Pass | O'Reilly Media

View Review Details

Book:		Knoppix Hacks
Subject:		Pass
Date:		2008-01-08 14:06:12
From:		Jason Watkins

Rating: Hello - I purchased the first edition of this book and found it indispensable, and looked forward to later releases. If I was about to purchase this book again, I would pass. Many of the examples in the book do not work in a real environment. I was disappointed by the lack of congruence. Maybe the third time will be a charm...

See larger cover

Could be better - so much potential, August 06 2008

Rating:
Submitted by Anonymous Reader [Respond | View]

I have been trying to get into Linux for a couple of years now. I was turned onto Knoppix by reference in a Ubuntu book as a rescue disk for Linux. So, I bought this book to better understand Knoppix and Linux. Then I learned it could help with other OS's, too, I was excited! I thought the book was pretty good the first read and then I tried out some of the hacks and was left lacking. In many places, it assumes that one already knows some things that I do not think must of us know, what to do, how to do some tasks and what some things mean or are supposed to do. That is why we buy books. I was unable to get several hacks to work out as detailed and there was no explantion of what to do if they did not go as planned. Something did not install or there was an error message, etc. There is no Knoppix troubleshooting. I could not properly configure my Video Card and Drivers, as explained. I still can not configure my BrotherMFC USB scanner or my TV Tuner. My Tuner comes up as a scanner, my Web Cam comes up as my Tuner. There is no option to choose. There is no explanation of how to reconfigure misconfigured devices. This should be one of the "Hacks." I have no access to the Administrator Account and Configuration Utility even after having set a root password. I keep trying things and some work and some do not. All in all, I do have a better understanding of knoppix. I was hoping with the release of the 5.3.1 DVD that there would be a revision and hopefully with some feedback the authors would make this book what it really could be.