My thanks to Jim Lange for educating me, and giving me a reprint
from Linux World that turned out to be the answer I needed.
I thought that my experience with Knoppix might be of interest,
on three different levels, to SLUG people.
1. INSTALL DEBIAN: I read someplace that Debian was pretty
much the hardest distro to install, but it turns out that the
Knoppix method can give you a complete Debian installation with
remarkable ease. Much easier even than RH, but of course
without the wide variety of configurations. In a laptop
context, simple is nice.
2. HARDWARE RECOGNITION: Knoppix has very good ability to
recognize hardware and install correct drivers. In fact, that's
how this all started for me: I had a Compaq Armada notebook
with a wireless card that no other distribution would install
properly. I tried a bunch of other distributions with varied,
but always awful, results. For example, I had installations
that were unbootable without removing the wireless card, etc,
etc. The Knoppix Demonstration CD worked like a charm right
off the bat. I'm sure that my failures with other distros is
due to my own stupidity, and they can all be made to work just
by holding your head right, but you can't argue with success.
So, for my money, kudos go to Knoppix.
3. KNOPPIX ON HARD DRIVE: And lastly--and somewhat
anticlimatic--it's simply noteworthy that although Knoppix
officially can't be installed on your hard drive, in fact it
can.
If there is any interest in how to do this, I have a
non-electronic printed/faxable copy of the Linux World article,
and Jim must have an electronic version since he gave me a
printout. I'm not sure if it's on the Internet but I'll search
for it if somebody is interested.
John
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