LinuxQuestions.org - HOWTO: configure compiz

- Slackware (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/)

- - HOWTO: configure compiz (https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/howto-configure-compiz-567635/)

All my efforts to configure compiz in Slackware 12 so far have failed. I either get a very slow and unusable X when I call compiz like this:
LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1 compiz --replace ini decoration wobbly fade minimize cube move place resize rotate scale switcher water zoom &

or I get the errors:
libGL warning: 3D driver claims to not support visual 0x51
compiz: GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap is not supported by direct rendering context, trying indirect rendering context instead
compiz: GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap is missing
compiz: Failed to manage screen: 0
compiz: No manageable screens found on display :0.

And I do have direct rendering enabled:
glxinfo | grep rendering:
libGL warning: 3D driver claims to not support visual 0x51
direct rendering: Yes

My driver is intel, my system is stock Slackware 12.0. Any ideas? I suspect that my videocard does not support the functionality that compiz allows.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Regards,
Martin

I second WulfNStein's suggestion. While I haven't sorted out reading from my .compiz configs, The docs at the compiz site were spot on with regards to configuring my xorg.conf and with using "ini" all worked just fine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by justwantin

I have already read the stickies in those forums concerning configuring compiz. Alas, nothing seems to work properly on my system. I wonder why I could find no documentation about compiz coming with Slackware 12...

I'm not talking about stickies in forums, I'm talking about compiz documentation here:

http://compiz.org/Documentation/Documentation

Slack ships with Linux How-to's and man pages. Not instructions for near beta eye candy no matter how much fun it might be.

Quote:

Originally Posted by justwantin

I have added /user/doc to directories scanned by recoll and yet nothing comes out when I type compiz. There is no man page either. Concerning the above link, the "configuring compiz" section includes three links. GConf is not present in Slackware, compiz-setting is no more supported, and I havo no gnome on my system for the third option ...

Those would be for configuring compiz's plugins, which you can do by editing the .config files generated by the ini plugin.

You might want to look/ask around in the compiz forum about your particular problem. They'll probably have a solution for your.

Hi,

I have Slackware 12.0, and I installed Compiz 0.6.5 from the Slacky.eu repository, but when I execute this:

Code:

compiz --replace ini decoration wobbly fade minimize cube move place resize rotate scale switcher water zoom &

I get the same problems that tramni1980 has. Decorations disappear, the keyboard get locked along with the Konsole. And I get almost exact error messages.

EDIT: I've added the two commands from the original post to a script and executed the script, it still locks up and I lose the decorations, but Compiz seems to be "working" because the window wobbles when I move it and the cube rotates when I switch between desktops...

Quote:

Originally Posted by tramni1980 (Post 2820158)

Not suggestions as much as questions...

First, what kind of machine are you running this on? How much memory? How fast of a machine? What kind of CPU?

Second, have you modified your /etc/X11/xorg.conf as follows:

Code:

    Section "Device"

    Identifier  "I945"

    Driver      "i810"

    VideoRam    65536

# below added for compiz functionality

    Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals"      "True"  

    Option "DisableGLXRootClipping" "True"

    Option "AllowGLXWithComposite"  "True"  

    Option "RenderAccel"            "True"  

    Option "TripleBuffer"          "True"  

# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate

EndSection

Compiz will work without them. Read the edit below.

EDIT: Those lines can actually hurt more than they help. I was wrong on this point. After much experimentation, I have discovered that the above lines aren't helpful, and may cause a little extra instability. I was wrong. I am sorry for that.

I see you already included the following lines

Code:

Section "Extensions"

Option "Composite" "Enable"

EndSection

. You also need to add the upper lines as well.

I am running compiz on two laptops. Both are equipped with Intel video adapters. One is a less than six months old Compaq with a Celeron M at 1.86 GHz. The other is also a Celeron, but a PIII version at 1.06 GHz. The first one runs it as smooth as silk. The latter runs it, but it's a bit on the ker-chunky side. No matter, it works on both!

One more thing, if you are using a custom compiled kernel, make sure that you set up the video drivers under

Code:

Character devices--->Direct Rendering Manager

as modules. If not, your compiz has no chance of working...at least the install on my other laptop didn't work until I recompiled its kernel as instructed above.

Now it works, albeit slowly.

And as someone said somewhere else, compiz is buggy. It certainly is! There are a few bugs in it that really uh...BUG me, but I have compiz set up so I can turn it on and off at will.

X never falters. KDE never fails to come back up. Anymore than that will come with time, and more dedicated compiz developers, testers, and users becoming allied with the project.

Blessed be!
Pappy

pappy_mcfae, I've tried what you suggested, but I still loose all the borders when I run compiz.

My setup is a laptop with intel dual core processor and an integrated I945 graphics adapter and 2GB od DDR2 ram. Like I mentioned before, compiz worked fine on Fedora Core 6 which I tried earlier, but it seems to have a lot of problems runing on Slack 12.

Quote:

Originally Posted by baja_yu (Post 2961197)

My humblest apologies for that. It sure worked with me...and my machines are nowhere near as balls to the wall as the one you describe above.

My new laptop is a 1.86GHz Celeron, and only one Gig of memory...DDR2, as a matter of fact. It is also running the I945 chipset with 128 megs video RAM. It took a while to get all the gears meshing properly, and I spent a lot of time looking around at other threads devoted to compiz.

Finally, I found one that had some information that finally got my compiz up and running. This particular link has a lot of information on compiz as it comes with Slackware 12.

It wasn't until I used the script that tramni1980 provided that I even got close to getting things going. This article is the one that really got things straightened up and (almost) flying right. It is compiz, which means there are a few bugs hanging about. Oh well, I've worked with buggier software. Thanks to 1337ln for the above link.

Be of good cheer. It seems that while compiz doesn't just hop up and work right the first time around, once you do get it to work, it stays working. I can't wait until they get some of the more annoying bugs worked out...like focus.

Blessed be!
Pappy

This link sure helped me get Compiz running. It suggests changes to the xorg.conf file:

http://www.izmiran.ru/~osin/slackware/compiz.html

I have the following 2 scripts in my /usr/local/bin/ directory:

startcompiz

Code:

#!/bin/bash

# Compiz startup script



LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=TRUE \

/usr/bin/compiz --replace png svg decoration annotate water blur clone \

wobbly fade minimize cube rotate zoom scale move resize place switcher & \

/usr/bin/kde-window-decorator --replace &

stopcompiz

Code:

#!/bin/bash

# Compiz shutdown script

 

/usr/bin/kwin --replace &

Quote:

Originally Posted by baja_yu (Post 2961197)

pappy_mcfae, I've tried what you suggested, but I still loose all the borders when I run compiz.

Try editing the ~/.compiz/options/decoration-allscreens.conf file and adding "kde-window-decorator" to the line "command=".

Brian

Quote:

Originally Posted by baja_yu (Post 2961197)

pappy_mcfae, I've tried what you suggested, but I still loose all the borders when I run compiz.

That means that compiz is actually loading. I was doing some experimenting last night, and I made an interesting discovery. I discovered that for some reason, if you were to set up your compiz command as follows:

Code:

compiz --replace ini <other plugins>

sometimes kde-window-decorator won't start. However, if you were to change it to:

Code:

compiz --replace <other plugins> ini

where the "ini" plugin isn't the first option given after "--replace", then kde-window-decorator works. I forget exactly which document on compiz told me that one, but low and behold if it didn't work for my PII 450MHz.

The point was really moot because compiz runs really, REALLY SLOWLY on that machine. It's sort of pointless to run it on it, but it does actually run.

I am in the middle of writing a howto document for compiz that is distilled from LOTS of other stuff I have read on the topic, as well as my experiments. So, for the time being, I am going to experiment on that machine to see what process is needed to make compiz functional...things like does /etc/X11/xorg.conf really need all those added lines...and what happens if they aren't there.

I'll gladly post my results as soon as they come to pass, in another thread.

Blessed be!
Pappy

Well, I'm happy to report that I made a lot of progress using the info on this link: http://www.izmiran.ru/~osin/slackware/compiz.html

Compiz now starts and I do not lose the decorations. But, some glitches are still there:

1. After runing the startcompiz script I get this warning:

/usr/bin/compiz (blur) - Warn: No stencil buffer. Region based blur disabled

but I guess that has to do with the abilities of my hardware.

2. Second problem is regarding the looks of the decorations, as they get distorted a little. First I noticed a white line going all the way acros the scren on top of the bottom panel. It's about 6 pixels wide. The same white line (this time border) appears around all tooltips and menues.

3. Opening Home, System, Trash or any other directory opens just a partial window with no contents in it (not as if it is emtpy, but as if it is partially loaded).
EDIT: After playin around for a few mintues, the contents of the windows are now ok.

4. One more thing, when I maximize a window, it seem to strech to far (beyond the screen by about 5 pixels)

I guess I'll cut down on the number of plugins and add one by one and see how it goes.

Still new to slack, had all this jazz set up fine on Ubuntu a couple months ago, but this is a different ball game it would appear.

Installed everything I think I need to get compiz to run, but when I run the command I get this:

Code:

stagger@Boris:~$ compiz --replace ini decoration wobbly fade minimize cube move place resize rotate scale switcher water zoom &

[1] 3113

stagger@Boris:~$ compiz: No GLXFBConfig for default depth, this isn't going to work.

compiz: Failed to manage screen: 0

compiz: No manageable screens found on display :0.0

What am I missing?

Oh by the way this removes my window borders and locks up opening/closing/moving anything on the desktop.

Any help ya'll can give would be much appreciated. I'mma go restart x now so I can move things again...