Knoppix is an operating system based on Debian designed to be run directly from a CD / DVD (Live CD) and a USB key (Live USB)

Knoppix, or KNOPPIX, is a Linux distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux designed to be run directly from a CD / DVD. Knoppix is one of the best-known live CDs. Knoppix was developed by Linux consultant Klaus Knopper. When starting a program it is loaded from the optical disc and decompressed into a RAM drive. The decompression is transparent and on-the-fly.

Although Knoppix is primarily designed to be used as a live CD, it can also be installed on a hard disk like a typical operating system. Computers that support booting from USB devices can load Knoppix from a live USB flash drive or memory card.

There are two main editions of Knoppix: the traditional Compact Disc (700 megabytes) edition and the DVD (4.7 gigabytes) "Maxi" edition. Each of these main editions have two language-specific editions: English and German.

Knoppix mostly consists of free software, but also includes proprietary software.

Knoppix 6.0.1 with LXDE

More than 1000 software packages are included on the CD edition and more than 2600 are included on the DVD edition. Up to 9 gigabytes can be stored on the DVD in compressed form. These packages include:

* LXDE (lightweight X11 desktop environment [default for 6.0.1]) or KDE 3, a more feature-complete desktop (default for 5.3.1).
* MPlayer, with MP3 audio, and Ogg Vorbis audio playback support
* Internet access software, including the KPPP dialer and ISDN utilities
* The Iceweasel web browser (based on Mozilla Firefox)
* The Icedove e-mail client (based on Mozilla Thunderbird)
* GIMP, an image manipulation program
* Tools for data rescue and system repair
* Network analysis and administration tools
* OpenOffice.org, a comprehensive office suite
* Terminal server

Updates (via Distrowatch):

Klaus Knopper has announced the release of KNOPPIX 6.4.3, a popular Debian-based live CD/DVD (featuring the lightweight LXDE desktop) which has recently celebrated its 10th birthday: "The anniversary edition of KNOPPIX is now available as a DVD and CD image." New features in this release: "The current version has been completely updated from Debian 'Lenny', 'Testing' and 'Unstable' and uses Linux kernel 2.6.36.1, X.Org 7.5 for supporting current computer hardware; experimental free nouveau graphics modules supporting NVIDIA cards; accelerated graphics via kernel mode settings (KMS); OpenOffice.org replaced by LibreOffice 3.3.0; Process Control Group support for terminal shells."

Read the rest of the release notes for a list of new features, known issues and boot options.

Download the CD or DVD image from here: KNOPPIX_V6.4.3DVD-2010-12-20-EN.iso (3,496MB, MD5), KNOPPIX_V6.4.3CD-2010-12-20-EN.iso (698MB, MD5).

• 2010-12-24: Distribution Release: KNOPPIX 6.4.3
• 2009-11-18: Distribution Release: KNOPPIX 6.2
• 2009-01-28: Distribution Release: KNOPPIX 6.0
• 2008-03-28: Distribution Release: KNOPPIX 5.3.1
• 2007-01-05: Distribution Release: KNOPPIX 5.1.1
• 2006-12-30: Distribution Release: KNOPPIX 5.1.0

Versions.

The following is the version history of major releases.

Knoppix version	Release date	CD	DVD
1.4	30 September 2000	Yes	No
1.6	26 April 2001	Yes	No
2.1	14 March 2002	Yes	No
2.2	14 May 2002	Yes	No
3.1	19 January 2003	Yes	No
3.2	26 July 2003	Yes	No
3.3	22 September 2003	Yes	No
3.4	17 May 2004	Yes	No
3.5 LinuxTag-Version	June 2004	No	Yes
3.6	16 August 2004	Yes	No
3.7	9 December 2004	Yes	No
3.8 CeBIT-Version	28 February 2005	Yes	No
3.8.1	8 April 2005	Yes	No
3.8.2	12 May 2005	Yes	No
3.9	1 June 2005	Yes	No
4.0 LinuxTag-Version	22 June 2005	No	Yes
4.0 updated	16 August 2005	No	Yes
4.0.2	23 September 2005	Yes	Yes
5.0 CeBIT-Version	25 February 2006	No	Yes
5.0.1	2 June 2006	Yes	Yes
5.1.0	30 December 2006	Yes	Yes
5.1.1	4 January 2007	Yes	Yes
5.2 CeBIT-Version	March 2007	No	Yes
5.3 CeBIT-Version	12 February 2008	No	Yes
5.3.1	26 March 2008	No	Yes
ADRIANE
6.0.0	28 January 2009	Yes	No
6.0.1	8 February 2009	Yes	No
6.1 CeBIT-Version	25 February 2009	?	Yes
6.2 / ADRIANE 1.2	18 November 2009	Yes	Yes
6.2.1	31 January 2010	Yes	Yes
6.3 CeBIT-Version	2 March 2010	No	Yes

Usage.

Knoppix can be used to back up files easily from hard drives with inaccessible operating systems. To quickly and more safely use Linux software the live CD can be used instead of installing another OS.

Contents

More than 1000 software packages are included on the CD edition and more than 2600 are included on the DVD edition. Up to 9 gigabytes can be stored on the DVD in compressed form. These packages include:

* Part of KDE, the default desktop environment, including the Konqueror web browser and the KMail e-mail client. Knoppix is also packaged with several other window managers, such as Fluxbox, twm, or IceWM. As of Knoppix 5.1.1, the Beryl window manager is also included, which allows access to a 3D desktop environment
* XMMS, with MPEG video, MP3 audio, and Ogg Vorbis audio playback support
* Internet access software, including the KPPP dialer, ISDN utilities and WLAN
* The Mozilla Firefox web browser (now known as Iceweasel on Knoppix)
* K3b, for CD (and DVD) authoring and backup
* The GIMP, an image-manipulation program
* Tools for data rescue and system repair
* Network analysis and administration tools
* OpenOffice.org, a comprehensive office suite
* Many programming and development tools

Requirements

Requirements to run Knoppix:

* Intel-compatible processor (i486 or later)
* 32 MB of RAM for text mode, at least 96 MB for graphics mode with KDE (at least 128 MB of RAM is recommended to use the various office products)
* Bootable CD-ROM drive, or a boot floppy and standard CD-ROM (IDE/ATAPI or SCSI)
* Standard SVGA-compatible graphics card
* Serial or PS/2 standard mouse or IMPS/2-compatible USB-mouse

Saving changes in the environment.

Prior to Knoppix 3.8.2, any documents or settings a user created would disappear upon reboot. This lack of permanence made it necessary to save documents explicitly to a hard drive partition, over the network, or to some removable medium, such as a USB flash drive.

It was also possible to set up a "persistent home directory", where any documents or settings written to the user's home directory would automatically be redirected to a hard drive or removable medium, which could be automatically mounted on bootup. What is stored there physically is a file called knoppix.img. The file is used to simulate a file system into which files are written for later use. This is transparent for the user. What the user perceives is that it is possible to write files to the home directory.

Since Knoppix 3.8.1, a UnionFS filesystem transparently saves any new or changed files to a writable filesystem – one which can reside either in memory (ramdisk) or on a hard disk, USB flash drive, etc.

This means that the user can modify the software installed on the Knoppix system, such as by using APT to install or update software.

By default Knoppix will scan available storage devices for a persistent home directory, however you can override this scan and provide a specific location with a boot option(see below) such as

home=/dev/hda1/knoppix.img

By carrying a Knoppix CD and a USB flash drive, a user can have the same environment, programs, settings, and data available on any computer that is Knoppix compatible.

Screenshots.