Knoppix is the grandfather of the "Live Linux" distributions, and it just keeps getting better with age. Knoppix comes in the form of a 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. KNOPPIX can be used as a Linux demo, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it.


Minimum system requirements.

• Intel-compatible CPU (i486 or later),
• 20 MB of RAM for text mode, at least 96 MB for graphics mode with KDE (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.

Question: "But my computer doesn't have that much RAM, so some programs on the CD won't run at all or will only run very slowly. Is there some trick that I can use to run KDE and the office programs/graphics/games?"

Yes. After a swap partition has been initialized, Linux can add the missing RAM from an area of the hard disk that has been reserved for this purpose. KNOPPIX recognizes and automatically uses any available swap partitions. Optionally, a swap partition can be added manually. However, only experienced users should try this, since repartitioning of the hard drive is required.

Version 1.5 and later of KNOPPIX can use an existing DOS partition for its Linux swap data (command mkdosswapfile or in the KDE menus under "Knoppix"). This also allows one to work with less RAM. The swap data knoppix.swp on this partition can be erased later to free up space for other things.

How is KNOPPIX started?

To start the CD, set up the BIOS of your computer to boot off the CD, put the CD in the drive, and power up the computer. If your computer doesn't support this option, you have to use a boot disk. You can create this disk from the image in KNOPPIX/boot.img on the CD.