Install nvidia driver and enable special effects in live boot?
 

Can I enable special effects (aka visual effects) while live boot in Ubuntu 8.04? To enable special effects (aka visual effects) I go to Preferences > Appearance and on the “Visual Effects” tab I click the radio button for either “Normal” or “Extra”. When I try to enable either Normal or Extra I get an error telling me “Desktop effects could not be enabled”. I take this to mean that I must install a VGA driver that can support this capability. I used “add / remove” and installed first one and then the other nvidia driver but no joy. I’m not even certain which driver to use.

How can I figure out which driver to use? IIRC there are three listed in “add / remove”. One is legacy which the description says is not supported by my hardware (driver is probably too old). One is plain nvidia and the other is nvidia new. None of them list my VGA by name and or model number. My VGA is a ZOGIS GeForce FX 5500 256MB 128-bit DDR 8x AGP.

To summarize I have two questions about enabling a new VGA driver in live boot :
1 Is it or is it not possible to use a newly installed graphics driver without rebooting? I have tried to log out and log back in but that doesn’t enable the driver.
2 Is it hopeless to install / enable a VGA driver while in a live boot?

Another thing is when I try to use add/remove to install an nvidia driver I get an error *but* if before I try to install it I first install something else (anything else) I see this dialog “Enable the installation of community maintained software?”. If I enable it and after it is downloaded/installed *then* I can install the nvidia driver. I have no clue what that’s about. I guess if that’s what I have to do to make it work then so be it but it strikes me as rather odd.

You may be wondering why I don’t just install Ubuntu 8.04 and stop trying to do things in live boot. I have two reasons. First I have had excellent success setting up and testing my hardware in live boot. Second even after I install Ubuntu I will continue to experiment and there is a chance I will break it. The more I can do in live boot the less likely it is that I will break an installed OS. I am however beginning to suspect that I may have done all that can be done with live boot.

I hope you good people can shed some light on my questions. Thanks.

http://thegabfather.wordpress.com/20...u-hardy-heron/
try this . hope it helps I spent one month on the GOS3 ubunutu 8.04. after sudo ing my self to death I spent 10 minutes installing it on slackware 12.1 gsb gnome.
boot push escape like it asks then select start in recovery mode.
then drop to root after building the driver type telinit 5 .
but if you follow the instruction I sent you in the link you will not have to do that. Why so long on the 8.04 I was trouble shooting some symlinks that seem to always creep back sence 2005.

I am not sure about any Ubuntu specifics, but I know your card would fall under the NVidia Legacy drivers (I have a GeForce 5600 in this machine now), at least as of right now.

So you might want to try with the Live 8.10 version, and use the Legacy driver under that. 8.10 is recent enough that it should be using a bit more current drivers.

As for installing without rebooting, that is no problem. It is just going to install the kernel module for the NVidia card and then load it when you start X. Perhaps that is the problem, if you are trying to install from X, it is not going to be able to reload the module. You should try installing the driver from the command line, and then start X (presumably the live Ubuntu has some provision for exiting out of X completely).

Be careful ever sence the 2.6.27 kernel nvidia has been using a patch for the nvidia kernel. so make sure your 810 build has it ready. I have seen some deb patches out there but 804 is going to be supported till 2011 so it is long term and stable and has the patched drivers .

Quote from article you linked to: “After you closed the windows i’ll will ask you to restart the computer go head and do that.”

Unfortunately to use that procedure I would have to reboot and that means I loose any changes I’ve made while live booted so no joy. RE the subject line of my OP.

Your post has indicated to me that my OP may have been unclear in one respect which is that I do not wish to install Compiz Fusion. I will edit my OP to clarify what I want in regard to special effects (aka visual effects).

Thanks for the link. If I install Ubuntu it may be useful.

If the driver you refer to is the Nvidia binary X.Org ‘legacy driver’ then I am unable to install it using the add/remove function. When I select it in add/remove I see: “Nvidia binary X.Org ‘legacy driver’ cannot be installed on your computer type (i386)”. I am clueless as to why the add/remove function won’t let me install this driver. My assumption is that the driver is too old for my VGA. As I am a Linux newbie I am ill qualified to make any better assumption.

I’d like to stick to 8.04 if possible.

I wouldn’t have a clue how to install a driver from the command line and as a lover of point & click I would prefer not to go there (to the CLI) if possible. Ditto for starting Ubuntu live boot without X or exiting X after Ubuntu has started. I might be interested in trying what you suggest if (and only if) you could explain it in dead simple terms.

Given my current state of knowledge I am reluctant to impose on you so badly as my knowledge of Linux is so limited that what I’m (or would be) asking for is probably “a bridge too far”.

Thanks for your reply. My guess is that your suggestion has a good chance of working. Sadly I lack the skills to implement it. Thanks.

http://www.sabayonlinux.org/ and http://www.puppylinux.org/wiki/archi...eases/tigerpup theses are both live distros that have your nvida driver and you can use compiz-fusion right from the boot. I have the same card as you and they both work fine.

Since my OP concerns a question about resolving a problem with live boot Ubuntu 8.04 I don’t see how your reply can help solve this issue.

If I have time I may take a look at what you suggest but my learning curve is IMO steep enough without adding a Gentoo based (Sabayon) distro to my list of tasks.

I am still in the learning stage and I want to keep my focus on Ubuntu 8.04 and not muddy the water too much by getting into other distros (not one that isn’t Debian based).

One last point. Here is a quote from my second post which I addressed to you: “Your post has indicated to me that my OP may have been unclear in one respect which is that I do not wish to install Compiz Fusion.” Installing Compiz Fusion was never my goal, I only wanted to install and enable a driver for my VGA and enable visual effects. Thanks.

well it is all linux and if you can not figure out how to down load the develepment files and build the nvidia kernel and run nvidia-xconfig with out rebooting and loosing it all sorry. but just per chance you figured out how to come pile the nvidia kernel. ok. then download the nvidia kernel and put it in a file log in telinit 1 use your comand line to apget all the stuff you need to build it then cd to the file build install and then go to telinit 4 and you will see the nvida logo splach then a sghin in. but you want ubuntu so if I was you I would put all the stuff on you need and remaster the live cd and then all is good. or you can use linux. Oh ubuntu is linux mmmm so is about 300 othere distro's.
eeec tiger is linux. mandrivia is linux mmm ubuntu linux all live cd your object I thought was to play with the compiz-fusion. and if you get it working in gos3 hardy heron oh buy the way that is also 8.04 let me know the work around . Your whole problem is killing the xwindows going back to telinit 1 and building the kernel and then going back to telinit 4 that so that is your fix. the only reson Ubuntu wants you to reboot is it treats you kinda of like windows. In stead of rmmod nvidiafb and the modprobe nvidia then restart the xserver logout then log in. is beacuse they do not want to take the time it is easier to say reboot.
next time someone tries to help you please do not let your frustration show through.

Don't worry Drakeo, I thought looking at a LIVE CD that already had the requested feature working automatically at boot was a good thought as well.. If you hadn't already suggested it I would have. You know what they say, "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."

A google search shows several solutions on how-to remaster an Ubuntu Live CD with Compiz. None of which are point and click operations.

As I said to MS3FGX I am ill equipped to carry out such a procedure. Maybe someday but not today. I hope you’ll forgive me for being a newbie who knows his current limitations.

Not frustration, just clarification about my goal as in avoiding a reboot while… Well surely everyone knows what I mean by now. I repeated it enough times.

I think your suggestion to try other distros was just fine and I will look at them. They just aren’t Ubuntu.

Thanks anyway. :)