LinuxQuestions.org - xcompmgr and transparency

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xcompmgr and transparency

I got a laptop for Christmas and just installed Ubuntu 11.10 with fluxbox.
I'm trying to setup transparency using xcompmgr.

I've got an ati card

Here's my Xorg config file. It seems pretty short?

Code:

Section "Screen"

        Identifier      "Default Screen"

        DefaultDepth    24

EndSection



Section "Module"

        Load    "glx"

EndSection

Section "Extensions"

      Option "Composite" "Enable"

      Option "RENDER" "Enable"

      Option "backingstore" "true"

      Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"

 EndSection

And my glxinfo

Code:

ame of display: :0.0

display: :0  screen: 0

direct rendering: Yes

server glx vendor string: ATI

server glx version string: 1.4

server glx extensions:

    GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, 

    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_OML_swap_method, 

    GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGIS_multisample, 

    GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group

client glx vendor string: ATI

client glx version string: 1.4

client glx extensions:

    GLX_ARB_create_context, GLX_ARB_create_context_profile, 

    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context, 

    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_allocate_memory, 

    GLX_MESA_copy_sub_buffer, GLX_MESA_swap_control, 

    GLX_MESA_swap_frame_usage, GLX_NV_swap_group, GLX_OML_swap_method, 

    GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control, GLX_SGI_video_sync, 

    GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig, GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, 

    GLX_SGIX_swap_barrier, GLX_SGIX_swap_group, GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group, 

    GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_EXT_framebuffer_sRGB, 

    GLX_ARB_fbconfig_float, GLX_AMD_gpu_association

GLX version: 1.4

And the tail of my Xorg.log

Code:

fetal@zen:~$ tail -f /var/log/Xorg.0.log

[ 93015.313] (II) fglrx(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[ 93015.313] (II) fglrx(0): Modeline "1366x768"x0.0  69.30  1366 1402 1442 1480  768 771 776 780 -hsync -vsync (46.8 kHz)

[ 93015.500] (II) fglrx(0): EDID vendor "LGD", prod id 754

[ 93015.500] (II) fglrx(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[ 93015.500] (II) fglrx(0): Modeline "1366x768"x0.0  69.30  1366 1402 1442 1480  768 771 776 780 -hsync -vsync (46.8 kHz)

[ 93015.616] (II) fglrx(0): EDID vendor "LGD", prod id 754

[ 93015.616] (II) fglrx(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines:

[ 93015.616] (II) fglrx(0): Modeline "1366x768"x0.0  69.30  1366 1402 1442 1480  768 771 776 780 -hsync -vsync (46.8 kHz)

[ 93863.784] (II) fglrx(0): System Power Source: AC

[ 94078.437] Warning: LookupWindow()/SecurityLookupWindow() are deprecated.  Please convert your driver/module to use dixLookupWindow().

Do you get some kind of error when trying to start xcompmgr? What exactly happens when you try to enable transparency?

Quote:

Originally Posted by MS3FGX (Post 4558936)

Do you get some kind of error when trying to start xcompmgr? What exactly happens when you try to enable transparency?

fetal@zen:~$ xcompmgr
^C
fetal@zen:~$

That's all that happends, line just drops down. The screen flashes though, so it does start.

You may need to enable compositing in Xorg.

Code:

Section "Extensions"

        Option      "Composite" "enable"

EndSection

Is how it looks in my debian + xfce install, with an Radeon HD 5770.

Quote:

Originally Posted by fetal (Post 4558946)

fetal@zen:~$ xcompmgr
^C
fetal@zen:~$

That's all that happends, line just drops down. The screen flashes though, so it does start.

You haven't given xcompmgr any options, so it isn't going to do anything. At the very least you need to use -c to tell it to enable composite, but you also need to configure things like drop shadows from the xcompmgr switches.

Then, to enable per-window transparency, you'll need to use the transset tool.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MS3FGX (Post 4558953)

fetal@zen:~$ xcompmgr -c
^C
fetal@zen:~$

Does the same thing.

So what makes you think something is wrong? Have you configured any applications to use transparency? You probably want to run xcompmgr in the background ("xcompmgr -c &") so that you can close the window you started it run.

Quote:

Originally Posted by adamk75 (Post 4559258)

How would I go about doing that?

Well, different applications (mostly terminal apps) have their own preferences for transparency. I'm not going to go into each one because, well, that would be ridiculous. There is also transset/transset-df as MS3FGX mentioned, which lets you click on a window to adjust the transparency level.

Adam

Quote:

Originally Posted by fetal (Post 4559179)

fetal@zen:~$ xcompmgr -c
^C
fetal@zen:~$

Does the same thing.

Again, all you have done here is say "Turn on Compositing". Simply enabling compositing will have no obvious effect on the system until you start to configure it on a per-application basis. If you want something system wide, you can enable fading and drop shadows by giving xcompmgr different options on the command line (which xcompmgr will list in it's help output).

I'm not sure what you are expecting to see, but simply starting xcompmgr won't suddenly make your desktop explode into 3D graphics and effects like you are in "Hackers", everything has to be setup and configured manually, xcompmgr is just the backend that makes all that possible. Really, if you are looking for maximum visual effect, you should be using Compiz and one of the configuration tools designed to work with it.

You haven't to enable those extensions in xorg.conf, they are enabled by default.
(You also may have some other configuration files in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d directory)

As MS3FGX says, try use back end solution like compiz