Distro: Kanotix(mini review)

[Digiital]

Well I have tried many distro's before and I have to say this one is a BIG keeper!!

Kanotix is based on Knoppix/Debian. It comes as a live distro, but has a script that will allow you to install it to the HD and I have to say its one of the easiest installs I have done yet.

Out of the box, EVERYTHING has worked for me. I'm currently writting this message from Kanotix installed on my Thinkpad T22 laptop, and sound is working just fine. (some distro's it's been a pain in the ars to get it working). DVD player works! No need to install codecs or find those funny files to get DVD play to work. As well as mp3's.

I'm installing it as my distro of choice tonight on my desktop!!


http://www.kanotix.com (Change language to english from the left side bar)

[Matrix]

i agree, kanotix is one of my favorites. kano has some great scripts and the fact that it is pretty much pure debian is also a huge plus.

i am still checking out the latest ubuntu breezy release.

apparently (site is down when i last checked so i cannot verify) but 2004-04 rc was available via the front page. heard it was supposed to be worth looking into.

there are some guys running kanotix over on this forum that offer support in addition to support offered from the kanotix forum. they just started up (originally dotmepis.org) and decided to offer a debian support forum instead. worth checking out. ;)

http://debcentral.org/modules/news/

edit: it's up again.

Freshly from Kano's laboratory a public beta/rc (test) version of Kanotix 2004-04 was released. more here (http://www.kanotix.com/Article10.html)

might add another partition and try it out.

[Matrix]

this is a topic regarding kanotix from their forums.

http://debcentral.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=9&forum=6

[Digiital]

Hey thanks, I'll have a look at the forum.

I tried breezy RC2, it was ok, didn't see a lot of different compared to horary(sp?), thats what I have current on this desktop, which I'm about to switch over to Kanotix.

[Matrix]

the breezy final wasn't quite what i expected but it's too early to tell. waiting for the dust to settle over on the forums first.

downloading the rc now. only getting just a little over 100 on the download so approx. an hour before i can run it.

[Digiital]

Well I'm installing 2005-3 right now, so far so good.

12:24 - Booted via the live CD
12:28 - Install Started.
12:36 - 50% done.
.....

I might try and download RC. Or just wait. Let me know what you think once you get it going.

[Matrix]

yeah that's fast.

i believe you can dist-upgrade from 2004-03 to current. i have that version but am curious to see what the new gui installer looks like. :)

will let you know how it goes tomorrow when i install it.

[Digiital]

Done!

12:46 - Completed
12:48 - Rebooted(from live CD)
12:50 - Running Kanotix.(took alittle longer because for some reason on the reboot it didn't reboot on its own)

Now to get my Nvidia drivers installed and I'm good to go :)

[Matrix]

installed in 13min 39 secs. same thing happened on rebooting from livecd, froze. gotta love the "initializing shutdown sequence" LOL.

kano did a very nice job on the installer. :)

running it on a 1GHz AMD with very basic hardware. have nvidia on the 2.6 Intel box. will try it on there later.

installed the w32codecs using kano's scripts and mozilla-kaffiene plugin from the repositories and all is well. java is installed and working in FF. still need to install realplayer and opera (btw firefox comes tweaked for speed out of the box ;) ).

http://kanotix.com/files/

not familiar with klik yet. looks promising though.

abiword and gnumetric are used instead of openoffice.

overall very fast and complete. definately a keeper. :)

[Matrix]

and just when i thought the oo's and ah's had died down...

i just updated pclinux to .92. all i can say is they have done it again. a great look and feel. very fast and loaded with eye candy. tex and team have done an awesome job.

i am running unstable which can be done by adding unstable to the path of the repo. running the latest and greatest, and in this case kde 3.4.3.

kernel needs to be updated to the new 2.6.12.oci4
kernel which can be installed via synaptic. nvidia drivers need to be reinstalled but definately worth the download. ;)

and this is one OS where i can definately say everything works. hardware may be another issue. haven't had any issues and automatically detected canonA40 camera. it loaded the digicam software asking me if i wanted to import photos. :)

not bad for a pre-release.

[Digiital]

I haven't tried tex's distro. But I used to use his RPM's all the time with Mandrake.

Well I ficked up big time last night after trying to do a complete distro update for kanotix. Not a big deal. I download the Beta for 2005-4, I'll install it on the laptop ina few mins. I can't do much on my desktop this weekend. I'm seeding a file for a few friends. So I need to let the Windows machine going.

This weekend I also hope to get working on a my http://www.asterisk.org/ box. I got my VOIP Card this weekend. And hope to atleast install Asterisk At Home distro to get the hang of it before installing ClarkConnect on a new box.

[Matrix]

sounds like a busy weekend.

i was aware of clarkeconnect, haven't installed yet. will take a closer look at it.

asterisk is also bookmarked for an indepth look. very cool. thanks :)

i think there is definately a bright future for open source, which we are starting to see already.

[Digiital]

Yup. I have a HP X-Class server not doing anything.

But I have been using Clarkconnect on my firewall (a 300Mhz) for a few yrs now. Love it.

[ultrabuzz]

Digital,
Please let us know how your setup of asterisk goes as I'm somewhat interested in the project however I'd like to hear some first look opinions.
BTW, where and which car did you get ?
Thx

edit:/ darn spelling :)

[Digiital]

Hey will do. You REALLY don't need a card. But either way. I got it from this buddy(http://cgi.ebay.com/Digium-Wildcard-X100P-OEM-FXO-PCI-Card-Asterisk-PBX_W0QQitemZ5817725551QQcategoryZ61841QQssPageNam eZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) I had the cards shipped to a friend in the US who then shipped to me, MUCH cheaper. But as I was just saying a card isn't needed to play with it. But I did install it on the XClass machine I have. So I'm just about to install the Asterisk@Home version to play with it.

[Digiital]

Follow my Asterisk project here: http://www.thecomputermechanics.com/forums/showthread.php?p=36557#post36557

[Digiital]

So I installed RC13 on the desktop yesterday and no problems, RC11 I couldn't get my Nvidia MB's onboard network card to work correctly. RC13 seems to have fixed the problem.

So I went ahead and installed RC13 on the laptop. And for some reason it doesn't fireup my PCMCIA module. I can't seem to bring it up, so no wireless on the laptop for me, on the other hand RC11 worked just fine on the laptop.

Well thats my 2 cents worth for today.

[Matrix]

netcardconfig is broken in 13. i just came from kanotix irc and kano has just released RC14 :d.

UPDATE: RC14

* both installers updated
* netcardconfig fixed
* using /media instead of /mnt
* X will use USB mouse if no other mouse is detected as fallback
* /etc/fstab cleaned up

was just about to post the new release and saw your post. lol

http://debian.tu-bs.de/project/kanotix/preview/

edit: not 100% sure but i think it also includes the latest kernel as well. if not you should upgrade as 2.6.14 includes alot of fixes. google for details. downloading RC14 now. :)

[Digiital]

GREAT!!! IT NEVER FAILS! I download a ISO and 2 days later they release a new version!!! :) Oh well. I'll download it with I get home, right now I'm at a rec center in Brampton connected to the net via my cell(GPRS) and Im NOT going to try and download a ISO on a 56K connection :)

HOPEFULLY they fix the problems I'm having. No sound no PCMCIA. on RC13. Right now just using Windows.

[Digiital]

Guess what?? RC15 is out.

[Matrix]

yep... just got 14 installed too. :rolleyes:

i am going to wait to see what issues come up with 15... looks like a problem with fstab just surfaced. unless you are testing, might want to wait for the final release. ;)

[Digiital]

I might just put back RC11 into the laptop so that I have PCMCIA support again, I have 13 on the desktop I'm using right now, so I'll wait another few days.

[Matrix]

i saw your post on the forums. glad to hear you got 13 working with the fix. :)

[Digiital]

I was just going to post how I fixed it on here. Anyways if anyone cars, RC13 was missing or has a screwed up PCMCIA-CS package.

Also just noticed that this version doesn't have the monitor patches for the wifi card, can't do Kismet :(

[Digiital]

Just wanted to add a little more to this thread.

I upgraded my Desktop and Laptop to RC15. All was well on the desktop but had issues with my Laptop(IBM T22) in that the PCMCIA wasn't working. But after looking at some scripts I noticed what was missing and download and installed manually pcmcia-cs package that fixed my issues with the wireless.

Last night I had something happen that I have been trying to get working for months(like maybe 1 yr now.) And that has been to get my cell phone to work with the laptop and use GPRS(data). So I FINALLY can surf the net from my cell in linux. I have tried for months and tons of instructions on how others have tried it, but never could get it to work. I finally got it to work last night with GPRS EASY CONNECT(http://www.easyconnect.linuxuser.hu/modules/index/). I don't know if it's because they(gprs easy) have a new beta or it's because of kanotix, but I'm now a happy camper...

[del]

Hi
I have to agree with Matrix on PClinuxos. It rocks and everything worked out of the box so i donated to the distro. I hope it continues to improve.
Del

[Digiital]

Well I'm back on Kanotix. Tried tons of distros, and I was using for a few weeks Mepis, but last night I decided to try again Kanotix now that I have a new wireless network card, and worked right off the bat. And I find it to have the fastest KDE out there. Boot times almost seems half the time it takes mepis to boot.

[Digiital]

I've installed almost a dozen distro's on my laptop the past few weeks, and I'm still coming back to Kanotix and this time I install RC3 for 2006 from the Cebit show and I have to say this distro just ROCKS. Super fast bootups(he's done a awesome job on RC3. Everything just works.

[Matrix]

i agree. also hardware detection is excellent as well.