Ready to Try Linux?

Loading Knoppix is easy because no installation is required.

Take your CD and insert it into your CD-ROM drive. Shut down Windows, and select Restart. Make sure your PC is set to boot from the CD. WFTL Knoppix boots up to a nice, graphical screen with a simple boot: prompt, from which you can simply press <Enter> and let Knoppix do the rest.

Note

Most modern systems are set to boot directly from the CD-ROM drive (or DVD) if a bootable CD is found there. If your system does not, you may have to change the BIOS settings on your PC to allow this. This is generally done by pressing <Delete> or <F2> to enter Setup as the system is booting (you will usually see such a message before the operating system starts to load).

Because the menus vary, it is impossible for me to cover them all, but look for a menu option that specifies the boot order. You'll see something like A: first and then C: (i.e., your floppy drive and then the hard disk). Change the boot order so that it looks to the CD first, save your changes, and then restart your system.

The boot process is all text, but it is certainly colorful because Knoppix signifies devices, disks, sound cards, and so on in different colors. At some point, the screen will go dark as your video card is configured and X, the Linux graphical user interface, is started.

If the screen doesn't respond instantly, don't panic. Give it a few seconds. If nothing has happened even after you've waited a while, it is possible that your video card is one of the rare ones not included in the distribution. Never fear, most (if not all) modern cards support VESA. Reboot and type the following at the boot prompt:

 knoppix xmodule=vesa 

This prompt is an example of what is called a cheat code in the Knoppix world. If you have additional problems or you'd like to learn about cheat codes, head down to the HELP! section later in this chapter. For now, I'm going to assume that your WFTL Knoppix CD has booted normally and that you are sitting at the KDE graphical desktop (Figure 2-1).