FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT KNOPPIX

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(sorted by frequency of questions)

Q: How can I set up my printer?

A: Click on "printer configuration" in the "Knoppix" menu, and use the

wizard.

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Q: What is the root password?

A: There is none; all passwords are locked by default. There are several

sections you can read dealing with this subject in

KNOPPIX/README_Security.txt.

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Q: My graphics card doesn't work!

A: It may be that very new (or exotic) graphics cards are not in the

hardware database yet. These will still usually work under Linux! You can

type

knoppix xmodule=vesa

or

knoppix xmodule=fbdev

at the first boot screen, and the initial un-accelerated XFree86 modes

will produce a usable screen. Version 31-01-2002 and later have a frame

buffer boot option (especially for older notebooks)

fb800x600

(instead of typing in knoppix), which uses a resolution of 800x600 pixels

in frame buffer mode. Regardless of whether these workarounds are

successful or not, support can be built into the next version of KNOPPIX

more quickly if (as in the previous question) the PCI numbers of the

graphics card along with a description can be sent to us via mail

("lspci ; lspci -n").

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Q: My PS/2 mouse doesn't work!

A: If the mouse pointer in the graphical user window is erratically moving

around everywhere, the attached mouse is using an exotic protocol. Only

booting into "expert" mode and setting the correct protocol for the XFree

system will help in this case. However, if the pointer appears in the

middle of the screen and doesn't respond to mouse movements at all, you

probably have a board with a known BIOS bug (lately this problem has been

appearing frequently with notebooks). Try to type in

knoppix pci=irqmask=0x0e98

at the boot screen and see if this helps. Alternatively, you can find a

BIOS update for your computer (you may want to do this anyway?).

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Q: How do I get support for my wheelmouse's mousewheel?

A: Type

knoppix wheelmouse

at the boot prompt. Unfortunately, wheelmice cannot be auto-detected, and

the wheelmouse protocol is incompatible with the standard ps/2 protocol.

Therefore, the "normal" ps/2 protocol (without mousewheel support) is the

safe default.

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Q: My system memory is not fully detected, or the computer hangs shortly

after starting with the message "Panic: cannot mount root file system"!

A: Some boards apparently report the usable memory size incorrectly to

the Linux kernel. Solution: specify the system memory size as an

additional "knoppix" boot option. For example, for 128 Megabytes use

knoppix mem=128M

(Note: make certain an upper-case M is typed after the memory size!)

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Q: Can one also install the distribution from the CD onto a hard drive?

A: In principal, yes (after all, the "master" system also runs on a hard

drive before it is burned to CD). However there is currently no

installation GUI for this, so installation to a hard drive should probably

only be attempted by more knowledgeable Linux users. Assuming the KNOPPIX

system has already booted, installation approximately follows this

procedure:

1.) initialize a free partition with the ext2 file system and mount it on

/mnt/knoppix, for example.

2.) cp -a /KNOPPIX/* /mnt/knoppix/

3.) set up /mnt/knoppix/etc/fstab and /mnt/knoppix/etc/lilo.conf for the

new system (Caution: symlinks in /boot initially point to the Ram

disk!), run lilo.

4.) mkdir /mnt/knoppix/home/knoppix && chown knoppix.knoppix /mnt/knoppix/home/knoppix

5.) Reboot, try the system out, fix any broken settings.

(No guarantees.)