Starting Compiz in 7.0.4

[Mark_Twain]

I used 6.4.3 on a flash drive with persistent storage as my only operating system for more than a year. I thought I understood Knoppix fairly well. Then I got 7.0.4. I can’t start Compiz no matter how much I fiddle with the settings. I can’t connect to the Internet. Help.

[utu]

Greetings, Mark.
What do you get for testcd or testdvd?

[Mark_Twain]

“All files OK.”

I downloaded 7.0.2 and 7.0.4 and md5 sums checked. I also bought the 7.0.3 DVD from osdisc.com. None work correctly for me, no compiz and no connection (although I haven’t tried too hard to get a connection). Same hardware -- 6.4.3 works fine but none of the 7.0 work.

[knopper]

I used 6.4.3 on a flash drive with persistent storage as my only operating system for more than a year. I thought I understood Knoppix fairly well. Then I got 7.0.4. I can’t start Compiz no matter how much I fiddle with the settings. I can’t connect to the Internet. Help.

Which graphics chipset do you have?

I think that one of the 6.x series was the last one to have the gma500 acellerated driver, which was unfortunately dropped for newer X servers. Since Kernel 3.x, we now have the gma500_gfx framebuffer driver, which is too slow for compiz in mesa 3d software rendering.

Another reason could be that your card is blacklisted for automatic 3D detection (some NVidia and Radeon cards are, because Composite is not stable there), in which case you may try

knoppix 3d

in order to get back the old behaviour of enabling Composite, and letting compiz decide by itself whether or not your card is safe for 3d.

Regards
-Klaus

[Mark_Twain]

Which graphics chipset do you have?

NVidia GeForce FX 5200 -- knoppix 3d does not work.

When I try to start compiz from a console I get:

FATAL: No composite extension

[Mark_Twain]

UPDATE

7.0.2 DVD downloaded U.S. server -- no compiz, no connection.
7.0.3 DVD purchased OSDisk.com -- no compiz, no connection.
7.0.4 DVD downloaded German server -- no compiz, no connection.

However, this morning I downloaded the 7.0.4 CD and it works perfectly. Compiz comes up and the connection is automatic.

Something on the DVD is different from the CD.

[Mark_Twain]

Well, that 7.0.4 CD worked exactly ONCE back in August. It hasn't worked since and I've tried almost daily. I have no connection, no audio and limited graphics.

I have a working Debian testing where I added the proprietary drivers last year. Unfortunately I don't remember what I did. It works perfectly and shows the following cards and drivers:

Graphics: Card NVIDIA C51G [GeForce 6100] X.org 2) Res: 80x24 Gfx Data: N/A for root
Audio: Card NVIDIA MCP51 AC97 Audio Controller driver snd_intel8x0 at ports dc00 d800 BusID: 00:10.2
Network: Card NVIDIA MCP51 Ethernet Controller driver forcedeth at port d400 BusID: 00:14.0

How can install the proper drivers in Knoppix?

And why in the world did the CD work only once?

[knopper]

Well, that 7.0.4 CD worked exactly ONCE back in August. It hasn't worked since and I've tried almost daily. I have no connection, no audio and limited graphics.

I have a working Debian testing where I added the proprietary drivers last year. Unfortunately I don't remember what I did. It works perfectly and shows the following cards and drivers:

Graphics: Card NVIDIA C51G [GeForce 6100] X.org 2) Res: 80x24 Gfx Data: N/A for root
Audio: Card NVIDIA MCP51 AC97 Audio Controller driver snd_intel8x0 at ports dc00 d800 BusID: 00:10.2
Network: Card NVIDIA MCP51 Ethernet Controller driver forcedeth at port d400 BusID: 00:14.0

How can install the proper drivers in Knoppix?

And why in the world did the CD work only once?

It seems your graphics card does not work well with free drivers, so I would suggest to disable accellerated graphics ad use framebuffer or non-3d mode. I'm not convinced that the proprietary drivers behave stable, I would try to avoid them. NVIDIA has always been "problem hardware".

knoppix no3d
or
fb1024x768

will turn off composite and acellerated mode, and use the 2D window manager.

I have no idea why your audio and network isn't working. The onboard intel soundcard is completely independent from your graphics card, and all recent network and wifi adapters should be supported by a recent kernel. Also, there is no natural explanation for a case of the CD working "just once". Neither the CD content, nor your computer hardware can be "changed" by software only. If you find out what happened, please let me know!

Regards
-Klaus