Knoppix+LKB

News

26-MAY-2010: LKB is unstable on version 9, due to the LISP heap being scaled back to a very small size. (Ticket #18) I'm withdrawing that version, and recommending everyone switch to version 8 until I get 9 debugged. I've generated a VirtualBox appliance for 8, to make switching over easy for those of you who prefer that installation method.

07-MAY-2010: KnoppixLKB is now available as a VirtualBox appliance. This provides a much quicker and easier way to get KnoppixLKB up and running on VirtualBox. I have also provided instructions for creating a bootable USB drive from Windows.

06-MAY-2010: The download sites have changed. The preferred site is now http://uakari.ling.washington.edu/knoppixlkb/, and the site on pongo.ling.washington.edu is being phased out.

09-APR-2010: Version 9 is out. New in this release:

• Now based on Knoppix 6.2.1. This mainly brings better hardware support and better video autodetection. If you needed command-line parameters to get a usable display in version 8, you may not need them anymore.
• VirtualBox Guest Additions have been upgraded to version 3.1.4. This means that running under VirtualBox versions earlier than 3.1.4 is no longer supported.
• MacBook trackpad support is greatly improved; two-finger scrolling and two-finger right clicks now work, making it possible to do work on a MacBook without keyboard hacks or an external mouse. Tap-to-click is still not available, however.
• The screen saver is now automatically disabled when running under VirtualBox.
• I've removed the BitTorrent download links. The torrents were always poorly seeded and were a headache for me to maintain. If you need a restartable download, try using a client that can restart HTTP downloads, such as wget.
• Behind the scenes, the build process has been completely revamped to make it more managable and make the process of generating a new release less error-prone. Please let me know if you find any problems with this release, especially things that used to work under version 8 that don't work now.

Overview

Knoppix+LKB is a bootable Linux live CD intended to make it possible for Linguistics students and researchers to run LKB when they do not have a full Linux installation available. It requires no hard disk installation to run. It's similar in concept to Grammix, but defaults to English and contains somewhat more recent software.

Please send comments and suggestions to linghelp@u.washington.edu.

What's on it?

• Emacs version 22
• LKB (version 2009/04/27)
• Trollet and the alternate Pango-enabled LUI that goes with it (installed as "pangolui")
• svn
• VirtualBox Guest Additions
• Fonts and input method support for several languages.
• Everything normally included in Knoppix, except for OpenOffice.org and GIMP, which had to be removed for space reasons.

System requirements

To boot the CD or USB version, you need at least the following:

• An Intel-compatible CPU, i486 or better (including Intel Macs)
• An SVGA-compatible graphics card
• A serial, PS/2, or USB mouse
• The ability to boot from CD or USB.

To run under VirtualBox, you will also need:

• At least 512 MB of RAM; 1 GB or more is recommended.
• Approximately 2.5 GB of available disk space. (750 MB of this is for the installation files, which can be deleted after installation)

To save your files when working from CD you'll need one of the following: a working Internet connection, a USB memory stick, or a hard disk partition Knoppix can recognize.

Setting up KNOPPIX+LKB

If you're in a hurry and know what you're doing, you can go straight to the download directory.

These are rather large files; if your connection is slow or unreliable you may want to use a download manager.

Running in VirtualBox

KnoppixLKB can be run in a window under VirtualBox. For many users this is the simplest method. Click here for setup instructions.

Booting from a USB stick

If you have a Windows system available and your computer can boot from a USB drive, you can install to a USB drive.

Booting from CD

Download the CD image (the file ending in ".iso") from the download directory.

You'll need to burn this image to a CD. Do NOT just copy the .iso file to the CD; it won't work.

• If you're running Windows, you should use something like ISO Recorder to burn the image.
• If you're using a Mac, you should double-click the .iso file to open it, then run Disk Utility, select the .iso file, and click Burn. The image is 644 megabytes and should fit on any standard CD blank.
• If you're using Linux, your distribution probably provides CD-burning tools. Right click the ISO file and see if you have an option to burn it to disk.

To boot the CD, you may need to change your BIOS configuration; try it first, though, it may just work.

• If you have a Dell system, tapping F12 (or F11) once or twice when the Dell logo appears will probably pop up a menu that will let you select a boot device.
• Intel Mac users should press and hold the C key when they hear the power-on chime.

When the CD finishes booting, click the Usage Notes.html file on the desktop for more information.

Additional Info

• Input Method Notes

Troubleshooting

Linux taskbar not showing up at bottom of display: This happens sometimes in VirtualBox. Resize the VirtualBox window slightly and the taskbar should appear.

Monitor displays "INPUT OUT OF RANGE" or a similar error: This means Knoppix is detecting your monitor and/or graphics card improperly. Try manually specifying both the type of graphics card you have and your monitor's resolution. For example, if you have an NVIDIA card and your monitor can handle a maximum of 1680x1050, you would type the following at the boot: prompt:

knoppix xmodule=nv screen=1680x1050

Supported values for "xmodule" are ati, radeon, fbdev, vesa, savage, s3, nv, i810, mga, svga, and tseng. If you don't know which is correct, it's safe to try them one at a time until you find one that works.

I/O errors, system hangs during boot, boot fails: These can be caused by a damaged CD, or a CD that was not burned properly. Try typing knoppix testcd at the boot: prompt to test your CD.

Writing to a shared folder gives "permission denied" in Windows 7: Right-click the folder you're sharing (in Windows, not in VirtualBox) and make sure "Read only" isn't checked. Also note that it appears some folders cannot be successfully shared -- e.g. "Desktop."

Known Issues

• Because of a conflict between SCIM and [incr_tsdb()], input method switching does not work inside the itsdb podium.
• Due to limited space on the CD, not all foreign language fonts and input methods are loaded. However, if you need one that's not on there, let me know; I can probably squeeze it in.
• Tap-to-click does not work on MacBooks.
• The clock is wrong. Even if it looks right, it's probably wrong. See ticket #14 for the hairy details.