Kanotix

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Kanotix

Kanotix-2007 screenshot
Website kanotix.org
Company/
developer		 Jörg Schirottke (Aka. Kano)
OS family Linux
Source model Open source
Latest stable release 2007-Thorhammer / December 31, 2007 (2007-12-31); 164 days ago
Kernel type Monolithic kernel
License Various
Working state Current

Kanotix, also referred to as KANOTIX, is a Linux distribution Live CD (LiveDistro) based on Debian (until 2006 unstable, in 2007 KANOTIX moved to Debian Etch) with advanced hardware detection.[1] [2] It can run from an optical disc drive without using a hard disk.

Kanotix uses KDE as the default desktop environment. GNOME and other window managers can be downloaded using APT.

The name "Kanotix" is derived from the founder's nickname "Kano". Kanotix's mascot is a fangtooth.

Contents

[edit] Content

Kanotix is based on Debian stable (currently "Etch"). It contains a lot of backports [3]. So many of the main applications are more recent than are available in Etch.[citation needed]

Kanotix includes about 1,200 software packages:

[edit] Usage

Kanotix is designed for multiple-purpose usage so that it can be used in live mode on different types of media (CD, hard disk, USB-stick) and includes an installation tool for installing Kanotix to the hard drive. With an improved[clarify] hardware detection system, Kanotix is an ideal tool for testing, data rescue, or for working and safe surfing and mailing on different machines e.g. in an Internet cafe.

[edit] Live mode

The live mode allows it to work without any installation. As Kanotix comes with unionfs and aufs-support one can "install" additional packages by using APT (Internet connection assumed). So a customized live-mode can be used for working. With Kanotix it is also possible to set up a "persistent home directory", where documents or settings are written to the user's home directory. The data file (kanotix.img) on the hard drive or removable medium, such as a USB flash drive, can be automatically mounted on bootup. The Kanotix.iso can be booted with the cheatcode "fromiso=/(path)/" from harddisk (or USB flash drive when supported by BIOS), which is of course much faster than booting from CD.[clarify]

[edit] Installation

Kanotix can be installed to the hard disk using the (graphical) acritoxinstaller, which, depending on optical drive, hard disk and processor speed, can take around 10 - 20 minutes. The acritoxinstaller is a KDE/Qt frontend and a bash backend and comes with a user-friendly interface and several advanced features: e.g. LVM support, dmraid support, automatic partitioning (including ntfsresize-support), installation to USB-HDDs and update-installation of existing installations.

[edit] Versions

[edit] History

In 2003 Jörg Schirottke was known with the nickname "Kano" in the former Knoppix-Forum (no more available). The distribution derived from "Kano's Scriptpage for Knoppix" . He wrote about Knoppix: "I like it much, but I had to improve it :)" [4]. So he did. One of the main differences from Knoppix was the support of hard disk installation. The first "Kanotix"-preview was released at 24 December 2003 "KANOTIX XMAS 2003 PREVIEW". In 2004 and 2005 KANOTIX was a popular distribution ranking in the "top 20" of "distrowatch.com" [5]. [6]. In 2004 the releases were named "Bug Hunter" (Bug Hunter-01-2004 - X-2004). After problems with the stability in 2006 Jörg "Kano" Schirottke decided to move from Debian Sid to a less volatile basis.[7] In October 2006 the main Kanotix co-developer (and most of Kanotix's other developers) left the project, to start sidux, another distribution based on Debian sid. The last Kanotix release based on Debian Sid was 2006-01-RC4.

[edit] Current Release 2007

In 2007 Kanotix rebased from Debian Sid to Debian Etch. After the Debian-Etch-Release in April 2007 Kanotix was no longer compatible with Debian Sid. So a Howto was given "Steps to update right": [8], to move a KANOTIX-installation to the new base by dist-upgrade.

After 3 months of development and several beta Releases the new Kanotix-2007-Thorhammer-RC6 [9] was publicly available for download. The current version is Kanotix-2007-Thorhammer-RC7, which contains Linux 2.6.24. Kanotix-Thorhammer is now the only supported version.

Kano's scripts e.g. to install the 3D - nvidia- and fglrx- drivers [10] and the packages of the VDR-(Video-Disk-Recorder)-software or new kernel (kernel) (2.6.24-11) are updated too. These can be used with other Debian-based distributions, Ubuntu included.[citation needed]

Kanotix
Version Date Name
2007 2007-12-31 Thorhammer (RC7)
2007 2007-09-15 Thorhammer (RC6)
01-2006 2006-10-02 2006-01 (RC4)
2006 2006-05-14 2006-VDR (RC6)
2006 2006-05-14 2006-Easter (RC4)
2006 2006-03-11 2006-CeBit (RC3)
2005-04 2005-12-31
2005-03 2005-06-06
2005-02 2005-04-10
2005-01 2005-02-12
10-2004 2004-11-28 Bug Hunter X
09-2004 2004-10-17 Bug Hunter 09
08-2004 2004-09-20 Bug Hunter 08
07-2004 2004-07-29 Bug Hunter 07
06-2004 2004-07-01 Bug Hunter 06
05-2004 2004-04-23 Bug Hunter 05
04-2004 2004-03-19 Bug Hunter 04
03-2004 2004-03-02 Bug Hunter 03
02-2004 2004-02-07 Bug Hunter 02
01-2004 2004-02-03 Bug Hunter 01
01-2003 2003-12-24 XMAS Preview
  1. ^ Kanotix Introduction
  2. ^ Thorhammer Beta-Review on tuxmachines.org, July 2007 (author: eco2geek)
  3. ^ Kanotix backports
  4. ^ Kano about "Knoppix""
  5. ^ Popularity: Ranking in distrowatch year 2005
  6. ^ Review "KANOTIX - Putting the Pizzazz on Debian"
  7. ^ Codeveloper leaves Kanotix
  8. ^ Steps to update right (after Thorhammer-Release outdated)
  9. ^ Kanotix-2007-ThorhammerRC6 2007-09-15
  10. ^ Kano's scriptpage

[edit] External links

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