[SCRIPT] Install nvidia-gfx-drivers while running from CD

[Fabianx]

Hi,

I've written some script, that allows you to install the nvidia-graphics drivers while running from CD.

It'll download all necessary files, will then compile the kernel module, will create an linked /usr-structure (that can take some time), patch your XF86Config, restart X.

So close all important applications, before starting the script!

And while its restarting X, it creates an knoppix.sh and nvidia.tbz (in /home/knoppix/dist/nvidia), which you can copy to the root of some partition (start with knoppix myconf=scan or knoppix myconf=/mnt/partition) or /cdrom/KNOPPIX and which will automatically set up the nvidia-drivers before starting X.

You can download the script here to compile it for yourself:

http://debian.tu-bs.de/knoppix/live/nvidia-live.sh

You can download knoppix.sh and nvidia.tbz for kernel 2.4.20 (Knoppix 06-06 and earlier) also here:

http://debian.tu-bs.de/knoppix/live/

This is done under the linux-exception of the nvidia-license, that the binaries can be redistributed as long as they are not changed.

Enjoy and test!

cu

Fabian

PS: This work is based on the ideas from Kano's scripts.
PPS: I have no nvidia-card, so I'm just following isntructions how it _could_ work. But I'm sure it will :-)

[aay]

Looks good. I recently had to trade out an Nvidia card on this machine so I don't have one either at the moment.

For those who want to test, try doing this:

Boot to text mode with the 2 option.

Dowload the script: wget http://debian.tu-bs.de/knoppix/live/nvidia-live.sh

Make it executable: chmod +x nvidia-live.sh

Run it: ./nvidia-live.sh

Go ahead and boot to graphical mode: init 5

Please people test this one out as it would be really nice for this to be available on the CD.

----------
edit

Whopps. I just read Fabian's post a little closer and see that the script will restart X itself. Ok then no excuses - download it, run it, test, post results :-)

[Fabianx]

Hi,

I've written some script, that allows you to install the nvidia-graphics drivers while running from CD.

It'll download all necessary files, will then compile the kernel module, will create an linked /usr-structure (that can take some time), patch your XF86Config, restart X.

So close all important applications, before starting the script!

And while its restarting X, it creates an knoppix.sh and nvidia.tbz (in /home/knoppix/dist/nvidia), which you can copy to the root of some partition (start with knoppix myconf=scan or knoppix myconf=/mnt/partition) or /cdrom/KNOPPIX and which will automatically set up the nvidia-drivers before starting X.

You can download the script here to compile it for yourself:

http://debian.tu-bs.de/knoppix/live/nvidia-live.sh

You can download knoppix.sh and nvidia.tbz for kernel 2.4.20 (Knoppix 06-06 and earlier) also here:

http://debian.tu-bs.de/knoppix/live/

This is done under the linux-exception of the nvidia-license, that the binaries can be redistributed as long as they are not changed.

Enjoy and test!

cu

Fabian

PS: This work is based on the ideas from Kano's scripts.
PPS: I have no nvidia-card, so I'm just following isntructions how it _could_ work. But I'm sure it will :-)

We now had the first success.
It does work with the knoppix.sh and I can now even provide an multi-kernel knoppix.sh. (thx to sblock)

Download it here:

http://debian.tu-bs.de/knoppix/live/knoppix.sh

and

http://debian.tu-bs.de/knoppix/live/nvidia.tbz

Put both into the root of some partition and start with knoppix myconf=/mnt/partition

and "boom" :-) , you should have nvidia-drivers available.

But you can also install them with the script mentioned above ...

and now ppl, start testing. It was one of the most asked features, so come on :-).

cu

Fabian

PS: Again binaries are redistributed under the linux-exception of the nvidia-license.

[aay]

Agreed. If you have an Nvidia card, please download this and give it a try. It has been heavily requested within these forums before, but the only way that it will get added to Knoppix is if people try it out and post back results.

[aay]

Kinda disappointing that no one's giving feed back here.

Fabianx, I have a question. The idea of an installer is nice, but would it not be better to just include the drivers on the CD? I believe the Nvidia license provides for this.

If you look at the license <a href"http://www.nvidia.com/object/nv_swlicense.html">here</a>

You'll see this:


2.1.1 Rights. Customer may install and use one copy of the SOFTWARE on a single computer, and except for making one back-up copy of the Software, may not otherwise copy the SOFTWARE. This LICENSE of SOFTWARE may not be shared or used concurrently on different computers.


Sounds like the license won't allow for this until you read the next section.



2.1.2 Linux Exception. Notwithstanding the foregoing terms of Section 2.1.1, SOFTWARE designed exclusively for use on the Linux operating system may be copied and redistributed, provided that the binary files thereof are not modified in any way (except for unzipping of compressed files).


I believe this is the reason why Alextreeme includes the Nvidia drivers on his gaming version of Morphix.

What do you think?

[Fabianx]

Kinda disappointing that no one's giving feed back here.

Fabianx, I have a question. The idea of an installer is nice, but would it not be better to just include the drivers on the CD? I believe the Nvidia license provides for this.

If you look at the license <a href"http://www.nvidia.com/object/nv_swlicense.html">here</a>

You'll see this:


2.1.1 Rights. Customer may install and use one copy of the SOFTWARE on a single computer, and except for making one back-up copy of the Software, may not otherwise copy the SOFTWARE. This LICENSE of SOFTWARE may not be shared or used concurrently on different computers.


Sounds like the license won't allow for this until you read the next section.



2.1.2 Linux Exception. Notwithstanding the foregoing terms of Section 2.1.1, SOFTWARE designed exclusively for use on the Linux operating system may be copied and redistributed, provided that the binary files thereof are not modified in any way (except for unzipping of compressed files).


I believe this is the reason why Alextreeme includes the Nvidia drivers on his gaming version of Morphix.

What do you think?

Klaus does not allow this. As such I'm searching for alternatives that Klaus allows ... :-)

cu

Fabian

[Duffin444]

I have a Geforce 3 and a rather old monitor that only supports 60 hertz. I believe that the nvidia drivers work because sometimes i can see the large nvidia written on my screen at bootup. I still can't, however, get my screen to show up at anything greater than 600 x 400. Even though it does show up at a bad resolution, i was going to deal with the problem in more depth once installed to the hard drive. So i used another of your great scripts and installed Knoppix. On reboot, however, the screen did not show up and my monitor said that it had recieved a signal outside of the viewable range. :(

Maybe you can help me....but i just posted to let you know how it worked :)

[mrdark]

Hey everybody. This is my first post here and I have to say that Knoppix is by far one of the most enjoyable projects I have ever played with. I started using knoppix three weeks ago (actually knoppix is my first real linux experience ever) and now I have remastered it about a dozen times (learning can be addictive) Anyway, I have to say that this script is a good idea but not everyone wants to install knoppix to a hd (or create a persistant home dir) just to get the nvidia drivers to work. If Mr. Knopper doesn't want to include the drivers in the normal knoppix release I can accept that. But why not give some "how to" for those that want to include them into their own personal remasters. Personally I have three main machines I work on.

(1). at work has a matrox card
(2). at home has nvidia
(3). laptop has ati

knoppix running on 1 & 3 works perfect but the home pc (nvidia) doesn't (no hardware accel). I have been trying to include the latest set of drivers for the past week with some old posts from this site but can't quite seem to get it to work right with the hardware auto detection. I don't really want to create two different disks for the three different pc's as that kinda defeats the purpose of a good remastering.

So why not clue those of us in on how to get it to work with auto detection (including install) for our own personal editions, so knoppix doesn't have to.

Just my two cents. Anyway thanks for turning me into a linux junky, I need to get back to compiling spacehulk.

[Fabianx]

Hey everybody. This is my first post here and I have to say that Knoppix is by far one of the most enjoyable projects I have ever played with. I started using knoppix three weeks ago (actually knoppix is my first real linux experience ever) and now I have remastered it about a dozen times (learning can be addictive) Anyway, I have to say that this script is a good idea but not everyone wants to install knoppix to a hd (or create a persistant home dir) just to get the nvidia drivers to work. If Mr. Knopper doesn't want to include the drivers in the normal knoppix release I can accept that. But why not give some "how to" for those that want to include them into their own personal remasters. Personally I have three main machines I work on.

(1). at work has a matrox card
(2). at home has nvidia
(3). laptop has ati

knoppix running on 1 & 3 works perfect but the home pc (nvidia) doesn't (no hardware accel). I have been trying to include the latest set of drivers for the past week with some old posts from this site but can't quite seem to get it to work right with the hardware auto detection. I don't really want to create two different disks for the three different pc's as that kinda defeats the purpose of a good remastering.

So why not clue those of us in on how to get it to work with auto detection (including install) for our own personal editions, so knoppix doesn't have to.

Just my two cents. Anyway thanks for turning me into a linux junky, I need to get back to compiling spacehulk.

It _is_ already possible to do an remaster very easily with this script and the provided things ...

You copy knoppix.sh and nvidia.tbz from above site to /cdrom/KNOPPIX/.

You can then rebuild the master. (No need to modify the compressed part of the image)

You restart with this new CD and boom if there is an card, where nv or vesa would be used, its set to nvidia ...

For other cards I believe 3d will be disabled but they'll also work ...

But you are right, there should be a part that determines if there is a nvidia in there and only then start the knoppix.sh :-)

You can easily add it:

at the beginning of knoppix.sh do:

if [ -z "$(lspci | grep VGA | grep -i nvidia)" ]
then
echo "No nVidia graphics adapter could be found."
exit 3
fi

I won't add it a the moment, as I'm on holidays. :-))

Btw. it does work best with myconfig at the moment, not perfect with persistent home ...

cu

Fabian

[aay]

Kinda disappointing that no one's giving feed back here.

Fabianx, I have a question. The idea of an installer is nice, but would it not be better to just include the drivers on the CD? I believe the Nvidia license provides for this.

If you look at the license <a href"http://www.nvidia.com/object/nv_swlicense.html">here</a>

You'll see this:


2.1.1 Rights. Customer may install and use one copy of the SOFTWARE on a single computer, and except for making one back-up copy of the Software, may not otherwise copy the SOFTWARE. This LICENSE of SOFTWARE may not be shared or used concurrently on different computers.


Sounds like the license won't allow for this until you read the next section.



2.1.2 Linux Exception. Notwithstanding the foregoing terms of Section 2.1.1, SOFTWARE designed exclusively for use on the Linux operating system may be copied and redistributed, provided that the binary files thereof are not modified in any way (except for unzipping of compressed files).


I believe this is the reason why Alextreeme includes the Nvidia drivers on his gaming version of Morphix.

What do you think?

Klaus does not allow this. As such I'm searching for alternatives that Klaus allows ... :-)

cu

Fabian

Understood. I (and other's I'm sure) appreciate the effort.

[mrdark]

Ok quick update.
I tried the steps that fabianx provided above about coping them to the knoppix dir on the cd (without changing anything else on my currently working remaster) and reburning. I then popped the cd into the nvidia pc and gave it a test run. during boot I was pleased to see that it found the card and then unpacked the nvidia.tgz file. The nvidia logo popped up and it went into kde.
I immediately tried armagetron (gl accel tron game) and boom it worked at almost 300 fps. Then I tried another called chromium, and it failed to start. Tried it in a console and it said that libglpng was missing. I thought it strange so I tried yet another game clanbomber. Again it came up with errors. It to seemed to be missing a lib file.
Well after trying 10 more games(including 2d, 3d, and kde games) and 7 other progs. I only got 2 games to work and 5 programs. Everything seemed to complain about missing files. Specifically lib and sdl files.
When I had tried to incorperate the drivers before into my custom remaster I used the directions on this set of posts (second page from thread)
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=152&highlight=nvidia
using this method didn't work either (no gl progs would run at all) but it let other progs run without creating missing files.

So where to go from this point I have no clue, but I do believe that some sort of true integration is needed for a remaster. Maybe something that can be done in a chrooted environment so we can mkisofs it into the big knoppix file.

Anyway thanks for trying.

[Fabianx]

Ok quick update.
I tried the steps that fabianx provided above about coping them to the knoppix dir on the cd (without changing anything else on my currently working remaster) and reburning. I then popped the cd into the nvidia pc and gave it a test run. during boot I was pleased to see that it found the card and then unpacked the nvidia.tgz file. The nvidia logo popped up and it went into kde.
I immediately tried armagetron (gl accel tron game) and boom it worked at almost 300 fps. Then I tried another called chromium, and it failed to start. Tried it in a console and it said that libglpng was missing. I thought it strange so I tried yet another game clanbomber. Again it came up with errors. It to seemed to be missing a lib file.
Well after trying 10 more games(including 2d, 3d, and kde games) and 7 other progs. I only got 2 games to work and 5 programs. Everything seemed to complain about missing files. Specifically lib and sdl files.
When I had tried to incorperate the drivers before into my custom remaster I used the directions on this set of posts (second page from thread)
http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=152&highlight=nvidia
using this method didn't work either (no gl progs would run at all) but it let other progs run without creating missing files.

So where to go from this point I have no clue, but I do believe that some sort of true integration is needed for a remaster. Maybe something that can be done in a chrooted environment so we can mkisofs it into the big knoppix file.

Anyway thanks for trying.

Hi,

thank you for your report.

And chromium and co does work if started on your ATI machines ?

Its strange could you please do:

ldd $(which chromium) in a console and give me the output ?

And for the start I would need exact error messages if possible :)

cu

Fabian

PS: Your remaster sounds kind of interesting ... Do you plan to upload it ? I think I could provide space ...

[mrdark]

Sorry for not replying sooner, life caught up with me.

Anyway, yes all the programs worked on the ATI machine just fine.
Here is what I get from running ldd $(which chromium)


libglpng.so.1 => not found
libGL.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGL.so.1 (0x40021000)
libGLU.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGLU.so.1 (0x40088000)
libopenal.so.0 => not found
libdl.so.2 => /lib/libdl.so.2 (0x400fb000)
libSDL-1.2.so.0 => not found
libpthread.so.0 => /lib/libpthread.so.0 (0x4016c000)
libsmpeg-0.4.so.0 => /usr/lib/libsmpeg-0.4.so.0 (0x401bc000)
libstdc++.so.5 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.5 (0x40213000)
libm.so.6 => not found
libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x402e0000)
libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x402e8000)
libGLcore.so.1 => /usr/lib/libGLcore.so.1 (0x403f8000)
libXext.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libXext.so.6 (0x408a9000)
libX11.so.6 => /usr/X11R6/lib/libX11.so.6 (0x408b6000)
libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3 => /usr/lib/libstdc++-libc6.2-2.so.3 (0x40972000)
/lib/ld-linux.so.2 => /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0x40000000)


and here is a rundown of the error messages from starting other games.


chromium: error while loading shared libraries: libglpng.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

clanbomber: error while loading shared libraries: libclanSound.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

criticalmass: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL_mixer-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

kasteroids: error while loading shared libraries: libkdegames.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

kbounce: error while loading shared libraries: libkdegames.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

kolf: error while loading shared libraries: libkolf.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

thrust: (my personal note this game starts but the screen is so garbled nothing can be seen)

xevil: (runs but terrible colors maybe 16 color)

bzflag:
loading fixedmr
Can't continue without font: fixedmr
Failed to load resource because the 'data'
directory can't be found.

trackballs: error while loading shared libraries: libguile.so.12: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

xinv3d: (personal note, the game runs but not like normal. The game speed is very slow unless you move the mouse at which point the game runs at full speed, but if you stop moving the mouse the game again begins to run slowly)

megami: error while loading shared libraries: libkdegames.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

crimson: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL_mixer-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

ltris: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL_mixer-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

other games wouldn't run either but I could not start them in the console to get an error message.

Here are the games that would run:

armagetron (only 3d game that would run)
adonthell
xboing
typespeed
ksokoban


Progs that wouldn't run:

mozilla (gave no errors in console just wouldn't start)
kugar (again no errors in console just wouldn't start)
blender (ran but with major screen artifacts no errors in console)
xine (would run but .mpg videos were terrible colors no errors in console)


I didn't try every game or program these were just the ones I did try.

BTW I'm running a Gainward GForce4 Ti4200 128mb Golden Sample.

PS: I hadn't thought of uploading it, but if you got the space I'd be more than happy. :D

[83mercedes]

OK this is great!
Now, I am a dumb newbie here, 2 questions please?

1) How can I copy those files to, for example, /mnt/hda6, (error says 'read-only file system')

2) how in the world can I copy those files to /cdrom/knoppix, and then burn it again as an .iso?

Any help is appreciated!
Thanks.

[Fabianx]

Not only with you...

Could you please do the same comamnds on an Box with an ATI-gfx card ?

cu

Fabian

PS: The Errors are a bit strange ... Hm ...

[mrdark]

Well after days of searching forums to no avail, trying numerous combinations of tricks and .debs with the same result, and thirteen iso's later
........drum roll please...... I got it to work perfect.

But there is a catch. I have no idea why it decided to work only now.

Figures :roll:

Anyway this is what I have figured out about it (not sure if you know this or not, or even if I am right but here goes) The last attempt (which is the one that worked) I had my custom working remaster started on the nvidia machine. I downloaded your "nvidia-live.sh" script to the ram drive. Opened up a root console and did-

"mount -o rw /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1"

Thinking I would use it to dump the created "knoppix.sh and nvidia.tgz" files. I then did-

"cd /ramdisk"

"sh nvidia-live.sh"

and it downloaded the files and began to compile them. As it was working I noticed a few error messages which flashed by to quick for me to catch (I know what your thinking why didn't I just scroll back up to see them? well I'm getting to that) and then it finished and tried to restart X. As soon as it started to load back up a big error popped up saying it couldn't write to the ramdisk and that there wasn't enough ram to start kde (let me just point out that my nvidia machine has 1gig of ram) so needless to say I was a bit bewildered. Then it asked if I wanted to load TWM and I said ok. Well TWM opened and so did an empty root console window (hence no scrolling back up for error messages, and I have never really used TWM at all so I was a bit lost at first) I tried opening a file browser but again was accosted with errors. I finally got konqueror web browser opened and used it to access the disk and found that all the files were there on the ramdisk that it had made. Unfortunately it killed my mounting of hda1 and wouldn't let me remount it so I cranked up my laptop, and started up lineighborhood. Got the files copied to the laptop and then rebooted the nvidia machine.

I figured what the hell I couldn't screw it up anymore than what it was already so I copied the newly created files to an iso after adding-

"if [ -z "$(lspci | grep VGA | grep -i nvidia)" ]
then
echo "No nVidia graphics adapter could be found."
exit 3
fi "

to the beginning of the knoppix.sh file and popped it in. I thought at least I may be able to get some more error messages to pour over, but instead I was pleasantly greeted with fully working nvidia divers. After picking my jaw up off the floor I tested everything, and it worked. So then I decided to see if anything was different about your knoppix.sh and nvidia.tgz files and mine.

First off the knoppix.sh files were an exact match. So eliminating that I checked the nvidia.tgz. Your .tgz file is about 1meg larger than the new one I have. So I opened them both up. To my surprise the new .tgz file had about 150 extra files in it than yours. All of which had a size of 0kb. It was even missing quite a few files that were in yours. All the files that did have size were of course the nvidia drivers themselves which matched file for file and size for size as what was in yours except for the extra nvidia kernel file I think you added. After that it was time to experiment.

I took four other working iso's (each with different programs and libs on them) and ran the same steps. Again each time it crapped out on me during restart but I was able to save the files off the ramdisk. Each .tgz file was slightly different but the drivers worked perfect on its respective iso. Trying to switch around the .tgz files between iso's caused similar errors like that which I stated in my last post.

So in closing from what I gathered, if you want the drivers to work on a remaster your gonna have to build them specifically for that remaster, then remaster it once again with the added drivers. If you add or remove any progs later then you will have to rebuild the drivers once again for that revision as even a single file change seems to break them. So your mileage may vary. As a side note each working remaster with the nvidia drivers and added lines in the knoppix.sh file work perfect on non nvidia systems with full 3d accel. All building and testing was done on 6-6, 7-24, and 7-26 custom remasters.

This whole ordeal took three packs of smokes, two 2-liters of red fusion, four fingernails, twelve hours, and one massive headache. But in the end the knowledge I gained was worth every minute of it, plus I hope it helps you out as well.


PS: Sorry, I seem to have lost the original iso I had tried, so I can't run the commands on my ati machine for you with the same disk.

[mrdark]

Ok ran across a problem that only seems to happen when using the knoppix.sh & nvidia.tgz files. For some reason when used the floppy & cdrom drives are no longer automounted in the system. Everything else is mounted fine from what I can tell, just not the floppy or cdroms.

During normal boot the auto mounter runs right before stating what runlevel it is at. When using the nvidia drivers it looks like the knoppix.sh file is loaded instead of the automounter. Because after it says its unpacked the tgz file it states the runlevel and says nothing about the automounter then boots into kde.

This happens on every iso I have made so far that includes the drivers. I can take the same iso without the drivers and the automounter works fine.

Any ideas?

[Superstoned]

I tried the script with a knoppix hd-install, got an error (of course), and the script automatically downloaded the hd-install version. which I started, and afer just a few mins everything was ok... tnx!!!!!!!

[panther]

I did the same thing that Superstoned did!

I just started the same script, and it downloaded teh "hdd" version,
and then it did all the apt-get downloading stuff, compiled it for me,
modified my Xfree86 config file and switched back to KDE!

THAT WAS AMAZING!!!!

And plus my sound card kept on giving me errors [SB Audigy] and after this script [My card is a ASUS GeForce FX 5600] THE SOUND started working too!

Thanks a lot! Long live this Linux community!

[zoso]

First of all, most excellent script. I've been trying to install the latest debianized package but so far it hasn't been very cooperative. There isn't much documentation on how to solve problems that might occur in any case, and I haven't been able to solve it with brute force.

Luckily I discovered this little gem of a script after searching on the forums. Man, talk about great! I do have one question/issue though.

Why is it that the script doesn't install the latest version of the NVIDIA drivers? 1.0-4496 is available but the script installed 1.0-4363. Is this because of the fact that NVIDIA has released only a packaged .run version of the driver?

I tried to take a look at the script to figure out why this might be, but my bash scripting skills aren't up to the task yet. I'd appreciate an explanation, if only so I might expand my own knowledge of how all this stuff works.

[P2C2E]

Thanks Fabianx for an excellent script. My nvidia drivers are installed and 3D acceleration works. Your script made it all seem rather effortless. Since the installation of the nvidia driver, I am now limited to to a screen resolution of 800x600. How can I change it back to 1024x768 without totally messing up my /etc/x11/xf86config file? Ctrl+Alt+(+) (-) does not help. I am new to Linux and your help is greatly appreciated.

[Dave_Bechtel]

o Boot Knoppix CD with ' screen=1024x768 ' code

o mount some-convenient-writeable-partition (could be your HDinstall root)

o ' cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 some-convenient-place-on-HD '

o Reboot into HD install, runlevel 2
o ' cd /etc/X11 '
o ' cp XF86Config-4 XF86Config-4-bkp ' == Make bkp so you can backout

o cp the XF...-4 file from some-convenient-place to /etc/X11
o Reinstall the NVidia drivers

o Post back here with results :)


Thanks Fabianx for an excellent script. My nvidia drivers are installed and 3D acceleration works. Your script made it all seem rather effortless. Since the installation of the nvidia driver, I am now limited to to a screen resolution of 800x600. How can I change it back to 1024x768 without totally messing up my /etc/x11/xf86config file? Ctrl+Alt+(+) (-) does not help. I am new to Linux and your help is greatly appreciated.

[P2C2E]

Thanks for the suggestion and clear instructions. I gave it try but it did not fix the problem. The nvidia driver still will not allow 1024x768.


o Boot Knoppix CD with ' screen=1024x768 ' code

o mount some-convenient-writeable-partition (could be your HDinstall root)

o ' cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 some-convenient-place-on-HD '

o Reboot into HD install, runlevel 2
o ' cd /etc/X11 '
o ' cp XF86Config-4 XF86Config-4-bkp ' == Make bkp so you can backout

o cp the XF...-4 file from some-convenient-place to /etc/X11
o Reinstall the NVidia drivers

o Post back here with results :)


Thanks Fabianx for an excellent script. My nvidia drivers are installed and 3D acceleration works. Your script made it all seem rather effortless. Since the installation of the nvidia driver, I am now limited to to a screen resolution of 800x600. How can I change it back to 1024x768 without totally messing up my /etc/x11/xf86config file? Ctrl+Alt+(+) (-) does not help. I am new to Linux and your help is greatly appreciated.

[Dave_Bechtel]

--Check /var/log/XFree86.0.log and see what it says. Mine is needlessly verbose, but here's where I verified 1280x1024 res:



(II) NVIDIA(0): Not using default mode "2048x1536" (bad mode clock/interlace/dou
blescan)
(**) NVIDIA(0): Validated modes for display device CRT-0:
(**) NVIDIA(0): Mode "1280x1024": 108.0 MHz, 64.0 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0): Mode "1152x864": 97.2 MHz, 62.0 kHz, 68.8 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0): Mode "1024x768": 86.3 MHz, 61.7 kHz, 76.9 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0): Mode "800x600": 67.6 MHz, 60.8 kHz, 97.1 Hz
(**) NVIDIA(0): Mode "640x480": 47.9 MHz, 55.5 kHz, 110.7 Hz
(II) NVIDIA(0): Virtual screen size determined to be 1280 x 1024

**snip**

(II) NVIDIA(0): AGP 4X successfully initialized
(II) NVIDIA(0): Setting mode "1280x1024"
(II) NVIDIA(0): Using the NVIDIA 2D acceleration architecture


--Here are some relevant sections from my config-4, I have a Sony 17" Multiscan monitor and Riva TNT2 card. Make sure you have timings for 1024x768 in these sections (my DefaultColorDepth is 16, and 1280x1024 is default res in that mode.)



Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes[0]"
Modeline "1024x768" 61.19 1024 1040 1216 1400 768 768 775 802
Modeline "1024x768" 71.39 1024 1040 1216 1400 768 768 778 802
Modeline "1024x768" 81.59 1024 1040 1216 1400 768 768 778 802
Modeline "1024x768" 86.32 1024 1040 1216 1400 768 768 778 802
Modeline "800x600" 37.44 800 816 928 1072 600 600 605 626
Modeline "800x600" 43.68 800 816 928 1072 600 600 610 626
Modeline "800x600" 49.92 800 816 928 1072 600 600 610 626
Modeline "800x600" 56.16 800 816 928 1072 600 600 610 626
Modeline "800x600" 62.40 800 816 928 1112 600 600 610 626
Modeline "800x600" 67.60 800 816 928 1112 600 600 610 626
Modeline "640x480" 23.96 640 656 720 864 480 480 484 501
Modeline "640x480" 27.96 640 656 720 864 480 480 490 501
Modeline "640x480" 31.95 640 656 720 864 480 480 490 501
Modeline "640x480" 35.94 640 656 720 864 480 480 490 501
Modeline "640x480" 39.94 640 656 720 864 480 480 490 501
Modeline "640x480" 43.93 640 656 720 864 480 480 490 501
Modeline "640x480" 47.92 640 656 720 864 480 480 490 501
Modeline "1152x864" 77.55 1152 1168 1384 1568 864 864 871 902
Modeline "1152x864" 90.48 1152 1168 1384 1568 864 864 874 902
Modeline "1152x864" 97.24 1152 1168 1384 1568 864 864 874 902
Modeline "1280x1024" 108.00 1280 1360 1472 1688 1024 1025 1028 1066
EndSection




Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultColorDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth 1
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 4
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 32
Modes "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection


--BTW, my knoppix config-4 is hacked together with some stuff from the results of Suse Livecd 8.2's ' sax2 ' configuration file. Had to do it that way to get Vmware working in all video modes. If you're interested, you can get it here:

ftp://ftp.uniroma2.it/Linux/suse/pub/suse/i386/live-eval-8.2/


Thanks for the suggestion and clear instructions. I gave it try but it did not fix the problem. The nvidia driver still will not allow 1024x768.

[P2C2E]

Thanks again, Dave_Bechtel, for your helpful reply. I finally had some time to work on this screen resolution problem again. By mentioning your SuSE xf86 config files, you gave me a great idea. I have SuSE 8.2 with NVIDIA 3D acceleration working perfectly at 1024x768 on another partition so I used the xf86config files from it. There is not an xf86config-4 in SuSE 8.2 but the xf86config.sax is the exact same thing so I used it to replace my xf86config-4 in knoppix. My NVIDIA card works perfectly at 1024x768 now! Thanks for the great tip. :D

[A. Jorge Garcia]

OK, this all sounds great. But I'm confused, is this only for the liveCD or can I use this script for my hdinstalls?

TIA,

[P2C2E]

OK, this all sounds great. But I'm confused, is this only for the liveCD or can I use this script for my hdinstalls?

TIA,

Yes, I have been using this script for hd installs and it works extremely well once I edit the xf86config-4 file as stated above.

[A. Jorge Garcia]

OK, now let me get this straight. If I run this script from a liveCD along with the nvidia.tbz I will get a modified XF86Config-4 file. Now what? How do I use this with an hdinstall?

I can't just /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /mnt/hda7/etc/X11/XF86Config-4 as I did to get the knoppix vga=normal screen=1024x768 xvrefresh=60 boot string (cheat code) to work on my hdinstall, right? How do I actually compile and install the drivers to hda7 instead of the CD? Also, how do I know which nvidia drivers are being installed? I need series 4192 I think for my VANTA card at home.

BTW, I'm doing this for my kids at home to play bzflag. At school, my students would like to play bzflag too, but I don't have nvidia cards there. I have those pesky intel video on board chips.... Do I use DRI for these?

TIA,

[P2C2E]

[quote="A. Jorge Garcia"]OK, now let me get this straight. If I run this script from a liveCD along with the nvidia.tbz I will get a modified XF86Config-4 file. Now what? How do I use this with an hdinstall?

I can't just /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /mnt/hda7/etc/X11/XF86Config-4 as I did to get the knoppix vga=normal screen=1024x768 xvrefresh=60 boot string (cheat code) to work on my hdinstall, right? How do I actually compile and install the drivers to hda7 instead of the CD? Also, how do I know which nvidia drivers are being installed? I need series 4192 I think for my VANTA card at home.

BTW, I'm doing this for my kids at home to play bzflag. At school, my students would like to play bzflag too, but I don't have nvidia cards there. I have those pesky intel video on board chips.... Do I use DRI for these?

If you already have Knoppix installed on hda7 just boot up your hdinstall and run the script from your hda7 installation of Knoppix. Somewhere at the beginning of this thread, fabianx states which driver version is used.

[A. Jorge Garcia]

OK, I just reread this entire thread AGAIN. I suppose the drivers are in nvidia.tbz, but I still don't get what version is used.... Also, could I get step-by-step instructions for using the installation script on an hdinstall?

Could someone please tell me which version is used as there are several versions on the nividia website for different models of nvidia cards. Mine is the Vanta card and NVChooser.sh says I need version 4191.

BTW, I have the Vanta card on my home PC. At school I have the intel video onboard 810 series. How do I get graphics acceleration for these motherboard graphics chips? My students really deserve a day off (right before turkey day?) and I would like to give them a bzflag LAN party....

TIA,

[P2C2E]

OK, I just reread this entire thread AGAIN. I suppose the drivers are in nvidia.tbz, but I still don't get what version is used.... Also, could I get step-by-step instructions for using the installation script on an hdinstall?

Could someone please tell me which version is used as there are several versions on the nividia website for different s of nvidia cards. Mine is the Vanta card and NVChooser.sh says I need version 4192.

BTW, I have the Vanta card on my home PC. At school I have the intel video onboard 810 series. How do I get graphics acceleration for these motherboard graphics chips? My students really deserve a day off (right before turkey day?) and I would like to give them a bzflag LAN party....

TIA,
Don't worry about the exact driver now. Just try this one and see if it works for your card.
1. Download the script: wget http://debian.tu-bs.de/knoppix/live/nvidia-live.sh and save it in your home directory. Stay connected to internet during all steps.
2. Open the console and su to root.
3. cd /"home directory"
4. Make it executable: chmod +x nvidia-live.sh
5. Run it: ./nvidia-live.sh
6. You will then get a second script "nvidia-installer.sh" (not sure of name).
7. chmod +x nvidia-installer.sh (or whatever the actual name of the second script is)
8. ctrl-alt-F2 to close X
9. log back in at prompt.
10. su to root
11. Run second script: ./nvidia-installer.sh (again not sure about name)
12. If I remember correctly, that is it. When your computer reboots, you will have 3D acceleration.

[P2C2E]

OK, I just reread this entire thread AGAIN. I suppose the drivers are in nvidia.tbz, but I still don't get what version is used.... Also, could I get step-by-step instructions for using the installation script on an hdinstall?

Could someone please tell me which version is used as there are several versions on the nividia website for different s of nvidia cards. Mine is the Vanta card and NVChooser.sh says I need version 4192.

BTW, I have the Vanta card on my home PC. At school I have the intel video onboard 810 series. How do I get graphics acceleration for these motherboard graphics chips? My students really deserve a day off (right before turkey day?) and I would like to give them a bzflag LAN party....

TIA,

The script installs driver 4363. It should work with your card. I have no experience with the intel 810 graphics.

[A. Jorge Garcia]

...tis a thing of beauty!

Worked like a dream, thanx Fabianx and P2C2E!!

Sweet!!!

PS: yeah, thanx guys, now my kids won't stop playing bzflag on my PC....

[pooh_]

Hi there,

Can anybody tell me what has changed with the nvidia scripts? There are new ones, but install-nvidia.sh is needed and not there anymore.

TIA

[Fabianx]

Hi there,

Can anybody tell me what has changed with the nvidia scripts? There are new ones, but install-nvidia.sh is needed and not there anymore.

TIA

Please go to kano.mipooh.net and dl it :-) as you are on a hdinstall.

cu

Fabian

[pooh_]

That was a simple but effective answer. Din't know about that site.

It helped me, it works now.

A big thx.

:D

[Wikt]

Hi

This thing COULD be a blessing. but when I run it.. I get repetitive errors about that thing not being there. What the?

Edit: I have a live-CD but I made my old RHL7 install a persistent home.

[A. Jorge Garcia]

I tried kano's script modified for 4192 (NVchooser.sh told me to use this driver originally) and 4363 (worked for me before with fabianx' script) and 2123 (new driver from NVchooser). I only get 300 fps now. I had gotten 600 fps before (with fabianx' script) on my Vanta card with a knoppix hdinstall. I reinstalled as debian and use kano's scripts and can't get more than 300 fps. Why?

Regards,
AJG

[Wikt]

Small question.

I try to run the script. However, I get errors about that the connection timed out and about wrong server response.

1) Timeout
2) Wrong resp
1)
2)
1)
2)

Ad infinitum

How the hack do I fix this?

[A. Jorge Garcia]

Oh, I just uncommentted (no # at the beginning of the line) the URL line thusly:

URL=http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86
or
URL=http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/

and you have to edit the VER line too, ie:

VER=1.0-4363

You just have to pick a driver from (maybe other than the 4363 series I used as an example):

ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86
or
ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/

Good Luck,
AJG

PS: see script install-nvidia-debian.sh from http://kano.mipooh.net[/b] below

#!/bin/sh
if test -z "`lspci|grep VGA|grep -i nvidia`"; then
echo Error: No nVidia VGA adapter found.
exit 3
fi
if test $(id -u) != 0; then
echo Error: You must be root to run this script!
exit 4
fi
if test -n "$DISPLAY"; then
echo Error: Can\`t be run within X! Use a text console \(ALT-CTRL-F1\)
exit 5
fi
VER=1.0-4363
#VER=1.0-4349
URL=http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/
#VER=1.0-4191
#URL=http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/
cd /usr/src
wget -Nc $URL$VER/NVIDIA_kernel-$VER.tar.gz
wget -Nc $URL$VER/NVIDIA_GLX-$VER.tar.gz
rm -rf NVIDIA_kernel-$VER
tar zxf NVIDIA_kernel-$VER.tar.gz &>/dev/null || (
rm -f NVIDIA_kernel-$VER.tar.gz
echo NVIDIA_kernel-$VER.tar.gz could not be extracted
echo and has been deleted. Please restart this script.
exit 1
) || exit $?
rm -rf NVIDIA_GLX-$VER
tar zxf NVIDIA_GLX-$VER.tar.gz &>/dev/null || (
rm -f NVIDIA_GLX-$VER.tar.gz
echo NVIDIA_GLX-$VER.tar.gz could not be extracted
echo and has been deleted. Please restart this script.
exit 2
) || exit $?
if test "$(kernelversion)" == "2.6"; then
wget -Nc http://www.minion.de/files/NVIDIA_kernel-$VER-2.6.diff
fi
if test -f /etc/modutils/1alsa; then
mv /lib/modules/extra/alsa /lib/modules/`uname -r`/
rm -f /etc/modutils/1alsa
update-modules
fi
DM=`cat /etc/X11/default-display-manager 2>/dev/null`
DM=`basename $DM 2>/dev/null`
if test -z "$DM"; then
test -e /etc/init.d/kdm && /etc/init.d/kdm stop
else
test -e /etc/init.d/$DM && /etc/init.d/$DM stop
fi
rm -f /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/video/nvidia.*o
cd NVIDIA_kernel-$VER
if test "$(kernelversion)" == "2.6"; then
patch -p1 <../NVIDIA_kernel-$VER-2.6.diff
ln -s Makefile.kbuild Makefile
fi
perl -pi -e 's/"?(\$\(kernel_cc\))"?/"\1"/;s/"?(\$\(module_cc\))"?/"\1"/' Makefile
CC=gcc-$(perl -pe '($_)=/gcc.[Vv]ersion\s(3\.\d|2\.\d+)/;' /proc/version)
if test -e /usr/bin/$CC; then
make install CC=/usr/bin/$CC IGNORE_CC_MISMATCH=1
else
make install IGNORE_CC_MISMATCH=1
fi
cd ..
rm -rf NVIDIA_kernel-$VER
rm -f /etc/modutils/nvidia
perl -pi -e 's|.*char-major-195.*[\n]?||' /etc/modutils/aliases
perl -pi -e 's|[\n]?$|\n|' /etc/modutils/aliases
echo alias char-major-195 nvidia >> /etc/modutils/aliases
update-modules
cd NVIDIA_GLX-$VER
make install
cd ..
rm -rf NVIDIA_GLX-$VER
if ! test -e /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.1st; then
cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.1st
fi
perl -p -e 's/^[\s]*Load\s*"GLcore"/#\tLoad "GLcore"/;
s/^[\s]*Load\s*"dri"/#\tLoad "dri"/;
s/^[\s]*#*[\s]*Load\s*"glx"/\tLoad "glx"/;
s/^[\s]*Driver\s*"nv"/\tDriver "nvidia"/g;
s/^[\s]*Driver\s*"fbdev"/\tDriver "nvidia"/g;
s/^[\s]*Driver\s*"vesa"/\tDriver "nvidia"/g;
s/DefaultColorDepth.*/DefaultColorDepth 24/;
s/^[\s]*Option\s*"sw_cursor"/\t#Option "sw_cursor"/' \
< /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.1st > /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
rm -rf /usr/lib/tls
ldconfig
sync
if test -z "$DM"; then
test -e /etc/init.d/kdm && /etc/init.d/kdm start
else
test -e /etc/init.d/$DM && /etc/init.d/$DM start
fi

[Wikt]

I changed the ftp into http. Worked. :)

[daneel]

I cant install the script in knoppix 3.3 (the last version). At the end, my pc crash.
And the precompiled nvidia.tgz doesnt work because are diferente kernell version. I have a Nvidia 5200 FX
Can the autor update the script?

Thanks for your time

[societelibre]

hi,

First thanks for the nice scripts, they work really well! :-) The nvidia-live.sh script works perfectly on my Dell Inspiron 8100 using the live Knoppix CD, version 3.3.

However it uses quite old NVidia drivers, namely the 1.0-4349 version. If you simply change the variable VER in the script to use more recent versions it doesn't work, because the NVIDIA_kernel-....tar.gz and NVIDIA_GLX-....tar.gz do not exist for the recent drivers, only the NVIDIA-Linux-...-pkg1.run exists. I saw that some scripts have been written for these recent drivers on http://kanotix.com/files/ , but as far as I understand these scripts are for a hard drive install of Knoppix, not for using with liveCD, right?

So could it be possible to update the nvidia-live.sh script for more recent NVidia drivers? I'd like to do it myself, I tried a bit, but as I'm not a programmer at all I got a bit confused...

Thanks a lot! :-)

[Fabianx]

hi,

First thanks for the nice scripts, they work really well! :-) The nvidia-live.sh script works perfectly on my Dell Inspiron 8100 using the live Knoppix CD, version 3.3.

However it uses quite old NVidia drivers, namely the 1.0-4349 version. If you simply change the variable VER in the script to use more recent versions it doesn't work, because the NVIDIA_kernel-....tar.gz and NVIDIA_GLX-....tar.gz do not exist for the recent drivers, only the NVIDIA-Linux-...-pkg1.run exists. I saw that some scripts have been written for these recent drivers on http://kanotix.com/files/ , but as far as I understand these scripts are for a hard drive install of Knoppix, not for using with liveCD, right?

So could it be possible to update the nvidia-live.sh script for more recent NVidia drivers? I'd like to do it myself, I tried a bit, but as I'm not a programmer at all I got a bit confused...

Thanks a lot! :-)

Hi,

added it to my todo list.

Thank you.

Sorry, will not have the time soon, but we'll see ...

cu

Fabian

[probono]

Perhaps we should ask Nvidia for permission to make precompiled nvidia.tgz available for download through klik ("Linux exception" of their license).

[daneel]

Please, the comunity really need this driver. Have you start to make it?
PD: I try to merge nvidia-live.sh and install-nvidia-5336-debian.sh but i cant do on my own, i think that isnt too dificult :?

Pleaseeeee ... :roll:

Thanks for your time