http://www.knoppixforum.de/knoppix-f...html#post26531

That got me started in getting the nvidia driver installed. I had to use the google translator to get it in English.

All I did from that post is to make the new kernel source though. The guy is right that the process is lengthy. It took my computer an hour and a half! I used the Debian way to install the drivers from sid afterwards and it worked fine. No need for the nvidia install blob. The Debian maintainer keeps the version in sid pretty up to date so I expect he'll have another update soon since nvidia just updated its official Linux release.

Once the kernel source is rebuilt:

I already changed /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00knopppix to have the default release be testing since the vast majority of knoppix IS squeeze already. If you don't want to do that then add -t testing to the first line below.

sudo aptitude install nvidia-kernel-common module-assistant

sudo aptitude install -t unstable nvidia-kernel-source

That'll bring in a bunch of debian dev tools that I think even the downloaded nvidia installer might need to work properly (meaning the nvidia-kernel-source package). So if you want to install the downloaded nvidia driver I would first run aptitude install -t unstable nvidia-kernel-source and cancel out of it, then write down the packages it wanted to bring along and install them yourself.

m-a update
m-a prepare
m-a build nvidia
m-a install nvidia

That skips the m-a get step which m-a a-i includes. I don't want it to get the nvidia source since I already did that and have the version I want m-a to work on.

aptitude install -t unstable nvidia-glx nvidia-settings

Then when booting I do:

knoppix lang=us keyboard=us xkeyboard=us screen=1024x768 depth=24 xmodule=nvidia desktop=kde

Maybe you just need xmodule=nvidia but that's what I specify for my system.

No need to work on xorg.conf as those knoppix cheats get nvidia started properly.

I turned off the KDE4 desktop effects in its settings because although they work, they showed some odd defects compared to how they work on my real Debian Squeeze install. Like, the wobbly windows want to wobble but they're stopped by some other effect of a bracket around the windows when I move them. Plus, I turn that off for games, virualization and wine with alt+F12 even with my real install.

Weird that knoppix included the linux-headers but left out the parts of it that enabled the building of modules.

Here's just the commands for the DVD to rebuild them from that post:

sudo su -
cd /usr/src
mv linux-headers-2.6.31.6 linux-headers-2.6.31.6-old
tar xjf linux-source-2.6.31.6.tar.bz2
ln -s linux-source-2.6.31.6 linux
cd linux
make oldconfig
make prepare
make

Then wait a long time.

And if you are using the cd then you can get that source from:

wget http://debian-knoppix.alioth.debian....Custom_all.deb

And install it with:

sudo dpkg -i linux-source-2.6.31.6_2.6.31.6-10.00.Custom_all.deb