compiz on fc5

[Kazimieras Vaina]

Hi,

I found an unofficial yum repo with xgl and compiz:

http://users.telenet.be/quenta/repo/

I installed all packages from there, but Xgl failed to start. It says
that "function not implemented" or something like that. I suspect that
mesa packages shipped in fc5 are not compatible with xgl...

Anybody using this repo ? I'm too lazy to compile it from source.


-- 
Kazimieras <kazimieras.vaina(a)gmail.com&gt;

[Mitja Mihelic]

I used this:
http://fedoraxgl.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Installation_en
But be careful if you have an ATI graphic card.
If you do, you must set the GdmXserverTimeout variable to let's say 30.
File /etc/sysconfig/xgl/custom.conf.xgl.begin:
<-snip->
[daemon]
GdmXserverTimeout=40
<-/snip->
The reason for this is, that XGL takes a bit longer to start on ATI 
cards and gdm has a shorter default timeout
and it restarts itself, before XGL can load properly.

--
Mitja

Kazimieras wrote:
>  Hi,
>
>  I found an unofficial yum repo with xgl and compiz:
>
>  http://users.telenet.be/quenta/repo/
>
>  I installed all packages from there, but Xgl failed to start. It says
>  that "function not implemented" or something like that. I suspect that
>  mesa packages shipped in fc5 are not compatible with xgl...
>
>  Anybody using this repo ? I'm too lazy to compile it from source.
>
>

[Frank Pineau]

On Thu, 2006-09-14 at 10:20 +0200, Mitja Mihelic wrote:
>  I used this:
>  http://fedoraxgl.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Installation_en 

I used that guide to get XGL and compiz working on my nvidia.  It's
pretty slick, but it screws up my TwinView dual-head setup.  Without XGL
running (gnome-xgl-switch --disable), I have my main screen and my
second screen.  With XGL and compiz running, I have one desktop
stretched across both screens.  This is with no changes to xorg.conf.  I
have the same results with xinerama.  Anyone else using twinview or
xinerama?


gset-compiz-0.3.3-1
compiz-1.0.0-4
xgl-hardware-list-1.0.0-2
fedora-xgl-settings-0.0.1-2
xorg-x11-server-Xgl-1.1.99.1-3

[Marc Schwartz]

Frank Pineau wrote:
>  On Thu, 2006-09-14 at 10:20 +0200, Mitja Mihelic wrote:
> > I used this:
> > http://fedoraxgl.tuxfamily.org/index.php?title=Installation_en
>  
>  
>  I used that guide to get XGL and compiz working on my nvidia.  It's
>  pretty slick, but it screws up my TwinView dual-head setup.  Without XGL
>  running (gnome-xgl-switch --disable), I have my main screen and my
>  second screen.  With XGL and compiz running, I have one desktop
>  stretched across both screens.  This is with no changes to xorg.conf.  I
>  have the same results with xinerama.  Anyone else using twinview or
>  xinerama? 
As they say, timing is everything.

See my post from today here:

   http://www.illawarra.org/linux/guestbook.php

Be sure to remove ALL of the installed RPMS that you got from the 
tuxfamily site and that TwinView is working properly with X/Metacity, 
before proceeding with the instructions here:

   http://www.illawarra.org/linux/index.php?id=howto

Note that I DID install compiz-quinn and cgwd as per the How To.

Then follow along with the additional notes in my post. Note that you 
will need the 'xorg-x11-server-Xgl' and 'glitz' RPMS from the tuxfamily 
site, which are from June. TwinView is broken for the moment in the more 
recent versions of XGL, so you need the earlier versions of these from 
tuxfamily.

However, you want the newer versions of the other stuff from Illiawarra, 
as they are more stable and include the new Compiz configuration program 
called 'csm', rather than GConf or gset-compiz, which are now defunct.

HTH,

Marc Schwartz

[Frank Pineau]

On Thu, 2006-09-14 at 18:27 -0500, Marc Schwartz wrote:

>  Be sure to remove ALL of the installed RPMS that you got from the 
>  tuxfamily site and that TwinView is working properly with X/Metacity, 
>  before proceeding with the instructions here: 

Didn't seem to help.  Twinview actually works fine with or without XGL.
The problem is with XGL, the desktop spans both monitors, giving me
2048x768, which is unacceptable.  Without, I have two separate, well,
"desktop sections", I guess you could say.  Clock and toolbars all on
the left, and the right is just extra space.


The howto said to remove everything from tuxfamily but
xorg-x11-server-Xgl and glitz, but that pretty much just leaves
compiz(-quinn) and the utilities being installed from illawarra.


OTOH, FC6 with AIGLX is only a month away....

[Marc Schwartz]

Frank Pineau wrote:
>  On Thu, 2006-09-14 at 18:27 -0500, Marc Schwartz wrote:
>  
> > Be sure to remove ALL of the installed RPMS that you got from the 
> > tuxfamily site and that TwinView is working properly with X/Metacity, 
> > before proceeding with the instructions here:
>  
>  
>  Didn't seem to help.  Twinview actually works fine with or without XGL.
>  The problem is with XGL, the desktop spans both monitors, giving me
>  2048x768, which is unacceptable.  Without, I have two separate, well,
>  "desktop sections", I guess you could say.  Clock and toolbars all on
>  the left, and the right is just extra space. 
Yes, the behavior of TwinView in this setting is different than with 
regular X/Metacity.

My current TwinView screen is 3200x1200 (two 1600x1200 LCDs) and I do 
get the same thing you see, which is now in a sense a "true" 3200x1200 
virtual display. For example. maximized windows will span both LCDs, not 
just one.  My top panel, when expanded, goes across both LCDs not, just 
the primary display.

Certain windows now pop up right in the middle, spanning both displays, 
where under regular X/Metacity, they would come up on the active display 
(left or right) depending upon the relevant application.

There is a lot of customization relative to window placement with Compiz 
using the CSM application and the plugins, so I may spend some time 
seeing if this can be tweaked predictably.

I am unsure if this is the expected behavior under XGL/Compiz, if this 
will change with a new (fixed) version of XGL when TwinView 
functionality is restored and/or whether this behavior will be similar 
with AIGLX/Compiz.

If this is more Compiz than XGL (ie. the window manager rather than the 
X server), then I would expect the same new behavior with AIGLX in FC6.

Time will tell.

>  The howto said to remove everything from tuxfamily but
>  xorg-x11-server-Xgl and glitz, but that pretty much just leaves
>  compiz(-quinn) and the utilities being installed from illawarra. 
Right. As I noted, the current version of xorg-x11-server-Xgl breaks 
TwinView, hence we need to use the version from June. There are 
dependencies with glitz, hence they need to be replaced together.

>  OTOH, FC6 with AIGLX is only a month away.... 
Right, except we need to wait for nVidia to release a new driver version 
with TFP support, which will be required to properly run AIGLX. The 
current thinking by outsiders is that this will happen when nVidia 
releases a 9XXX series driver. The time frame is unknown and could be 
around the time that FC6 is released but there is no guarantee of course 
that this will happen. It would seem that the 9XXX series drivers will 
have other functionality as well and it may be that the other additions 
could delay the release.

You may be interested in this recent thread over on the nvnews forums:

   http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=75774

HTH,

Marc Schwartz