Does anyone happen to know if MCNLive will run on the new Intel on-board GMA 3100 graphics controller (on the Intel Bearlake G33 chipset)? The Mandriva website says hardware requirements: ...Intel® i8xx and i9xx. But I don't know if i9xx includes GMA or not and if the LiveCD would even fail to boot...

--> video controller
The current versions (Delft and Toronto) do run with the vesa option. The next version (based on MDV 2008) will run with the new Intel drivers which are already in the development version of MDV, but not yet in 2007.1

With the old MCNLive you might have a problem to boot because of an IDE controller problem, but a bootcode most likely can solve this. It depends on the mainboard and the integrated IDE controller, and/or if there is no ide controller at all, but even the optical drive is connected to an sata controller.

And no, I don't know yet when we will have a new MCNLive versions. Maybe in october or november.

But if I would buy now a new computer/mainboard, I personally would go for a mainboard with the
GMA 3100 graphics . It will rock with Linux, I can assure you.

Great to hear that GMA 3100 will do well. My main question is whether such a system will run at all as I have by now become a regular user of MCNLive .

Do you mean that MCNLive might not boot because the usb drive isn't recognised, or that it won't recognise my IDE drives? I usually boot from a usb stick, not CD.

It will run, but maybe not 'out of the box' with the OLD MCNLive. It all depends which exact mainboard it is.

But it does not matter, sooner or later, MDV will run on it. It is only a question of weeks, two months.
The new Mandriva 2008 (which is not yet out, only in beta versions), already works out of the box on these chipsets.

The NEW MCNLive will be based on MDV 2008, but we need to do a lot of work to create it. And we need to wait until we have a stable Mandriva 2008, in October 2007 is the official release date.
Don't get confused with the naming. MDV 2008 = released in oct.2007

I am running Toronto. Is there a way to bridge the time gap between mid-September and when the new MCNLive comes out by making manual adjustments / add drivers? The mainboard is Shuttle FG33.

Yup, I figured that just like anybody else Mandriva's naming is a year ahead...

Oh, it's a shuttle. Chance is good that Toronto will run on it.

And: as soon as you get your new box you can download a normal Mandriva One 2008 Beta and test it.
Will be released next week.

Thanks, sounds good .

Do you happen to know if Toronto will run with a NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT? Thanks!

Works with the free xorg nv drivers, no 3D desktop, no hardware acceleration out-of-the box.

MCNLive does not and will not come in the future with commercial closed source drivers.

Only Intel graphics chips and _older_ ATI have 3D desktop and hw acc. out of the box with MCNLive.

Ok, so when I boot will I get some default low-resolution setting until I installed those drivers, or are the free xorg drivers pre-installed in MCNLive?

So what do I need to do to get full support for hardware accelleration etc.?

All free xorg drivers are included in all MCNLive versions.
No commercial video drivers are included.

I don't know how to get these evil nvidia and ati stuff to work.
If you buy a PC now, and you know that you want to run Linux on it, then simply avoid hardware manufactured by companies which are known to be linux-unfriendly.

So any hints which ones are Linux friendly ? Any recommendations?

Intel graphics. Open specs, open drivers, dedicated Linux development team.

Here are some interesting links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA

http://www.intellinuxgraphics.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_hardware_and_FOSS

In my Toronto, under MCC - graphical server setup you can choose NVIDIA - GeForce 8300 - 8800. Is that not the correct driver? Does this choice not unleash the GeForce 8600 features such as hardware acceleration?

What you see is not a driver, just the name of cards

For nvidia and ati cards there are TWO very different sort of drivers in linux. I thought I had explained it aleady.

1. the open source free xorg drivers
2. closed source commercial drivers

When you choose a MODEL in the MCC, it will try to FIND a driver. If the closed commercial driver is not available (which is the case in MCNLive) it will automatically take and configure the OPEN FREE xorg driver. This open driver in case of nvidia does not have 3D desktop and no hardware acceleration. It will give you 2D.

What are you trying to find out, Adrian?

Just boot Toronto on a box with an nvidia card and you will SEE it.

Hi, I don't have a nvidia card YET, but my new PC will likely have one, so I am trying to find out beforehand how to setup up the best drivers for it. Decided against Intel GMA because I want dual DVI screen support.

The thing is that NVIDIA does provide closed source Linux drivers but on the Mandriva forum they don't recommend installing them (http://forum.mandriva.com/viewtopic.php?p=349122&sid=060cccf9b1a23f633610b580f78a38b5).

Instead, they talk about finding a Mandriva package at a "penguin site", but I have no idea which site they mean by that...

Just wait unitil your new machine arrives.

Most likely you will need a newer Mandriva version anyway. Toronto is based on 2007.1 and is OLD. When it comes to very new hardware. And I understood that you ordered very new hardware.
And nobody is able to tell you what and if it will work until somebody or you has the SAME machine and try it out.

And yes, there are closed source pre-configured nvidia driver PACKAGES on the net for Mandriva. And yes, you can install them, afterwards on MCNLive. But they are not INCLUDED. A lot of stuff is not included.

Either my English is horrible or I don't understand what you are worrying about.

Howto install closed source nvidia drivers on MCNLive:

1. MCC, software, enable the non-free sources -- it is one click!
2. MCC, setup graphical server, choose model, choose driver, answer some questions
3, Restart the xserver.

Yes, I am planning to use Mandriva 2008 and hope to compile a 64 bit version with your help . I am trying to figure out the NVIDIA installation issues. I didn't realise that you can download nvidia non-free drivers through the MCC! That answered a question of mine.

Basically, what I am worried about is whether I can get a GeForce 8600 GT to run WITH full features support, of whether I should stay away from it. I rather investigate that NOW then when I already bought it.

Now, through the MCC I can see Nvidia 71xx and 96xx and 98xx packages, but that doesn't tell me which one of those is the appropriate one for a GeForce 8600 GT (there is no 86xx package there). On the Nvidia website there is one driver packages that supports all current Nvidia cards, a general package (not Mandriva-specific).

Now, the Mandriva forum site administrator replied to someone who installed that package and said: "that [installing the Nvidia general package] is not the recommended way to install on Mandriva. it may work, but it may also cause module path problems which stop some stuff (e.g. 3D desktop) from working. we'd always recommend using a driver packaged especially for Mandriva, either from the official non-free repository or by those piscophile penguins that have already been mentioned."

The problem is this: I am not sure which non-free repository packages apply to the 8600 GT (see 3rd paragraph of this post), and I do not know what he means by the penguins thing...

And yes, I can just wait until my new machine comes and then download a few of those rpms and just try them, but I was just wondering if a) someone has installed an Nvidia before and could share his/her experience, and whether you could tell me what the penguin thing is.

Ah, now I understand.

Don't worry. In MCNLive the working and recommended sources are configured so that nothing breaks.
Also, you worry to much. As soon as you start MCNLive on a system with nividia card, you will see, that the hardware detection will DETECT your special card, and will pick the correct driver. And will download it for you!
IF you can run the special _GeForce 8600 GT WITH full features_ - nobody knows until someone has the exact model

What you see on the mandriva forums, is indeed a bit confusing.

There are several ways to install the nvidia drivers. And the official moderators speak about the 'penguin thing' when they want to talk about a special software source: the Penguin liberation front. In short: PLF
They have precompiled Mandriva packages which the company Mandriva can't offer on their official repositories, because of patent issues or law stuff in certain countries.

But for nivdia drivers you don't need PLF because we have them on the official MDV repos. And the PLF packages are not recommended because in some cases they don't play nice with the MDV Control Center.

Then there are (not precompiled) packages from the nvidia.com site. They are also not recommended and not needed, on a normal MDV installation.

And what I already told you ....
Next week you will be able to download the next MDV One _development_ version, it is the MDV LiveCD - with one big difference to MCNLive: it contains all closed-source nvidia and ati drivers, and will use them automatically.

Thanks Kris, appreciate all the help and thoughts, helps me to understand things now.

And I promise, I will stop worrying.