Hello! I am attempting to make an OpenGL desktop. I have already successfully made an OpenGL slideshow that I have grab the root window. This works fine... except that I want to capture X events (such as mouse and keyboard)... but I can not capture events on the root window (because the window manager has them grabbed?)

So, I want to make a window that always stays below every other window. can i do this? how should I go about doing this?

also, I know in X you can give a window an "alpha" mask, so that it will be transparent in certain areas so you can see other windows below it. can you do an alpha mask on top of an OpenGL context?

If you think for a moment of another name of what you are trying to achieve you will see why it is not easy without a modified kernel or root privileges. Key logger.

They are two specifications (or rather, conventions) that define the interface to the window manager. You need to read them to know how to get the window manager to properly treat your window:

http://tronche.com/gui/x/icccm/ ICCCM - the 'old' or basic specs
http://standards.freedesktop.org/wm-...ec-latest.html - EWMH, a extention to deal with more modern issues (yours is probably in this one)

As for transparency, I think EWMH has something about it, but in the end, its up to the compositing manager to determine how your window is drawn, so you cannot count on transparency.