Hack 93 Contribute to Knoppix

Want to give back to the Knoppix community? Here's how.

So you've used Knoppix for a while and love it, and maybe you've even remastered it a few times [Hack #94], and now you want to contribute to the Knoppix project. Even if you don't know how to program, there are still plenty of ways you can contribute to the project: file bug reports, write documentation, share your ideas for improvements, and help others in the forums.

8.15.1 Become a Knoppix Developer

Becoming a Knoppix developer and contributing to the project is an easy process:

• Subscribe to the debian-knoppix mailing list.

• Send a patch to debian-knoppix or Klaus Knopper himself.

• Be very patient.

The debian-knoppix mailing list is the mailing list for Knoppix development-related discussion. You can sign up for the mailing list at http://mailman.linuxtag.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-knoppix. Note that since Knoppix is a German project, sometimes threads are in German, although many if not all of the active members on the list also speak English.

A majority of the development in Knoppix involves writing bash and dialog scripts, and packaging files into .debs, so a good background in those areas will help you get up to speed on the project. If you have a patch that you would like to see included, it is recommended that you package it into a .deb package. Klaus likes ready-made Debian packages for patches, because they save him the trouble of packaging them himself.

Patience is a virtue. Klaus gets a lot of patches and a lot of emails. Patience and persistence pay off when you have a patch that you would like to see included.

8.15.2 Join the Community

If you don't know how to program, you can still help the Knoppix community. You can file bug reports and general feedback at http://www.knoppix.net/bugs/. Provide as much detailed information as you can when filing a bug report, especially if you are having problems with hardware. This ensures that even if a current version of Knoppix might not support your hardware, it can be supported in the future because the developers are now aware of the problem.

All open source projects benefit from people willing to write good documentation. The documentation pages on http://www.knoppix.net/docs/ run on a Wiki, which means that if you join the site, you can help add, edit, and update the documentation with the rest of the community.

Another great way to contribute to Knoppix is to help in the forums and the IRC channel [Hack #20] . There are always new users who need help getting started; besides, participating on the community forums is a good way to keep up to date with the latest news and tips.