[Attn: Prof.Knopper] Incompatibility of NVidia graphics cards with Knoppix

[rajibando]

Till date, with 7.2.0, using my laptop's Nvidia card was like an invigorating cool breeze. I copied the KNOPPIX and boot directories of the image (mounting the iso in a directory and copying them), booted into the knoppix with cheat code, created a Persistent File, then booted upto init 3, finally installed the nvidia original drivers from their site, and the laptop worked like a dream. It is fast and flexible.
Graphics card: NVIDIA Corporation C79 [GeForce 9200M G]
NVidia Driver: NVIDIA-Linux-x86-340.65.run

When I tried to change over to Knoppix 7.4.2 the aforesaid driver wouldn't install. There was a compatibility issue with the new knoppix. Since Knoppix is a wonderful hodgepodge of multiple Debian versions, even a newer driver like NVIDIA-Linux-x86-346.47.run from NVidia wouldn't work.

Why is the FSF so obsessed with developing NVidia drivers from scratch? They should realise that this project is never going to end, as NVidia would be bringing newer cards into the market. And why is Knoppix following the community's efforts so blindly? Why can't Knoppix let us the choice of using drivers which gives us the best results, while reverse engineering the proprietary drivers of NVidia at leisure? Then we could have the best of both worlds, even when our computers last much longer than intended?!

Please, Prof. Knopper, Knoppix is beautiful, it has flaws, but it is beautiful to me, ease of installing 3rd-party proprietary drivers being one of my reasons! Please let it remain beautiful.

[Cosmin3]

Hi.

I also have an (old) NVidia video card: GeForce 7600 GS.
I don't have problems with the latest Knoppix version (7.4.2) but I had problems trying the latest Nouveau and NVidia video drivers on other Linux distros (like Ubuntu and Fedora).
If these drivers would be used in the next Knoppix distribution, would be (double) bad for me. Because it would not start anymore on my computer and on my friends computers (most of them have such old NVidia cards), so I won't be able to use Knoppix to fix their problems.

Regards,
Cosmin

[rajibando]

You are indeed lucky!
The problems or their presence depend from one card to another. If one distribution is okay for you, you could stick to that distro.
Thanks for sharing your troubles.
Regards,
RKB