KNOPPIX Boot CD

KNOPPIX Boot CD is an open source and special edition of the KNOPPIX Linux operating system specifically designed to be used by users who want to boot the well known distribution from a USB flash drive on a computer that does not have support for USB boot.

Available for download as a dual-arch, dual-language Live CDs

The distribution is available for download as minimal, dual-arch Live CD ISO images of approximately 12MB in size, one for each of the supported languages (English and German).

While the ISO images must be first written on CD discs, they will be bootable on any computer that supports the 32-bit (i386) and/or 64-bit (x86_64) instruction set architectures.

Minimal boot prompt designed to boot KNOPPIX from a USB flash drive

When booting the CD image from the BIOS of a computer, the user will encounter a minimal boot menu where he or she must press the Enter key to start the distribution.

It will load in a couple of seconds and starts monitoring the USB interface for a drive that contains the KNOPPIX operating system. If the USB thumb drive is detected, it will boot the distribution into the live environment.

A few words about KNOPPIX

KNOPPIX is an open source and completely free operating system comprised of a great selection of GNU/Linux software. It boasts automatic hardware detection, as well as support for a wide range of graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI, USB devices and other peripherals.

KNOPPIX is a distribution of Linux that has been designed from the ground up to be used as-is directly from the Live bootable medium, without installing anything on your computer.

Bottom line

Summing up, KNOPPIX Boot CD is a special edition of the KNOPPIX Linux operating system that will help you to boot the distribution from a USB thumb drive on computers that don’t support booting from USB devices.

What is new in this release:

• Version 7.0.5 of Knoppix is based on the usual picks from Debian stable (squeeze) and newer Desktop packages from Debian/testing and Debian/unstable (wheezy). It uses kernel 3.6.11 and xorg 7.7 (core 1.12.4) for supporting current computer hardware.
• Optional 64-bit Kernel via boot option "knoppix64", supporting systems with more than 4GB of RAM and chroot to 64-bit installations for system rescue tasks (DVD version only).
• LibreOffice 3.6.4,
• Gimo 2.8,
• Chromium 22.0.1229.94 and Firefox/Iceweasel 10.0.11 Web Browser,
• LXDE (Default) with filemanager PCMANFM 1.0, KDE 4.8 (boot option knoppix desktop=kde, DVD version only), GNOME 3.4 (boot option knoppix desktop=gnome, DVD version only).
• Wine version 1.5 for integration of Windows (TM) based programs.
• EBook Speaker, an accessible ebook reader.
• Virtualbox version 4.1.18 (DVD version only) and qemu-kvm 1.1.2 for (para-)virtualization.
• Kernel contains (as an exception) two patches against the official kernel.org Kernel:
• A bugfix for the zram "RAM compression" stability, introduced in earlier versions, because since Kernel 3.6.5 there were massive problems in memory access of the zram driver (see https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=50081). zram
• zram is especially useful for older computers with low ram: Up to 75% of main memory will be compressed if running out of ram. This way, it is possible to start large programs without needing a swap area on disk. With this feature, the system can use up to twice as much "virtual" ram (for averagely compressible data).
• Preliminary support for newer Atheros network cards not present yet in the official kernel (models 1969:1091 - AR8161 Gigabit Ethernet, 1969:1090 - AR8162 Fast Ethernet, 1969:10A1 - AR8171 Gigabit Ethernet, 1969:10A0 - AR8172 Fast Ethernet).
• Bugfix: When starting from CD or DVD, autoeject on shutdown works again.
• Experimental:
• A second version of the Knoppix-To-Flash installer now allows to use Linux partitions as overlay for saving personal data, which eliminates the former restriction to an overlay file of less than 4GB on FAT32. In order to use this, the installer allows to optionally repartition the USB flash or hard disk.
• New GUI for comfortably mounting Samba or Windows(TM) shares.