# Knowing Knoppix/Knoppix for the first time

## Knoppix for the first time

*"The most important design issue\... is that Linux is supposed to be
fun." \-- Linus Torvalds*

### Overview

The purpose of this section is to get you started into Knoppix for the
very first time. This section skips nearly all of the options for
starting Knoppix. The options for starting Knoppix are explained later.

### Hardware requirements

The recommended hardware is as follows:

-   Pentium I 350 MHz processor (recommended minimum).
-   128 Mb RAM.
-   Either: IDE or SCSI bootable CD-ROM or DVD drive
-   Or: 3.5\" floppy drive plus non-bootable CD-ROM or DVD drive.
-   SVGA compatible graphics card (most cards supported).
-   Monitor capable of 800x600 pixel resolution.
-   Serial mouse, or PS/2 mouse, or USB mouse.

### Starting Knoppix

There are two stages to starting Knoppix:

#### The first stage

The first stage is to get to the *boot prompt*. The boot prompt lets you
customise the Knoppix startup process. For example, you can specify at
the boot prompt what screen resolution you want Knoppix to use. To reach
the boot prompt, you use either the CD/DVD or the floppy disk. What
about some instructions for use with USB???

#### The second stage

The second stage is to run Knoppix itself. This requires the CD/DVD.
Knoppix follows the instructions given at the boot prompt to complete
the startup process.

### The first stage

#### Getting to the boot prompt

To get to the boot prompt, follow these steps:

1.  If the computer is already on, insert the Knoppix CD/DVD. If the
    CD/DVD drive is set to *auto-run*, information explaining about
    Knoppix will appear. Restart the computer.
2.  If the computer is off, turn it on, then immediately insert the
    Knoppix CD/DVD. To play for time, press the Pause/Break key
    immediately after turning your computer on. On many PCs and laptops,
    this will pause the BIOS, giving you more time
    to insert the CD/DVD. Then press the Pause/Break key again to resume
    startup.
3.  Most newer computers will automatically check for a bootable CD/DVD
    in the first drive. The Knoppix boot prompt should then appear. The
    boot prompt is the last three lines at the
    bottom of the screen. If your computer can\'t display the white and
    blue Knoppix logo, you will get a blue background instead.\
4.  On some computers, you must press a key for the "boot device
    menu". The boot device menu is used
    to tell the computer which drive to boot from. A prompt saying which
    key will display the boot menu will appear on the screen just after
    you turn the computer on. For example, on some Dell desktop PCs,
    press F12 when prompted, press the Down Arrow key until "Boot from
    IDE-CDROM" is highlighted, then press Enter.
5.  At the boot prompt, press Enter to boot Knoppix accepting all the
    defaults (including the German keyboard/language.) If you do nothing
    for 60 seconds, Knoppix boots automatically. To boot Knoppix with
    another keyboard/language, see the section "Which language?" below.

**`Tip`**\
`If you have two CD/DVD drives, and one of them is a CD/DVD Re-Writable drive, `\
`put the Knoppix CD/DVD in the other drive.`\
`Keep your writable drive empty if you can.`\
`This will let you try out the CD/DVD writing features in Knoppix easily at a later time.`

#### Help at the boot prompt

Press F2 for the help screen. The help
screen is a summary of the boot prompt options. Pressing F2 or any other
key cancels the timer, so Knoppix will not automatically boot.

##### Quick help

**Question: How do I get out of the boot prompt?**\
Take the disc out of the drive, then restart your computer.

**Question: How do I use the boot floppy?**\
Turn off the computer. Insert the Knoppix boot floppy disk. Turn the
computer back on. The computer should boot from the floppy drive. Then
the Knoppix boot prompt should appear.

If that doesn\'t work, enter your computer\'s Basic In/Out System (BIOS)
setup. The key to press that takes you into the BIOS setup is usually
shown on the screen just after you turn the computer on. Visit the boot
priority screen (it may have another name
such as *boot device menu*). Set the BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD or
floppy drive before the hard disk drive. If unsure, check with your
motherboard or computer manufacturer.

**Question: The computer has two CD-ROM drives. Why does the Knoppix
disc boot in one drive but not the other?**\
Some BIOSes can only boot the *first* CD-ROM/DVD drive. To work around
the problem, start up from the Knoppix boot floppy disk. Then you can
put the Knoppix CD/DVD in either CD-ROM/DVD drive. If you are really
determined, switch the CD-ROM/DVD drive
order so the drive you want to boot from is
the first drive.

### The second stage

#### Starting Knoppix proper

To start Knoppix with the United Kingdom keyboard/language:

1.  Type this at the boot prompt:\
    `knoppix lang=uk`
2.  Press the Enter key on the keyboard.
3.  Knoppix will begin loading with the UK keyboard/language.

#### Which keyboard/language?

The most important option at the boot prompt is the
keyboard/language.
More correctly, the keyboard/language option sets the
locale. A locale is a collection of regional
settings including keyboard layout, language, time format, date format,
currency format and paper size. Some language translations may be
incomplete.

The locale options are named using the International Standards
Organisation two-letter country codes (ISO 3166 and ISO 639). The locale
options are:

  Code         Keyboard/language
  ------------ ----------------------
  de           German (default)
  be           Belgian
  bg           Bulgarian
  ch           Swiss
  cn           Simplified Chinese
  cs *or* cz   Czech
  dk *or* da   Dansk
  es           Spanish
  fi           Finnish (incomplete)
  fr           French
  he *or* il   Hebrew
  it           Italian
  jp           Japanese (limited)
  nl           Dutch
  pl           Polish
  ru           Russian
  sl           Slovenian
  tr           Turkish
  tw           Traditional Chinese
  uk           United Kingdom
  us           United States

#### Automatic hardware detection

Knoppix will then try to detect the various items of hardware in your
computer. How long it takes depends upon the speed of your machine. Here
are some examples to give you an idea of what to expect:

  Processor                   RAM      CD-ROM speed   Time needed
  --------------------------- -------- -------------- ------------------
  Intel Pentium 4 (2.6 GHz)   512 Mb   48x            40 seconds
  AMD Duron (1 GHz)           256 Mb   32x            45 seconds
  AMD Athlon (600 MHz)        128 Mb   24x            1 min 30 seconds

#### The X Window System

Next, it will briefly say "INIT: Entering runlevel 5" and then Knoppix
will try to start the X Window System.
The X Window System is the graphics display.

If you have a supported graphics card, you will see a black cross on a
grey stippled background. This means the X Window System started
successfully.

#### The K Desktop Environment

Knoppix will begin loading the *K Desktop Environment*. KDE runs on top
of the X Window System. The progress of loading KDE will be shown in the
middle of the screen. When KDE has finished loading, the welcome page
will be loaded.

When the welcome page appears, congratulations! You have started Linux,
the X Window System, and the K Desktop Environment successfully.

#### Quick help

**Question: Why does KDE come up in German?**\
You need to specify the
keyboard/language at
the boot prompt. For example, for the UK locale, enter `knoppix lang=uk`
at the boot prompt.

**Question: It says \'cloop: read error\', what does that mean?**\
There is a problem reading the Knoppix CD. You either have a faulty
CD-ROM drive or a damaged CD. To test the Knoppix CD, enter at the boot
prompt:

`knoppix testcd`

This will make Knoppix check the media for errors. If you know that the
Knoppix CD is good, this error usually means a faulty CD-ROM drive.

**Question: I get a blank screen when the X Window System comes up,
why?**\
Knoppix is trying to use a screen
resolution that your monitor doesn\'t
support. For example, Knoppix may have detected your graphics card is
capable of 1024x768 pixel resolution, but your monitor can\'t cope with
that. Try setting a lower resolution at the boot prompt. For example,
enter:

`knoppix lang=uk screen=800x600`

This will make Knoppix use a screen resolution of 800 by 600 pixels when
it starts the X Window System.

**Question: Why does the screen go blank when the kernel boots?**\
This problem usually occurs with low cost TFT (flat screen) monitors.
The kernel is using a *framebuffer* console, but the monitor is
incompatible with it. Turn off the *framebuffer console*. At the boot
prompt, use the option "*vga*=normal". For example, type:

`knoppix lang=uk vga=normal`

This will turn off the framebuffer console and the penguin logo.

**Question: Why doesn\'t the mouse work?**\
This could mean you are trying to use a PS/2 mouse in a 9-pin serial
port through a PS/2-to-serial adapter. Some PS/2 mice do not work when
plugged into a 9-pin serial port. Try a real serial mouse.

**Question: It says "Initrd extends beyond end of memory".**\
Your motherboard is reporting the RAM size incorrectly. Specify the
amount of physical RAM in your computer at the boot prompt. For example,
if you have 128 Mb of RAM, enter at the boot prompt:

`knoppix lang=uk mem=128M`

**Question: It says "Could not find the KNOPPIX filesystem, sorry.
Dropping you to a (very limited) shell."**\
Try booting with:

`knoppix ide2=0x180 nopcmcia`

If that doesn\'t work, it means your PCMCIA CD-ROM drive is not
supported. There is a workaround. In Windows, copy the directory called
"KNOPPIX" from the *Knoppix* CD to the root of a local FAT formatted
hard drive partition (*e.g.*: drive "C:"). The copy will take some time
to complete. Then start *Knoppix* and specify the partition that you
copied the KNOPPIX directory to, using the "*fromhd*=" boot parameter.
For example, boot with:

`knoppix fromhd=/dev/hda1`

If Windows is not available, use a single-floppy Linux such as
"tomsrtbt" to do the copy, however that is beyond the scope of this
book.

### Getting out

Now that you\'ve got Knoppix up and running, feel free to have a poke
around. Everything is read-only, so you\'re unlikely to do any harm to
your computer. To exit Knoppix:

1.  Click the "K" menu in the bottom left corner.
2.  Click "Logout".\
3.  Knoppix will begin shutting down.
4.  The Knoppix CD will be ejected.
5.  Remove the CD and close the tray.
6.  Press Enter on the keyboard.
7.  Knoppix will attempt to turn off the computer automatically. If it
    doesn\'t turn off automatically, it is now safe to turn off the
    computer yourself using the power button.

**`Tip`**\
`For a quick exit, press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace. This “three finger salute” kills the ``X Window System``.`\
`Killing the X Window System takes down KDE and all its open applications.`\
`Knoppix will then shut down automatically.`

