Kanotix, also referred to as KANOTIX, is an

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

based on

Debian Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of D ...

, with advanced hardware detection. It can run from an optical disc drive or other media i.e.

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad v ...

-stick without using a

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

. Kanotix uses

KDE Software Compilation The KDE Software Compilation (KDE SC) was an umbrella term for the desktop environment plus a range of included applications produced by KDE. From its 1.0 release in July 1998 until the release of version 4.4 in February 2010, the Software Compi ...

as the default

desktop environment In computing, a desktop environment (DE) is an implementation of the desktop metaphor made of a bundle of programs running on top of a computer operating system that share a common graphical user interface (GUI), sometimes described as a graphica ...

. Since 2013 the newer releases ship with

LXDE LXDE (abbreviation for Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) is a free desktop environment with comparatively low resource requirements. This makes it especially suitable for use on older or resource-constrained personal computers such as netb ...

as a second lightweight desktop environment. Unlike other similar Linux-distributions Kanotix is a

rolling release Rolling release, also known as rolling update or continuous delivery, is a concept in software development of frequently delivering updates to applications. This is in contrast to a ''standard'' or ''point release'' development model which uses so ...

. Nightly builds are automated builds every night of the latest development code of KANOTIX and with the latest packages from the repositories. The name "Kanotix" is derived from the founder's

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

"Kano". Kanotix's mascot is a

fangtooth Fangtooths are beryciform fish of the family (biology), family Anoplogastridae (sometimes spelled "Anoplogasteridae") that live in the deep sea. The name is from the Greek language, Greek , meaning "unarmed", and (), meaning "stomach". With a ci ...

Content

Kanotix is based on the newest Debian stable (the last published version is Kanotix "''Silverfire 2019''" based on Debian 10 ''"Buster"''. It also provides its own packages and scripts and many

backport Backporting is the action of taking parts from a newer version of a software system or software component and porting them to an older version of the same software. It forms part of the maintenance step in a software development process, and it is ...

s. Kanotix also provides an optimized kernel with additional patches. Kanotix includes about 1,500 software packages, among others *

, the default desktop environment and

the lightweight version * Amarok,

Video Disk Recorder Video Disk Recorder (VDR) is an open-source application for Linux designed to allow any computer to function as a digital video recorder, in order to record and replay TV programming using the computer's hard drive. The computer needs to be eq ...

* Internet access software, including KDE

Network Manager NetworkManager is a Daemon (computing), daemon that sits on top of libudev and other Linux kernel interfaces (and a couple of other daemons) and provides a high-level interface for the configuration of the network interfaces. Rationale NetworkMa ...

, KPPP dialer,

Wireless LAN A wireless LAN (WLAN) is a wireless computer network A wireless network is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between network nodes. Wireless networking is a method by which homes, telecommunications networks and bus ...

-driver and NdisWrapper *

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and ...

web browser,

Thunderbird Thunderbird, thunder bird or thunderbirds may refer to: * Thunderbird (mythology), a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture * Ford Thunderbird, a car Birds * Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds ...

mail/news client,

Pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...

instant messenger * K3b, for CD (and DVD) authoring and backup *

GIMP GIMP ( ; GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image manipulation (retouching) and image editing, free-form drawing, transcoding between different image file formats, and more specialized task ...

, an image-manipulation program, also

Inkscape Inkscape is a free and open-source vector graphics editor used to create vector images, primarily in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. Other formats can be imported and exported. Inkscape can render primitive vector shapes (e.g. rectang ...

a free and open-source vector graphics editor *

GParted GParted (acronym of GNOME Partition Editor) is a GTK front-end to GNU Parted and an official GNOME partition-editing application (alongside Disks). GParted is used for creating, deleting, resizing, moving, checking, and copying disk partitions ...

and other tools for data rescue and system repair * Network analysis and administration tools *

LibreOffice LibreOffice () is a free and open-source productivity software, office productivity software suite, a project of The Document Foundation (TDF). It was fork (software development), forked in 2010 from OpenOffice.org, an open-sourced version of t ...

, the office suite (backports) * Programming and development tools *

NTFS-3G NTFS-3G is an open-source cross-platform implementation of the Microsoft Windows NTFS file system with read/write support. NTFS-3G often uses the FUSE file system interface, so it can run unmodified on many different operating systems. It is ...

used by default * Automatic installation of graphic-drivers with

nvidia Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

and

fglrx AMD Radeon Software is a device driver and utility software package for AMD's List of AMD graphics processing units, graphics cards and List of AMD accelerated processing units, APUs. Its graphical user interface is built with Electron (softwar ...

-scripts with dkms support. * Scripts for additional multimedia support (current mplayer-versions) *

Wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

(Software) updated to newest versions

Usage

Kanotix is designed for multiple-purpose usage so that it can be used in live mode on different types of media (

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

hard disk A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magnet ...

, and

USB flash drive A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since firs ...

) and includes an installation tool for installing Kanotix to the hard drive. The distribution ships with the latest kernel which is carefully patched with fixes and drivers for most modern hardware. 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.

Live mode

The Live mode allows it to work without any installation. As Kanotix comes with

unionfs Unionfs is a filesystem service for Linux, FreeBSD and NetBSD which implements a union mount for other file systems. It allows files and directories of separate file systems, known as branches, to be transparently overlaid, forming a single coher ...

and

aufs aufs (short for advanced multi-layered unification filesystem) implements a union mount for Linux file systems. The name originally stood for AnotherUnionFS until version 2. Developed by Junjiro Okajima in 2006, aufs is a complete rewrite of t ...

-support one can "install" additional packages by using APT (via connection to the Internet). For USB-users the so-called "persistent mode" allows to save data changes back to the USB storage device and the stored data and customized settings can used again on following boots. Using USB flash drive (when supported by BIOS), is of course much faster than booting from CD or DVD.

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.

Versions

History (2003–2006)

The distribution derived from "Kano's Scriptpage for Knoppix". He wrote about Knoppix: "I like it much, but I had to improve it :)". 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. 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. The co-developer and other of the Kanotix-Team wanted to stay with Debian-Sid and left the project, to start sidux, a new distribution based on

Debian sid Debian (), also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open-source software, developed by the community-supported Debian Project, which was established by Ian Murdock on August 16, 1993. The first version of Deb ...

. The last Kanotix release based on Debian Sid was 2006-01-RC4.

Versions based on Debian stable (2007–current)

Kanotix-Thorhammer-Release 2007

The first Release based on Debian-stable was the Kanotix-Thorhammer in 2007. 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", 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'' was publicly available for download. The last published version was ''Kanotix-2007-Thorhammer-RC7''. The ''development in 2008'' featured continuously kernel-updates and a lot of backports in the Thorhammer-repository. Some of the additional packages were adaptations for

netbook Netbook was a commonly used term that identified a product class of small and inexpensive laptops which were sold from 2007 to around 2013. These machines were designed primarily as cost-effective tools for consumers to access the Inte ...

s and

notebooks A notebook is a small book often used for writing. Notebook or The Notebook may also refer to: Computing *Laptop, a type of personal computer *Google Notebook, a discontinued online application * Notebook interface, a type of programming environ ...

. A highlighted additional backport was OpenOffice.org 3.2.x

Kanotix-Excalibur-2010

The (old) stable Release 2010 ''Kanotix-Excalibur'' was based on Debian 5 ("Lenny") and had compared to Thorhammer some basic changes (based on Debian-Live, bootloader

Grub2 GNU GRUB (short for GNU GRand Unified Bootloader, commonly referred to as GRUB) is a boot loader package from the GNU Project. GRUB is the reference implementation of the Free Software Foundation's Multiboot Specification, which provides a us ...

). Furthermore, Kanotix-Excalibur was available for 32-Bit and 64-Bit architecture and a 2in1 iso with both. Additionally there are Kanotix Excalibur 2010 KDE4 (KDE SC 4.3.2) versions available and an "all-in-one"-DVD.iso. Kanotix-Excalibur contains the more up-to-date Ubuntu-kernels 2.6.32-BFS with special patches. During the development most of the Kanotix-Excalibur-test.iso were not published but accessible to the community. A first "Preview"-Version was published on December 27, 2009. The final ''Kanotix-Excalibur-2010'' was released on 8 June 2010, just in time for

LinuxTag LinuxTag (the name is a compound with the German language, German ''Tag'' meaning Diet (assembly), assembly, conference or meeting) is a free software computer expo, exposition with an emphasis on Linux (but also BSD), held annually in Germany. Li ...

2010.

Kanotix-Hellfire-2011-2012

The next stable version, code-name ''Kanotix-Hellfire'' is based on Debian 6 ("Squeeze"). It ships with

KDE Software Compilation 4 KDE Software Compilation 4 (KDE SC 4) was the only series of the so-called KDE Software Compilation (short: KDE SC), first released in January 2008 and the last release being 4.14.3 released in November 2014. It was the follow-up to K Desktop En ...

for 32-Bit and 64-Bit architecture and a complete new branding stuff, new kernel (2.6.38), LibreOffice 3.3.2 and more. An updated version ''Kanotix-Hellfire 2011-05'' was released with the project's presentation at LinuxTag 2011 in Berlin and again with version ''Kanotix-Hellfire 2012-05'' one year later during the LinuxTag 2012 With the so-called "GFX overlays" that enables to use

Nvidia Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

ATI Ati or ATI may refer to: * Ati people, a Negrito ethnic group in the Philippines **Ati language (Philippines), the language spoken by this people group ** Ati-Atihan festival, an annual celebration held in the Philippines *Ati language (China), a ...

3D graphics driver in live mode, Kanotix-Hellfire provides this new feature first time.

Kanotix-Dragonfire-2012-2014

This version, ("old stable") code-name ''Kanotix-Dragonfire'' is based on Debian 7 ("Wheezy"). A Preview of this Kanotix-Version was offered at LinuxTag 2012 in several versions in 32 and 64 bit. Also a new repository for Kanotix-Dragonfire was added with backported KDE4.8 packages (amd64 and i386). New features in Kanotix-Dragonfire are: booting from/with DVD, USB, UEFI (PCs, Intel Macs), an embedded USB-Stick ImageWriter for Mac OS X and the USB-Stick with Hybrid-ISO can now be made persistent from the live-system. A preview of the current release "Kanotix-acritox-trialshot" was announced on 14 February 2013. A special "

CeBIT CeBIT was the largest and most internationally representative computer expo. The trade fair was held each year on the Hanover fairground, the world's largest fairground, in Hanover, Germany. In its day, it was considered a barometer of cur ...

" edition was released "as a Technology Demonstration" on 8 March 2013. A new official Kanotix-Dragonfire was announced from LinuxTag 2013 in Berlin. Beside KDE as default desktop environment the new release ships with

as a second lightweight desktop environment. In the KDE-Special version the extra 3D graphics drivers from

and

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...

and the

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

-client are already preinstalled. An updated release of the stable Kanotix was presented at LinuxTag 2014 in Berlin.

Kanotix-Spitfire-2014-2016

''Kanotix Spitfire'' is based on Debian 8 ("Jessie"). Several Kanotix-LinuxTag images for 32 and 64 bit were offered for download. After the Release of Debian GNU/Linux 8.0 (2015-04-26) a reset of the "

nightly build A daily build or nightly build is the practice of completing a software build of the latest version of a program, on a daily basis. This is so it can first be compiled to ensure that all required dependencies are present, and possibly tested to sh ...

s" with the official Debian kernel-version 3.16.7 started ''Kanotix-Spitfire'' as a "

" of the current stable ''Kanotix''. The Images are maintained by developer Kano and offered for downloa
"Kanotix Downloads"
and on kanotix.acritox.com The latest Kanotix modification of ''Kanotix-Spitfire'' has been presented at OpenRheinRuhr 2015 in Oberhausen.

Kanotix-Steelfire-2017-2019

''Kanotix Steelfire'' is based on current stable Debian 9 ("Stretch"). Two months after the Release of Debian GNU/Linux 9.0 (2017-06-17) the first iso-images of Kanotix-steelfire-nightly-LXDE were released. The KDE-modification of ''Kanotix-Spitfire'' was releast and presented later at OpenRheinRuhr 2017 in Oberhausen. (2017-11-4/5) All Images of "Kanotix-Steelfire" are available as KDE and LXDE versions in 32 and 64 bit.

Kanotix-Silverfire-2019-2020

''Kanotix-Silverfire'' is based on Debian 10 ("Buster"). Just like its Debian base Kanotix-Silverfire was in the "testing"-mode. Some "previews" with KDE and LXDE in 32- and 64-bit variants are linked on the homepage. With the Release of Debian-10 (Buster), Kanotix-Siverfire became stable too.Kanotix-Downloads
/ref>

Release timeline

References

External links

Official website
* {{Linux distributions, state=collapsed Debian-based distributions LiveDistro Live USB X86-64 Linux distributions Knoppix KDE Linux distributions Rolling Release Linux distributions