[wplug] [wplug-announce] The Open Pitt, Issue 23

Mon Apr 3 00:34:40 EDT 2006

PDF version: <http://www.wplug.org/top/wplug-top023.pdf>

                               THE OPEN PITT
      What's cooking in Linux and Open Source in Western Pennsylvania

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Issue 23                        April 2006                    www.wplug.org
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In this issue:
  Hacking Knoppix, Part 1
  March Roundup
  Links of the Month

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                               Coming Events

Apr. 1:  General User Meeting, Topic: Linux on PowerPC.  10am to 2pm, 3002
         Newell-Simon Hall, CMU
Apr. 29: Special Presentation, Topic: Virtualization with Bob Good of
         VMware.  10am to 2pm, 3305 Newell-Simon Hall, CMU

                    The public is welcome at all events
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Hacking Knoppix, Part 1
by Sean Parsons

  In Part 1 of this article, Sean Parsons shares some tricks he picked up
  from the book _Knoppix Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools_ by
  Kyle Rankin, published by O'Reilly Media
  <http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/knoppixhks/>.

Knoppix is a bootable live system on CD or DVD, consisting of a
representative collection of GNU/Linux software with automatic hardware
detection.  It can be used as a productive Linux system for the desktop,
educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for
software demos.  It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk.
On-the-fly decompression allows the CD to have up to 2 GB of software
installed on it (over 8GB on the DVD "Maxi" edition).  _Knoppix Hacks_
comes with a copy of Knoppix 3.4 on CD.

There are actually 100 well-written high-quality hacks in this book (and if
you do much technical reading you'll know that is an amazing accomplishment
in and of itself), and I recommend playing with them all.  But I will
concentrate on a few of my favorite hacks included within its pages to help
provide you with an overview of its usefulness.

Hack #5: Free Your CD to Make Knoppix Run Faster
This hack mentions three commands at the boot prompt that can make Knoppix
run faster.

If you use the "toram" command at the boot prompt it will load the entire
OS into memory so you can eject the CD and use your drive for music CDs or
other discs.  This requires that you have at least 1 GB of RAM.  Knoppix
will take up approximately 700 MB and the other 300 MB will be used for
running applications.

The "tohd" code copies the CD to a partition on your hard drive.  This
partition can be any filesystem that Knoppix supports, including some
Windows filesystems such as FAT and FAT32.  Here is an example:

  knoppix tohd=/dev/hda1

This would write Knoppix to the first partition on your first hard drive. 
On subsequent boots you can use the saved partition with:

  knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda1

A variation on this theme, the "bootfrom" command lets you boot an ISO file
on your hard drive (the boot disc and the ISO must use the same kernel
version), as in the following:

  knoppix bootfrom=/dev/hda1/Knoppix.iso

All of these options free up your CD drive and generally make the system
more responsive than running from the CD.

What I used Hack #5 for: I used "bootfrom" on one of the PCs at work so I
could happily use Linux myself without getting in trouble with IT for
reconfiguring the machine.  I also used this hack at home when remastering
Knoppix (as we'll see later).

Hack #21: Create Persistent Knoppix Settings
Knoppix has the ability to save onto floppies, USB drives, or other
removable media the changes made during your session, such as:
  * Personal configuration (desktop, programs)
  * Desktop files
  * Network settings
  * Graphics settings
  * Other system configuration (printers, etc.)
  * Your entire home directory

You can save your settings by running "KNOPPIX -> Configure -> Save KNOPPIX
configuration" from the menu or with the following command in a terminal:

  $ /usr/sbin/saveconfig

A dialog box will appear allowing you to choose which settings to save.  To
use these on a subsequent boot, enter this at the boot prompt:

  knoppix myconfig=scan

To create a persistent home directory you can use the menu item "KNOPPIX ->
Configure -> Create a persistent KNOPPIX home directory" or run the
command:

  $ /usr/sbin/mkpersistenthome

You will be prompted where to save your home directory.  This file can then
be accessed from the boot prompt with the command:

  knoppix home=scan

Instead of using scan, you can also type in the file name manually, such as
"home=/mnt/sda1/knoppix.img".

What I used Hack #21 for: I've been saving a persistent home directory on
my USB drive for a workstation at work.  This in combination with Hack #5
has kept me happy and productive.

Hacks #32, #33, and #34: Installation
These three hacks deal with putting Linux onto your hard drive.

Hack #32: Explore The Knoppix Installer teaches the ins and outs of the
installer.  At a minimum, you will need at least 2.5 GB of hard drive
space.  If you have less than 512 MB of RAM, you'll need a swap partition
of at least 128 MB.  You can launch the installer from a terminal with:

  $ sudo knoppix-installer

It provides the following options:
  * Create a new configuration
  * Start the installation
  * Partition the hard disk
  * Load an existing configuration 
  * Save the configuration

Hack #33: Install Knoppix as a Single-Boot System provides directions to
install Linux to your hard drive on its own.  Once the Knoppix installer
has been launched, choose the option to partition the disk.  QTParted will
start and you'll need to create two partitions.

The standard theory for your "swap" partition is for it to be somewhere
between one and two times the size of your machine's RAM.

The rest of your hard drive should be made a single "ext3" partition.  Keep
in mind that it needs to be at least 2.2 GB in size.  (If instead of the
Beginner mode you use the Debian install type, you can pick either the
"ReiserFS" or "ext3" filesystems.)

To start the configuration process, select the option to create a new
configuration and click OK.  Select the Beginner mode.  From here the
choices should be obvious, except where to install the boot loader.  Since
this will be the only operating system on the hard drive, pick Master Boot
Record.  Once the configuration is done, choose Start Installation and
click OK.  Read over the list of configuration options and select Next to
start installing to the drive.

Hack #34: Install Knoppix on a Multiboot System provides instructions on
sharing your hard drive between Microsoft Windows and Knoppix.  You'll need
to defragment your disk from within Windows before you get started, then
reboot with your Knoppix disc and launch the installer.  Then use QTParted
to resize your Windows partition (most likely located at "/dev/hda1").
You'll want to make at least 2.5 GB of free space available.  This will
give you room for a 2.2 GB root partition and a swap partition.

To start the configuration process, select Configure Installation and click
OK.  From here use the Beginner mode.  Again, the choices should be
obvious, except where to install the boot loader.  If you have some
experience with dual booting you can use your own judgment, but personally
I would still select MBR.  Once the configuration is done, select Start
Installation and click OK.  Review the list of configuration options and
click Next to start the installation.  Your Windows partitions will be
automatically detected and get added to the boot choices.  When you reboot,
remove the CD and you should now be able to boot into either Windows or
Knoppix.

What I used the installation hacks for: I used a modified version of Hack
#34 to multiboot Knoppix alongside another GNU/Linux distribution.

Coming Next Month
In Part 2, we'll look at securely wiping clean a hard drive, repairing a
damaged bootloader, and creating your own customized version of Knoppix.

Sean Parsons has been happily hacking on GNU/Linux for over four years and
is very excited to give back to the community through WPLUG.

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March Roundup

Mar. 11 General User Meeting: A database doubleheader led off with David
Ostroske giving an introduction to Structured Query Language (SQL).  He
showed off some of the basic types of queries that can be performed using
the MySQL query browser.  Bill Moran followed with a demonstration of
writing client applications in PHP to access a PostgreSQL database. 
Included were tips on using stored procedures and variations encountered
when using different database servers.

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Links of the Month
by Michael P. O'Connor

We'll take it easy this month, and look into some games for Linux.

It should not be much of a surprise that <http://www.linuxgames.com/>
tracks the latest news on the Linux gaming scene.  A dozen projects are
also hosted on the site.

You can find more news about fun stuff at the Linux Game Tome at
<http://happypenguin.org/>.  It includes an extensive search and rating
system for over 1800 games.

If you are interested in eye candy, <http://www.3ddownloads.com/linuxgames>
offers a repository of some 3-D games for Linux.

Answers to some frequently asked questions about finding, installing and
running games on Linux can be found at the Linux Gamers' FAQ at
<http://icculus.org/lgfaq/>.

Keep sending in your suggestions to me at <wplug at mikeoconnor.net>.

Till next month, enjoy these links!

===========================================================================
The Open Pitt is published by the Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group
<http://www.wplug.org/top/>

Editors: Elwin Green, Vance Kochenderfer

Copyright 2006 Western Pennsylvania Linux Users Group.  Any article in
this newsletter may be reprinted elsewhere in any medium, provided it is
not changed and attribution is given to the author and WPLUG.
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