I think I have the Intel 945GM chipset, but right now I can't find out how to find that out. It's something I remember but don't know how to find. The best I can come up with in m$info32 is:

Mobile Intel(R) 955XM/945GM/PM/GMS/940GML Express PCI Express

I tried following the advice at http://www.knoppix.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26914 but after a whole lot of downloading, I got a bunch of errors. Since I run off a CD, I wouldn't be able to keep the setup for the chipset anyway.

Linux looks like some sort of hardware hell. While I don't like Micro$oft, getting the right driver going is much easier in Window$ than in Linux. I hardly ever have to use a command window in Window$; the first advice I often see in Linux forums is "open a command window." Almost all hardware (except some very Apple stuff) has just the right Window$ driver. When I read about people's problems with hardware in Linux, it seems they usually have to fiddle and twiddle to end up with a only a fraction of the functionality available in Window$ for the same hardware item.

The Knoppix CD was just a pursuit of my curiosity. Linux, like Window$, suffers from idiosyncrasies. (For example, I don't have a floppy drive in my laptop, but get a floppy icon on my KDE desktop.) I'll see how it goes after I download the DVD iso. I didn't intend to make a re-mastered optical disc to boot off of; I just intended to satisfy my curiosity.

Thanks for all your suggestions to date.