nvidia drivers

[bwana]

i know how to install nvidia drivers on a bt5 or linux os that is installed to a hard disk. however, i don't know how to do that to a live usb installation and make it stick. even persistent usb installs do not allow permanent driver changes. the how-to on nvidia drivers specifically indicates that it is a video driver install to a HARD DISK installation of bt5. is there any faq for udating drivers for a usb install?

[hylogibbon]

You can try using the update script from here:
http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forum...track-5-a.html

And then repackage the .iso and use that .iso for the flash drive in place of the original.

[socket-raw]

hi bwana,hylogibbon,
you say that there are no problem to install the NVidia driver, for the GE FORCE GO 7300, in to BT5?
i have tried only one time but i have find some problems.
if you tell me that there are not a bugs problems with them i will try with more free time.

TNX

[bwana]

I added backtrack 5 to my katana usb. Inside the /boot/menus folder is the backtrack5 menu named bt.cfg. I changed it to reflect the various boot modes that i want. When i booted backtrack5 I got a weird display-bad colors. I needed the nvidia drivers for my pc. I realized that trying to install the nvidia drivers requires blacklisting the nouvau driver.
i opened the cfg file and added this menu entry

LABEL No Nouveau
MENU LABEL No Nouveau
KERNEL /bt5/casper/vmlinuz
APPEND file=/cdrom/preseed/custom.seed boot=casper initrd=/bt5/casper/initrd.gz cdrom-detect/try-usb=true live-media-path=bt5/casper rdblacklist=nouveau nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0 text--
TEXT HELP
More about currently selected:
Safe Mode
ENDTEXT


I then navigated to where i had downloaded the nvidia drivers and installed them by typing:

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-275.09.07.run
Wonderful they installed! startx gave me a normal desktop!

However, when i boot with my regular menu entry which is:

LABEL DEFAULT
MENU LABEL Text
KERNEL /bt5/casper/vmlinuz
APPEND file=/cdrom/preseed/custom.seed boot=casper initrd=/bt5/casper/initrd.gz text cdrom-detect/try-usb=true live-media-path=bt5/casper splash vga=791--
TEXT HELP
More about currently selected:
Default Boot Text Mode
ENDTEXT

I get the same weird graphics I had before i installed the nvidia driver.
So, How do i make these changes permanent?

Also
Do I need this in my kernel boot entry
rdblacklist=nouveau nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0
or this
rdblacklist=nouveau nomodeset?

[bwana]

@hylogibbon

I booted into bt5
opened up a terminal as root
ran the update script
chose update all

it did its thing
(the only error i got was with fasttrack)

Now, since i updated my bt5 directly from the usb, why shouldnt I be all set? Why didnt the changes get saved to the original image?

I guess I am asking HOW-TO " repackage the .iso "

[izidor]

I have it booting from USB with working nvidia drivers. I have just during boot added parameters

nomodeset vga=0

then after boot

rmmod nouveau

and after installation of drivers the startx load the nvidia drivers.

[bwana]

yes i know i can install the nvidia drivers with every boot, the idea is not to have to do that

[Pointer]

i'm running persistent usb and i just downloaded and installed the linux x86 nvidia-drivers from the site and havn't had any problems since

[bwana]

how'd you do that? on a default boot, the nouveau driver prevents the nvidia installer from running. on a safe boot (nomodeset=0) i can install but it's not persistent.

[Pointer]

I have BT5 on a persistent usb with encryption as described in the how-to section. Installing the video drivers according to the CUDA pdf didn't work for me so I went to the nvidia site, found my graphics card (quadro fx 2700m) and downloaded the linux x86 driver. I've read that you can end the x-server with ctrl+alt+backspace? but that shortcut never worked for me. After restarting to get to the terminal I installed the driver I downloaded. Now whenever I startx the nvidia driver loads right away. The biggest surprise to me was that the driver I downloaded works for both my laptop and desktop (gtx 460), however on the nvidia site they don't have a linux driver listed for the gtx 460.