HOW TO: nVidia-Compiz on USB HDD Install

[ShadowKill]

Hey all, and welcome to another lovely tutorial on the ever frustrating nVidia-Compiz hybrid solution! This tutorial will focus on BT3 FINAL (USB version) installed on a HDD as it pertains to getting Compiz/Emerald working with the nVidia chipset(s). For informational purposes the hardware this method has been tested on is as follows:

• Back|Track 3 Final / Vista Ultimate 32
• 512mb nVidia GeForce 8800 GT PCI:2:0:0
• AMD Athlon 64 x2 5200+
• 500gb HDD
• 3gb RAM

From the thread(s) drwalter, ««EDocTooR»», and myself have running regarding compiz issues with and without nVidia driver support, you can all gather that there are some compatability mismatches that have caused quite a bit of headache and more than a few hours lost. What I've come up with is a fairly sure-fire way to have compiz work on bootup with very little work.

First off, I completely rebuilt my .iso with these new files and configs, but it is not really necessary as you can simply grab the files needed from another source (partition, cd/dvd, thumbdrive, etc). I just wanted my config to take with me wherever work calls

The modules relating to compiz and nVidia that were packaged with the USB .iso did not work for me at all. I tried numerous time to reinstall drivers, update/downgrade packages, and just about every configuration of xorg possible, all without success. The only way I could ever achieve gui was to boot via the VESA-KDE options.

So, that in mind, I removed all of the respective modules from the .iso directories and, having succesfully integrated compiz into BT3b with the same hardware, replaced them with the cubez.lzm and nvidia.lzm that came with BT3b. I also put the NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1.run driver installer into my /Optional directory as this was the installer I used previously. After building the new .iso, I performed a fresh install.

After you have completed the installation, or at least after the "cp --preserve...." portion, copy the three files mentioned earlier to /mnt/backtrack/root and either continue with the installation or chroot to your BT3 partition. lzm2dir the two LZMs to / and run

sudo sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_32-169.12-pkg1.run

This will start the driver installer. Choose yes to all of the questions besides the one to connect and search for a kernel. Choose no here becauase we want to build a new kernel. When you select yes to building a new kernel, an "error" will come up saying there was an issue with the way the previous drivers were installed. Ignoire it, there's nothing wrong. Continue with the installation until it has completed and when it asks if you want the installer to auto-configure your xorg.conf for you choose no.

You should be back to bash now. Next run a

nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals -d 24

Then nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf and find the "Extensions" section at the end, if it is there, and change it to:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

If it is not there...add it

Save it and exit, then edit your lilo configuration as normal. Reboot, log in, and issue a startx. Viola, you should see the nVidia splash and shortly thereafter be looking at the desktop with 8 desktop selection squares on the bottom right and the compiz icon in the taskbar.

If you have any issues, questions, comments let me know. I'd be more than happy to help you as I know how much of a pain it was getting to this point. Oh yeah, send all gripes/complaints to pureh@te

[ShadowKill]

As an additional note to this, I've tested this on several new hardware configs now, all with nVidia GPUs, and it has worked near flawlessly on them all. The only issue I really had was in one case /etc/fstab was configured wrong somehow, and all sybolic-links to the partitions/drives (sda, sda1-4, sr0, etc) were pointing at hdc, hdc1-4, dr1, etc. I simply changed those and ran a mkdir for all of them in the /mnt folder.

[drwalter]

Looks great really happy the headache is over

[ShadowKill]

Looks great really happy the headache is over

Thanks a lot for your help and dialog regarding this whole endeavor

I'm glad the headache is over too. It was, however, very worth it

[««EDocTooR»»]

Thanks, for the tutorial.

Can you please add some details to create this pre-configured DVD as I know that I will be installing BT3 Final many times.

Assume, that I can adjust the bash/shell commands to suite my partitions, and that I know how to
create a ISO using windows applications such as Magic or Nero.

I am stuck here, as I can't find the "nvidia.lzm", I am guessing that it is compressed somewhere the search continues.

BOOT INTO WINDOWS

(4) Create a folder on your Desktop and name it Nvidiabt3
(5) Uncompress your BT3 USB Final into the Nvidiabt3 folder
	Start > Run > CMD
	C:\Documents and Setting\<username>> cd Desktop
	C:\Documents and Setting\<username>\Desktop> mkdir Nvidiabt3
 	C:\Documents and Setting\<username>\Desktop> cd Nvidiabt3

	Create a DATA copy of the uncompressed BT3 USB FINAL files;
	Load your drive E: with the BT3 USB FINAL DVD

	C:\Documents and Setting\<username>\Desktop\Nvidiabt3> xcopy e:\*.* /e /v /s
		74 File(s) copied

	Remove the BT3 USB FINAL DVD
	Load your drive E: with the BT3 USB BETA DVD
	
	C:\Documents and Setting\<username>\Desktop\Nvidiabt3> copy e:\BT3\optional\cubez.lzm BT3\optional\
		Overwrite BT3\optional\cubez.lzm? type "y" enter to choose Yes

	Download the following:
	http://www.offensive-security.com/modules/nvidia.lzm

See, I am lost... and since don't know lzm compression and module techniques yet, I am thanking you
again for helping me get going.

Many thanks,

««EDocTooR»»

[ShadowKill]

Thanks, for the tutorial.

Can you please add some details to create this pre-configured DVD as I know that I will be installing BT3 Final many times.

Assume, that I can adjust the bash/shell commands to suite my partitions.

Many thanks,

««EDocTooR»»

I'm at work right now, but give me about an hour and I'll have that information up for ya. What do you guys think, should I put up my .iso build so that others can see/use it too?

[drwalter]

I'm at work right now, but give me about an hour and I'll have that information up for ya. What do you guys think, should I put up my .iso build so that others can see/use it too?

hmmm don't know how the dev team would feel if people started spreading it around. Maybe pm them first?

[ShadowKill]

hmmm don't know how the dev team would feel if people started spreading it around. Maybe pm them first first?

Yeah, I figured on that. That's why I asked

Originally Posted by ««EDocTooR»»
Thanks, for the tutorial.

Can you please add some details to create this pre-configured DVD as I know that I will be installing BT3 Final many times.

Assume, that I can adjust the bash/shell commands to suite my partitions.

Many thanks,

««EDocTooR»»

Okay, the files I refered to in my initial post are those contained within both the /BT3/modules and /BT3/optional folders of the ISO. ccsm-0.7.4-noarch-1as.lzm, etc, etc. All of those....put 'em in a backup directory somewhere. You will be replacing the /BT3/modules files, all of them, with the mesa701, milw0rm, and optional LZMs. As for the /BT3/optional files, you will be putting the cubez, nvidia, pxe, and NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.12-pkg1.run in there. All of these, minus the nVidia installer, come from BT3b.

As for the creation of the .iso, all you should be doing is putting everthing in its place, granting admin rights to mkisofs, and running C:\blah -blah> make_iso C:\Nvidiabt3.iso

[ShadowKill]

Mods:

Is this "sticky" worthy???

[««EDocTooR»»]

When I googled
NVIDIA-Linux-x86_32-169.12-pkg1.run
Only this page was displayed, could there be a typo?