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FuZ3
12-29-2005, 01:43 AM
No real hardware problems here but I need some help with my hardware.

Does anyone know how to turn on video card hardware acceleration in knoppix. I have a Nvidia GeForce 2 MX 400 and when I run Games Knoppix 3.7 it askes me if i want to turn it on in the boot up but when im running normal knoppix it doesn't ask that when I boot up and all the 3d games run super slow.

Anyone know :?:

Harry Kuhman
12-29-2005, 01:56 AM
My understanding (which certainly could be wrong) is that the video drives for both Nvidia and ATI, while released for Linux and free, are not in a license form that would allow Klaus to freely include them in Knoppix, a distro that is frequently used by others for ramasters. Since it's not reasonable for everyone who remasters Knoppix to track down the license of every piece of software included with Knoppix (even things their remaster doesn't really use or have any dealings with) they trust Klaus that he has included only true redistributable open source code in Knoppix. So Knoppix does not and cannot include the drivers you speak of.

As to Games Knoppix, I gues the maker of that software just doesn't care. And in reality users and resellers of the disc are not likely to be pounced upon by video card lawyers. But that's not the same as saying that it couldn't happen or that Knoppix should ignore the license agreement and include this code just because some other distro does.

If it's really an issue to you, consider installing Debian, installing the driver as your video card maker instructs, and then installing any and all applications that you want form the Debian package system.

Or you could complain to your video card maker that their Linux drivers should really be truely open source and freely redistrubitable, but that seems unlikely to get you very far.