spongefinger

my refresh rate has defaulted to 76hz on a 1280x1024@24bit screen, which is 1hz beyond my monitors maximum.

although i can see everything, and everything appears stable, i still dont like the refresh rate being such.

how can i change it?

also.. i would like to check my graphics drivers etc (see if they are the latest ati radeon drivers etc.. or even any type of radeon drivers)

saikee

(1) Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

or

(2) Run "xorgconfig" as root in console

spongefinger

1) i dont think i can edit anything as its on a dvd. ?

2) where and how do i do that? what is root?

saikee

If you change the refresh scanning frequencies you aalter the system setting and that requires admin right in Windows. In LInux it is called root privileges. You can invoke such privilege in a terminal mode by typeing
On a Live CD/DVD the standard practice is to waive the requirement of the root password.

When you run a Live CD or DVD the whole LInux is in fact installed into the memory. You can see every file by the "ls" command.

"ls /" is same as dir c:\ in Dos/Windows

Most Linux has line editor like Vi, nano etc and so edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf can be achieved by command
or
If you don't know how to use the editor then run the terminal command
and select the scanning frequencies.

unclebubbles

Hello saikee
Not trying to insult your intelligence, just clarify something.

Knoppix doesnt load into ram, but it does load some files into ram when you boot the cd/dvd. You can force it to load into ram by using one of the cheat codes.

knoppix toram

You can find a list of all of the cheat codes in the knoppix folder. When you load it into ram, you can free up your drive for other uses, but it takes almost a gig of ram. The dvd version would take more ram than most people have, and im not sure the cheat code would even work with it for that reason, its over 4 gig. Puppy Linux is one version that does load into ram by default, its a neat little os and only about 70mb, check it out if you havent.

saikee

But there are plenty Live CDs that have a fully populated "/" directory once loaded. Slax and Puppy in fact will always loaded the main parts in the memory to achieve a higher performance speed even after they have been installed into a hard disk.

Puppy if installed on a USB device will fully unpack into the ram. If you check its content in a hard disk when not in use you will see everything, except the boot loader, is zipped up in a single file.

New Slax uses a new filing system that is lightening fast. Many of its subdirectories are only visible when in operation and Zipped away on exiting the distro.

As it happens the Live CD must detect the PC setting and this information is a variable and cannot be stored in a burn CD/DVD.

Knoppix has grown in size and may need to have means to reduce its footprint once loaded. The files loaded by Knoppix are essential system files. May be if a user has a limited amount of ram then Knoppix may be forced to reduce its memory image.

Anyway whenever a Live CD doesn't display properly that is the way I overcome it but I haven't had a need to do it with Knoppix.

To me if a Live CD does not allow its video setting to be altered it is as good as cutting its own throat as I cannot image one video driver permanently burn into a CD or DVD can universally work on every PC.

unclebubbles

All operating systems load crucial system files into ram for faster access, rather than trying to find them on the hd.
As far as i know, Puppy loads completely into ram by default. When the live cd boots and you get to the desktop, you can take the cd out of the drive and use it for other purposes, rescuing files ..ect. You can also burn Puppy as a mulit-session cd/dvd , and save your configuration settings and saved files back to the boot media. You limitation here is how much ram you have and available space left on the boot media.

With Knoppix and most other live cd`s, when you make changes in your configuration, download files....ect, this is saved in a ramdrive(available memory thats left after knoppix loads the system files) , when you shut down , all this is lost. But in Knoppix, you can save your changes and files by creating a persistent knoppix image, on your hd or on a usb drive. When you shutdown, go to: Kmenu> Knoppix> configure> create a persistent knoppix disk image , then you will be asked where you want to save it. When you boot up again knoppix will usually detect the image and give you an option to load it or not. But you are correct, you cant save changes back to the boot media on knoppix, at least i havent figured out how yet and cant find anyone that has dont it successfully.

EDIT: You cant save changes back to a cd/dvd, but you can save it to a usb drive by creating the persistent knoppix image on it.

saikee

Is this leading us to a new solution other than those in Post #2? I like to learn it if there is one.

Personally if a user bothers to save the Live CD image on a hard disk he/she may as well install the distro into the hard disk. Why run it on a CD to suffer the slower response? Knoppix has both Lilo and Grub inside. Both are good for multi-booting at least 27 images.

unclebubbles

I
No, im just saying that once you get the configuration changes made, you should be able to save them to the persistent directory and not have to configure it every time.

I agree with you on that, but this is a little easier than dual booting , or having Knoppix on a seperate hd or partition for some people. I personally dont use live cd`s much, i usually put them on a flash drive, or load them into ram. They run much faster as you said, and your cd/dvd is free for other purposes. The live cd`s are nice, convienient, and really handy for system rescue, troubleshooting, emergencies...ect, but theyre awful hard on your optical drives. Youre forcing your cd/dvd drive to act like a hard drive, something it wasnt exactly designed to do. Especially if you dont have alot of ram, and its constantly having to search and access things from the disk. I wore one drive slap out when i first got Knoppix. LOL

spongefinger

whats the difference between the persistent directory and the knoppix-installer?

im guessing its that a directory is just that, a directory to store stuff in which doesnt boot etc, and the installer is the whole dvd dumped to the drive....??