: In the shell the command “mount -o remount,rw /mnt/” can allow already-mounted file systems to be “made writeable”.

You CAN install KnoSciences on harddisk, if you wish, though installation is not required for productive use. If you want to do this, you should just make sure there is some empty space on your harddrive so you can create at least 2 Linux partitions, one for the System (for Knosciences, minimal approx. 3 GB) and about minimal 200MB for Swap during the installation process. It is VERY important that the swap space partition is of type “Linux Swap space” (or equivelent”). A partitioning program (qt_parted) is integrated in the knoppix-installer.

It's recommend to use 5 GB for root partition and 400 MB for swap partition.

(NOTE: Be sure the root partition is the first partition on the drive, is formatted with ext2 or ext3, and is set to “active.” The swap partition must be formatted with “linux-swap.” Installation and subsequent booting will not continue otherwise.)

You should type “sudo knoppix-installer” in the shell if you want to do this. Please ALWAYS make sure that you have a working backup of your important data prior to experimenting with ANY new software, no matter if Windows, Linux or anything else.

In knoppix-installer, arrow keys move focus and space bar selects options. Better choose knoppix.knoppix as user because some

Note: Do not use “knx-hdinstall” anymore. “knx-hdinstall” is no longer maintained, use “knoppix-installer” instead.

Or the Knopper FAQ on doing it manually. http://download.linuxtag.org/knoppix/KNOPPIX-FAQ-EN.txt

Once knoppix is installed on a hard disk, it's no longer a Knoppix it's a uncompressed complete Debian GNU/Linux.

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS EXPERIMENTAL SOFTWARE. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. KNOPPER.NET & KNOSCIENCES CAN NOT BE HELD LIABLE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES FOR DAMAGE TO HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE, LOST DATA, OR OTHER DIRECT OR INDIRECT DAMAGE RESULTING FROM THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE. IN SOME COUNTRIES THE CRYPTOGRAPHIC SOFTWARE AND OTHER COMPONENTS ON THE CD ARE GOVERNED BY EXPORT REGULATIONS AND THUS MAY NOT BE FREELY COPIED IN THESE COUNTRIES AS IS OTHERWISE NORMAL FOR SOFTWARE UNDER THE GPL LICENSE. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE CONDITIONS, YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO USE OR FURTHER DISTRIBUTE THIS SOFTWARE.