346 Part III . Choosing and Installing a (Web site builder)
346 Part III . Choosing and Installing a Linux Distribution Examining Challenges with KNOPPIX For most people, KNOPPIX is a special-use Linux system. It s a great way to try Linux or to access a computer that isn t set up the way you like. However, there are a few challenges with using KNOPPIX that you should keep in mind: . Reboot clears out KNOPPIX Unless you save your data to some other media (which you can do, as I describe later in this chapter), the entire KNOPPIX system goes away when you reboot. That means files on the desktop, installed software, system configuration, and anything else you do during your KNOPPIX session will be gone unless you explicitly save that information to a hard disk or some removable medium (floppy, CD, and so on). . Memory limitations KNOPPIX is made to be able to run without touching your hard disk, so when you save files to KNOPPIX, they are (by default) stored in your computer s memory (RAM). On my desktop system, which has 512MB of RAM, KNOPPIX assigned about 3MB to the root (/) partition and 396MB to ramdisk (to provide space in the /var and /home directories, where data is normally stored). So there is only about 100MB left to hold all the running applications. . Performance hits Even with today s faster CD and DVD drives, it s still slower getting data from CDs and DVDs than it is getting them from a local hard disk. Almost every component needed to run KNOPPIX (commands, libraries, and so on) is grabbed from the CD or DVD and decompressed onthe- fly. So it can take a bit longer to run commands with KNOPPIX than it would to run them from hard disk. Watch the blinking light on your CD or DVD drive to see how often KNOPPIX goes there to get data. . Uses your CD/DVD drive Because KNOPPIX relies so heavily on data from the CD or DVD, you can t remove it while you are using the system. So, if you have only one drive for removable media, you can t use it to access a music CD, install from another software disk, or burn data while you are using KNOPPIX. If you have more than 1GB of RAM on your computer, you can use the toram boot option to KNOPPIX. This will not only allow you to remove the KNOPPIX disk, since everything is running from RAM, but will also cause KNOPPIX to run faster than a Linux installed on a hard disk would run. I must admit that the challenges described here are more of an explanation of how KNOPPIX works than they are problems with KNOPPIX itself. The idea that you can run a full-blown desktop and server operating system from a single CD (with nearly 2GB of available applications) is an awesome concept for someone who still remembers DOS and character terminals. Note
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