Frequently asked questions

Finnix, the LiveCD for system administrators

I get a message during bootup about i8042, then my PS/2 keyboard stops working. Why?

This is due to conflicts in later Linux 2.6 kernels, and is related to your motherboard's USB Legacy mode. This post gives you a good idea of the problem. There are several fixes to try, in order of preference:

• Disable "USB Legacy" mode in your BIOS
• Boot "finnix usb-handoff"
• Boot "finnix acpi=off"
• Boot "finnix usb-handoff acpi=off"

Why the name "Finnix"? Is it related to "Knoppix"?

Finnix actually predates Knoppix. It is a play on my name, Ryan Finnie, combined with Linux.

Is the Finnix distribution a derivative of Knoppix? The bootup looks similar.

I wouldn't consider it a derivative. Finnix is based on Debian, but uses scripts modified from Knoppix to do hardware autodetection. In addition, Finnix uses some of the same base tools as Knoppix, such as Unionfs for merging the CD with a ramdisk. However, Finnix is (IMHO) more true to Debian than Knoppix. In most cases, you can bring the CD up to date via a simple "apt-get -u dist-upgrade".

What are the differences between Finnix and Knoppix?

• Finnix is based on Debian "testing"; Knoppix is based on Debian "unstable" and several other repositories.
• Finnix is available as a ~100MB ISO; Knoppix is available as a 700MB or 3.5GB ISO (CD/DVD editions).
• Knoppix includes XFree86 and many, many desktop and productivity tools and games; Finnix does not.
• Finnix includes utilities not found in Knoppx, such as LVM2, cryptsetup, cdpr, iftop, irssi, an OTP calculator, VLAN tools, and the essential robotfindskitten.
• Finnix uses a different Linux kernel than Knoppix.
• Finnix uses an almost completely reworked initrd, a compressed ROM filesystem with BusyBox; Knoppix's initrd uses a compressed ext2 filesystem with statically compiled tools.
• Finnix uses squashfs for the compressed loopback filesystem; Knoppix uses cloop.
• Finnix can be copied to RAM and run in only 192MB; Knoppix requires at least 1GB.
• Knoppix is available in several languages and has an impressive array of internationalization tools; Finnix is English only.
• Finnix includes CDs for both x86 and PowerPC architectures; Knoppix is x86 only.

What are the differences between Finnix and Debian?

Finnix is essentially Debian testing, modified to run in a small environment on a CD. The key modifications are:

• Replaced standard rcS.d initscripts with scripts that are more suited for a LiveCD environment.
• Replaced standard kernel with a newly-compiled kernel (UML SKAS support added, sound/video support removed to save space).
• Removed contents of /usr/share/doc.
• Removed localization tools, locales and non-english manpages (English manpages remain though).
• Includes a few packages not found in Debian's apt repository.

So what do you have against Knoppix? Why are you stealing code from it?

I have nothing against Knoppix! It is a fine distribution and I still use it in many places. Finnix is just more of a specialized distribution. In fact, I am grateful for Klaus Knopper; his excellent work, particularly on the autodetection tools has essentially made the reincarnation of Finnix possible. (I hope nobody actually asks this question in real life.)

What is squashfs?

If Finnix were released without squashfs, the ISO would be over 300MB. The squashfs module lets you mount a compressed image, and the relevant data is decompressed on the fly in chunks. This allows for a 3:1 compression ratio in many cases.

What is Unionfs?

Unionfs is a stackable filesystem, allowing you to "merge" several different filesystems together. In Finnix's case, a ramdisk is merged with the read-only CD filesystem. The net effect is you can modify any file or create new files anywhere on the system, even on the CD portion of the filesystem. The changes are transparently written to the ramdisk, and lost after reboot.

I've heard that Knoppix is faster than most LiveCDs because the CD filesystem is "optimized" before it is mastered. Does Finnix have this feature?

Yes. Nearly all files needed during initial bootup are placed at the beginning of the filesystem, near the inner loop of the CD.

Why is Finnix based on Debian? Why not Fedora/SuSE/Slackware/my favorite distro?

While it would have been almost as easy to base Finnix on another distribution (remember, the first released version was based on Red Hat 6.1), my strongest experience currently lies with Debian. It has a small footprint (base setup is about 100MB) and a nice package management system.

Warum du die Übersetzungen für meine Lieblingssprache entfernten? (Why did you remove translations for my favorite language?)

Sorry, but one of the main goals of Finnix is a small size, and localization documents (manpages and locales) take up a lot of space, about 40MB compressed, on a 100MB compressed filesystem.

Can you include Program XYZ in the next version of Finnix?

Please feel free to suggest software to be included with future versions of Finnix, particularly if they are useful to a system admistrator. Programs that require X are out of the question, as are very large programs. The overall goal is to keep Finnix at a size where it will fit on a Mini-CD (under 185MB), but if it gets that high, it better be over a long period of time. Adding a 70MB package to a ~100MB distribution probably won't fly.

What editors are available in Finnix? What about servers?

The default editor is nvi, a small implementation of vi/vim. Also available are zile (a small emacs clone), nano (hey, I was introduced to pine/pico over 10 years ago and can't get away from them), and joe. SSH can be used to get files on/off the machine (a new server key is generated during each boot), and also included is thttpd, a small web server. A Samba client is included for connecting to Windows fileservers.

What kind of kernel is packaged with the Finnix CD?

The kernel that Finnix boots is a nearly vanilla Linux kernel, with several patches applied. All patches are available in the files/ directory of this site.

x86/PowerPC patches

• squashfs
• unionfs

x86-only patches

• Increase the allowed size of the kernel arguments from 256 to 512 characters
• UML SKAS3 support

May I remaster Finnix?

Of course. All components of the Finnix distribution are released under free licenses. However, Finnix is sufficiently different from Knoppix that you cannot use a Knoppix remaster guide to remaster Finnix. Instead, I have made the scripts that I use to build the CDs available in the files/ directory of this site, particularly the stage1 and stage2 scripts. (The build process is broken up into two stages because the first stage, building the compressed loopback filesystem, can take awhile. This way, if you are just making changes to the initrd or CD itself, you can just execute stage2 and save some time.)

If you would like a step-by-step remastering howto, see Remastering Finnix.

How do I boot Finnix from a non-ATAPI CDROM drive?

Finnix will automatically try to boot from any block device it finds. This includes ATAPI CDROM drives on most IDE controllers, SCSI CDROM drives on many SCSI controllers, any USB or Firewire drive on a standard UHCI/OHCI/EHCI bus, and can even be installed on a bootable USB key. Of course, these all depend on your BIOS's ability to boot your intended device. You may find that your BIOS is not able to boot a USB CDROM drive, or from a PCI controller card.

• Parallel-port CDROM drives and non-standard (IE, sound card) CDROM interfaces are not supported.
• USB keys/thumb drives: Let me begin by saying that MANY BIOSes are horribly broken in regards to booting a USB key. For a primer, read about making USB keys bootable with SYSLINUX. If your BIOS can boot a ZIP-style USB key, you may use the finnix-thumbdrive utility within Finnix to automatically partition and format your USB key, copy the Finnix CD to the media, and modify the necessary files. finnix-thumbdrive will erase any data currently on your USB key, so be careful.