ShadowKill
06-25-2008, 12:11 PM
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 (http://backtrack.offensive-security.com/index.php/Transcript_of_movie).
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 ;)
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 (http://backtrack.offensive-security.com/index.php/Transcript_of_movie).
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 ;)