Finally, it's done. Just in the past couple of months, there has been quite a lot of new and exciting development in the GNU/Linux
world, which of course should also be present in the current Knoppix
version. Even that some of the new and optional features (like the
3d-desktop beryl) are still in experimental stage. Repeatedly, new
Kernel-/KDE-/OpenOffice releases have spoilt our planned release dates,
but on the other hand, now all these are available in the new release
as well (2GB of software on CD, 10GB on DVD):
New:
(Apart from the usual tons of updates and bugfixes)
- Update to Debian etch/testing as base distribution
- Linux Kernel 2.6.19(.1) + fuse 2.6.1
- cloop 2.05 Realtime Decompression with extended block-buffering for reduction of CD/DVD access latency
- Replacing unionfs by aufs for better stability & performance
- KDE 3.5.5
- OpenOffice 2.1
- ntfs-3g (12.12.2006) for full transparent NTFS write support, also tested with boot options
knoppix tohd= and knoppix fromhd=. Please note the hints about ntfs-3g below.
- ntfsprogs-Update (
ntfsresize, ntfsmount, ntfsfix)
- integration of 3D desktop beryl+emerald as add-on for KDE (manual start with gnome is also possible), via boot option knoppix desktop=beryl. Please note the hints given below.
- Experimental script for creating a bootable flash-pendrive from a running KNOPPIX live session (
mkbootdev by Martin Öhler)
aufs
In order to (seemingly) change
files on CD or DVD in a live-session, and for saving your personal
settings and data over reset by using the persistent Knoppix-image option, KNOPPIX starting from version 3.8, has been using unionfs
as overlay filesystem. unionfs is derived from a much larger project,
which has unfortunately lead to very complex code that has become, from
our exerience, highly susceptible to errors. Even that stability of
unionfs was in most cases sufficient for applications, we have decided
to switch to the lesser-known, but cleanly written-from-scratch aufs ("Another Unionfs")
by Junjiro Okajima, who has also contributed a lot of bugfixes for
unionfs already. This does not mean a change in functionality at all,
i.e. changing files, up to large sofware updates in the live session,
are also possible with aufs.
ntfs-3g
NTFS-3G allows writing to NTFS partitions with almost no restrictions. Being based on the Linux-NTFS
project, NTFS-3G has been successfully tested as
"Filesystem-In-Userspace"-plugin in many installaions, and is also
being used for GNU/Linux-based virus scanners like "Knoppicillin".
Like with all dynamically ram-buffered filesystems, there are some things to be aware of when using NTFS-3G as well. If
you access filesystems in write mode, you should not just "switch off"
the computer, or hit the reset switch, because there CAN be loss of
data this way. If files have been written to disk, you should end
KNOPPIX (when you decided to finish your session) by a regular shutdown
using the menu, which will be acknowledged by the CD or DVD being
ejected. (We just mention this here because NTFS has meanwhile
become very widespread, and if, for example, the "Knoppix persistent
image" option is active, or you are using swapfiles on NTFS, there will
be wrie access to your harddisk. When not using these options, Knoppix
will normally NOT write anthing to harddisk unless explicitly
requested!)
3D-Desktop beryl+emerald
Known from various forums and
newstickers this year are the newly developed 3D desktops, which on one
side make a spiffy optical appearance of the virtual destops on a
rotating cube, transparency and amazing animation effects, on the other
side being useful especially for presentations with overview and
annotation functions. compiz and beryl are two of these desktop extensions. Using the boot option
knoppix desktop=beryl
tells Knoppix to change the
setup of the X-server to support hardware-aided transparency and
accelleration, and starts beryl as addon to KDE. An overview of beryls
hotkeys and functions, for example desktop-rotation, continuous zooming
and transparency etc. can be found in the beryl-Wiki.
When booting into KDE with beryl using the knoppix desktop=beryl
cheatcode, you can still try other desktops (gnome, for example) with
beryl, using the Knoppix "Desktop Restart" utility, and after the new
desktop is up, type in a shell:
beryl --replace & emerald --replace &
Because the X-Server has to be prepared for this (especially Composite and AIGLX must be enabled), you will still have to boot with the aforementioned desktop=beryl option in order to get accellerated 3D and transparency in oher desktops.
Warning: Some graphics
card manufacturers are not releasing technical specifications because
of (as they often claim) "trade secrets". For these cards, there are
only very basic, or no, accellerated drivers. Some of these cards can
display, according to our tests, reset-fast (!) distortions when trying
to use desktop=beryl, which sometimes can only be fixed
by a "hard reset", i.e. unplugging the power cord for a few minues
(sic!) after, of course, a regular shutdown. We have observed this
behaviour for some NVidia® cards, but can't rule out that it also happens with others.
Possible Workaround: If you install, during a live session, the
accellerated, proprietary drivers from the graphics cards
manufacturer's Linux driver support pages, chances are good that the
accellerated 3D functions work fine after restarting the graphical
desktop session. But we can not include those proprietary drivers on
the free Knoppix-CD or DVD, because of security and license
considerations. If you don't want to attempt installing such drivers on
your own, yet you would like to see beryl (or other 3d effects), please
feel free to check out Games-Knoppix of Martin Öhler, Erik Auerswald and Unix-AG at the University of Kaiserslautern,
which also contains some proprietary graphics drivers with permission
of their manufacturers, which will also be used for fast 3d games.
The most successful candidates with DRI and transparency in our tests were "older" ATI® cards (i.e. Radeon Mobility) and Intel® onboard graphics chipsets. With these cards, many features of beryl worked flawlessly and stable.
For working with beryl, your
computer should have at least 512MB of RAM, or a Linux swap partition
about that size, because the 3d and transparency features are
notoriously memory-hungry.
