I'm running KDE 3.4.

When I tried to enable translucency/shadows, I got this message:

"Composite extension not found
You must use XOrg ? 6.8 for translucency and shadows to work.
Additionally, you need to add a new section to your X config file:
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection"

I'm using Xorg as my graphics server (radeon flgrfx), or at least I think I am.
I think I have Xorg 6.8, becuse I have KDE 3.4 installed.

Where is the X config file? Have I done everything necessary before I edit the file?

-Thanks

Well you need to find out if you do indeed have xorg 6.8. I'm pretty new so I'm not sure what the best command is to find out, if you are on debian you could do" apt-cache show xserver-xorg" and that would at least tell you what version is installed.
Then you can go here for how to enable the transparency/shadow - down the page a bit
http://baghira.sourceforge.net/xcompmgr.htm

Thanks, I got it to work.

But it runs so SLOW. I only have the shadows enabled, and there's plenty of artifacting on the desktop when I resize windows.

Funny, beacuse I'm running a fairly fast system: Athlon 3000+, 1 gig of RAM, etc.

Using Xorg 6.8, Radeon driver (provided stock) for ATI Radeon 128mb, with full hardware acceleration under Xorg.

A bit disappointing. Probably works alot better with and Nvidia card.

That's strange, I was actually suprised at how good it was.
I only have a 1200 cpu and 512mb ram and I don't even know what graphics card I have but I'm certain it's nothing fancy.
KDE3.4 runs a bit slow but just using shadows I reckon it's pretty much the same as using windowfx on windows, speed wise.
On gnome 2.10 and xfce4.2 I'm not noticing any slowdown at all.

[EDIT] I should point out that when I said kde was running a bit slow, the windows are moving around fine and min/maxing quickly but most apps are taking ages to start up.
I've been running kde for a couple of hours without any shadows or transparency and apps are still taking ages to load. What distro are you using kde on? I've been using the one from ubuntu on debian unstable and I'm very unimpressed, I'm now in the process of downgrading back to my old version to see how that runs.

PClinuxOS . . . one of the best and fastest distros out there. I LOVE it. Totally problem free, and with a boatload of apps standard.

It might be the fact that I'm using an ATI card. Strange, because I DO have hardware acceleration enabled.

I've got slightly better hardware with an Nvidia card and I can use the composite extension without any noticable slowdowns. ATi just seems to have crappy linux performance all-round which sucks because they're a really good graphics card with the right drivers (ie: Windows )

You seem to be on the right track.

I just messed around a bit with the drivers offered by Xorg, and chose "ati" instead of "radeon." Go figure. Probably works because it is more generic, but that's just a guess. Peformance is now very fast, but still with some artifacting onscreen when resizing windows. Getting closer though . . . .

Yes, ATI cards on WinXP are sweet. KDE will improve its support, though, as we go through newer and better versions.

Interestingly, my machine (freshly installed Fedora Core 4 on Athlon 64 3500+, GeForce 6800 GT...you'd think it would handle transparency) CANNOT at all display a coherent screen with transparency on. It's possible that I don't have OpenGL enabled, if that even makes a difference, but I honestly can't tell (as a sidenote, does anyone know where I can enable OpenGL in Fedora Core 4? I can't seem to find that setting...). Either way once I apply the transparency settings my screen basically splits in two and freaks out, showing phantom images of random windows all over the place. Once I turn off the transparency, it immediately fixes itself. Needless to say I've decided it's not worth it for now.

Did you add these two lines in the Device section of your card (xorg.conf)?



Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "1"

For me, it worked.

AMD Athlon 2600+
512 MB Ram
GeForce 6800 LE

Shanks: You're probably using the nv driver instead of the nvidia one. that'll cause problems similar to that.

Also, if you have a new question, please start a new thread...