KNOPPIX/MathTatsuyoshi Hamada∗ and Knoppix/Math committers

∗ Department of Applied Mathematics, Fukuoka Universityemail: hamada@holst.sm.fukuoka-u.ac.jp

IntroductionKNOPPIX/Math is a project to archive free mathematicalsoftware and free mathematical documents and offer themon KNOPPIX. It provides a desktop for mathematiciansthat can be set up easily and quickly.

Figure 1: KNOPPIX/Math desktop.Our system includes TEX, OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox,GNU Emacs, Kile, a KDE based GUI TEX editor, Whizzy-TeX and Active-DVI, a pair of WYSIWYG utilities for TEXdocuments, and GNU TEXmacs, an office suite for TEXwriting. The CD includes many mathematical software sys-tems or libraries with documents, such as auto07, BLAS,Dynagraph, freefem++, GANG, GAP, Geomview, Gnuplot,Hyplane, Kali, Kan, Knot, KnotPlot, Knotscape, KSEG,LAPACK, LiE, Macaulay2, Maxima, NZMATH, Octave,OpenXM, PARI/GP, Qhull, R, Risa/Asir, Singular, Snap-Pea, surf, Surface Evolver, Teruaki, XaoS, and Yorick, ...The DVD also includes more additional mathematical soft-ware systems, such as Axiom, C.a.R., CoCoA, CoCoALib,Coq, Dr. Geo, 4ti2, Gambit, GEONExT, GeoGebra, Geo-Proof, Gfan, ginac, gmp, HOL Light, HOM4PS, jtem,KANT/KASH, Kig, math-polyglot, MixedVol PHCpack,PHoM, polymake, SAGE, surfex, synaps, TC, XLISP-STAT, and Yacas, ...

How to run the live system (Windows machineor PC/AT compatibles)This CD/DVD contains a lot of documents and packages ofmathematical software systems. Once you run the live sys-tem, you can experience a wonderful world of mathematicalsoftware systems without needing to make any installationsyourself. This is a bootable CD/DVD. If you can boot fromthe CD/DVD, then please reboot. The live system will beready.

Figure 2: KNOPPIX/Math is booting.If your machine is not bootable, or has very special hard-ware devices which KNOPPIX cannot drive, we recom-mend you download the VMware Player. Once you haveinstalled the VMware Player, you can start our live sys-tem from this DVD or from our preinstalled virtual ma-chine (faster) for VMware Player. The instructions forinstalling and using the virtual machine can be found inhttp://www.math.kobe-u.ac.jp/vmkm/ Note that when youinstall the VMware Player, the Norton internet security orequivalent software systems should be turned off.

Mathematical software systems

Figure 3: CoCoA

Figure 4: Gambit

Figure 5: Macaulay2

Figure 6: Risa/Asir(OpenXM)

Figure 7: Sage

Figure 8: Singular

Figure 9: surfex

How to run the live system (IntelMac)This CD/DVD contains a lot of documents and packages ofmathematical software systems. Once you run the live sys-tem, you can experience a wonderful world of mathemati-cal software systems without needing to make any installa-tions yourself. In order to run the live system, we recom-mend to use the PC emulator ”Parallels desktop for Mac”or “VMware fusion”. Note that you need to set the ”energysave” to ”better performance” in the ”system preferences”.Otherwise, the parallel virtual machine will not return afterbeing in sleep mode.

FAQ (frequently asked questions)Q. Where can I find documents of mathematical software

systems.

A. Click “KNOPPIX-Math-Start” on the desktop of the livesystem. It will show you a list of software systems anddocuments. You can also launch systems from this list.

Q. After the power is turned off, I lose all documents whichI wrote.

A. If you boot from the CD/DVD, all documents are storedin the RAM. Then, you will lose all your data after thepower is turned off. In order to save data permanently,you need to copy them to a USB memory or to the harddisk. Please visit the KNOPPIX site for more details. Ifyou boot from the VMware image in the VMware Player,all documents which you wrote will be stored perma-nently in your harddisk.

Q. How do I copy documents to other machines?A. There are numerous ways (1) sending documents as an

attachment of a web mail (2) using the “scp” command(3) using samba or ssh with “konqueror”

Q. Can I boot this CD/DVD on my Mac?A. If the CPU is the PowerPC, unfortunately, we cannot.

But, you can read some documents in the CD/DVD.

Q. How do I install the KNOPPIX/Math to my hard disklike other linux systems?

A. If you are an expert, please use the command “knx2hd”or “LC ALL=C knx2hd”. This is an experimental com-mand. (If you fail to initialize the hard disk, please useother linux distributions to initialize the hard disk or usethe commands “cfdisk” and “mkfs”.) If you are not ex-pert, we recommend you do not try this and instead usethe preinstalled image file for the VMware Player. It isvery easy and comfortable.

Q. The computer starts from the CD/DVD, but the screenbecomes black and the system hangs. What should I do?

A. Our system does not use your hard disk unless youmount it. Therefore, you may turn off your powerswitch and it will cause no damage to your computer.There are several boot options (cheatcodes). You cansee them by pressing F2 or F3. A typical boot optionwhich will lead you to a successful booting is “knoppixscreen=1024x768” or “knoppix xmodule=fbdev”

Figure 10: F2 Figure 10: F3Q. Can I use other language?A. Boot with “knoppix lang=ja”. You can see other lan-

guage options in F3. For example, Chinese, Taiwanese,Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Italian KDEmenus are supported.

Q. Can I use old computer?A. Yes, but KDE is very heavy application, you should

change Window Manager with boot option: “knoppixdesktop=fluxbox” or “knoppix desktop=twm”.

This document is distributed with the GNU free documentation license version 1.2. List of contributors of this document: Tatsuyoshi Hamada, Masayuki Noro, Nobuki Takayama, and Wayne Rossman