KPhotoAlbum on Knoppix

Whenever I carry some of my photos on CDs to friends of mine, I wish I could use KPhotoAlbum to pick specific photos. Unfortunately most of my friends use Windows, so KPhotoAlbum won't be available to me.

While Linux Live-CDs (like Knoppix) make it possible to boot Linux from CD/DVD, I know of no version containing KPhotoAlbum.

This Wiki page describes a way to have KPhotoAlbum available using Knoppix and how to create it yourself, to adapt it to other live-CD/DVD systems.

Basis of the image

Newer Knoppix versions have a feature to create a image file (e.g. on memory stick) and mount this "on top" of the CD/DVD image. (UnionFS) This makes it possible to add additional software to the packages coming with the CD/DVD. (Without the need to install anything on the computer Knoppix runs on)

Do-it-yourself

How to look "inside" the image file

(Assuming here, /tmpmnt is a directory)

sudo mount -o loop -t ext2 knoppix.img  /tmpmnt

This will mount the image on /tmpmnt. You now can look inside the image. You will find dirs like /etc/network/if-up.d/ (and many more) beside the obvious KPhotoAlbum files. These result from activities of Knoppix, which changed these files, so they ended up in the image too. I tried to get rid of these, but this always destroyed the image. (Tips here also welcome)

Creating your own image file from scratch

I installed mostly from source, because I already had those available. The alternative would be to download most things as installable package, e.g. .deb for Knoppix.

Get the needed files

Get the files and save them on a partition later available on Knoppix. What you need may differ, depending on the version you are using and if you are using a CD or DVD version. I assume that you are familiar with the usual way to compile and install configure-based open source SW.

• sqlite-2.8.16
• libqt3-mt-sqlite_3.3.7-4_i386.deb

For the following see the KPhotoAlbum homepage

• exiv2
• libkexif
• libkexiv2
• libkipi
• kipi-plugins
• kphotoalbum

Create an image file

(The exact steps depend on your Knoppix version. My description here is based on Knoppix 5.2. The titles are back-translated from my German version)

• Boot the Knoppix CD/DVD
• On the KDE desktop click the penguin icon on the KDE bar (second left after the K-icon)
• Choose Configuration ->Install permanent Knoppix-image
• Confirm message
• Choose the partition, the image will be created on
• Answer the question for encryption with "No".
• Enter size for the image (you'll need approximately something between 60 and 70 Mbyte; so 70 MByte seems good) Note: The image now gets created, but not mounted, until the next reboot.

Installing KPhotoAlbum in the image file

• Reboot the Knoppix CD/DVD and confirm the mounting of the image file.
• Compile and install sqlite
• Install libqt3-mt-sqlite_3.3.7-4_i386.deb using

dpkg -i libqt3-mt-sqlite_3.3.7-4_i386.deb

• Install the remaining packages in the order
  • exiv2
  • libkexif
  • libkexiv2
  • libkipi
  • kipi-plugins
  • kphotoalbum

Now KPhotoAlbum should be working and installed in the image. (You might need additional packages, depending on your version) Next time just the image file is needed, as described above.