Cannot enable desktop effects/beryl does nothing

the big cheese · 07-30-2007, 09:17 PM

Hey guys, im trying to get some sort of desktop effects going in fedora 7.
Upon installation i found that desktop effects didnt work "cannot enable desktop effects". This happened previously with fedora core 6.
Anyway - i tried completely removing compiz and related packages, and tried installing it as suggested on the compiz website, but to no avail.
Ive also tried installing beryl (with every relevant package i could find) and using all the conceivable options it has.
Ill point at at this stage that im a linux n00b - so i may just be a bit thick on it as far as getting this working is concerned.

I have the latest nvidia drivers from the website installed properly, opengl version is reported correctly etc.

I tried enabling desktop effects in the console and got this:

Quote:

[root@localhost ~]# desktop-effects
gtk-window-decorator: Could not acquire decoration manager selection on screen 0 display ":0.0"
compiz: No sync extension
Xlib: extension "SHAPE" missing on display ":0.0".

The last line repeating itself about 20 times...

If anyone has any suggestions, id be extremely grateful!

{BBI}Nexus{BBI} · 07-30-2007, 09:42 PM

Did you make the changes required to your xorg.conf file? Here's another link that may help: http://fedoranews.org/cms/node/2852

Dummy-in-Linux · 07-31-2007, 03:35 AM

Be careful compiz and beryl are two different desktop managers, sure they started out as the same. But today you need to select one of the two, and follow that installation. If you read here something about compiz and the something about beryl it can good be that you never get it working.

On the other site compiz and beryl still use still some of the same packages, all very confusing.

the big cheese · 07-31-2007, 10:11 PM

Thankyou Nexus... I missed one line in the xorg.conf file in my previous attempt somehow...
Either way, once it was entered and x restarted, suddenly everything works!
Cheers!

Just a thought, but why is such an integrated (or seemingly so) feature of fedora so tempramental and difficult to get working?
I think linux has so much potential, but it will never be a serious desktop replacement for windows unless it can stop relying on obscure terminal commands, difficult graphics driver installations, and lots of editing of files just to get a single feature enabled.
That said, theres a hell of a lot of things linux does right IMO - like installing software from repositories etc...
Anyhoo, thats a topic for another thread

Thanks again for your help - im off to play with all my newfound beryl effects

Crito · 07-31-2007, 11:01 PM

You just made it harder than it had to be. After installing the nvidia driver from livna with "yum install kmod-nvidia" I went to system --> preferences --> look and feel --> desktop effects and then just clicked the little button that says "enable desktop effects." That's all there is to it.

Ax0r · 08-03-2007, 09:47 AM

Load the module

Execute

modprobe nvidia

The nvidia module should load without difficulty.

Instead of editing the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf, you can make necessary changes for 3D operation by using the nvidia-xconfig command as root:

nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals

and:

nvidia-xconfig --composite

edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf ADD in the Section "Module" if it doesnt exit:

Section "Module"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
EndSection

o'course, if Section "Module" does exist dont create another simply add:

Load "extmod"
Load "glx"

That's All There is to it!

Regards,
Ax0r