No xterm/rxvt or whatever terminal emulator transparency
 

Hello, my first question on forum. :)

So, I have just installed Slackware 10.2 without KDE and using 2.6 kernel (from second slack CD), and I cannot manage to get pseudo-transparent background in terminal emulators. I have tried to set it in command line and .Xresource file; all works except transparency stuff. I can see that xterm and rxvt are compiled with transparency options, so I really cannot see what is the problem. Additionaly, I have installed slack's KDE (all default packages), and tried to set in transparency in Konsole, but failed. It is realy sad, I like fancy-geeky desktop :(

Hoya, cheers! :D

I didn't think you could get any transparency with xterm... :scratch:

xterm and rxvt IIRC cannot even do transparency, on the other hand Eterm, aterm and mrxvt do.

But there is a way to tell them to do transparency, I saw it (most common way is .Xresources file)! I compiled aterm on my own, and have enabled transparency on compile time, but nothing. And I know transparency can be done with "Konsole", too (tried it on other distributions), but there isn't any on Slack 10.2. Have anyone of you people got some transparent terminal emulator to work on Slack10.2? That should meen that I did something wrong.
On the other hand, it may be that some option is disabled (or accidentaly not configured) in xorg, I don't know what.

Thanks for replies, cheers! :D

Put this in your .Xresources file (if you dont have one, you can make a new one):

aterm*transparent: true
aterm*transpscrollbar: true

My entire .Xresources file:

Eterm's transparency (as well as aterm's, i think) is pseudo and it does not work with dynamic backgrounds. To use transparency when static you must show your background location to eterm (smth with Esetroot if i remember correctly).

I have compiled mrxvt with transparency support and it didn't work (it worked in Ubuntu with same configure options).
dive, thanks for .Xresource file, but it didn't work, too. Colours have changed (like they are supposed to be), but there is no trace of pseudo-transparency. Tried on both kernels (2.4.31-ide and 2.6.13-generic), all the same.

Alien_Hominid, I know thats pseudo, it is supposed to take filtered desktop wallpaper, and draw it in some way, no windows or other stuff.

So, i figured out - there is problem in me or in some Slackware's factory settings. I can see you all are using Slackware current - do anyone maybe know that it worked in raw Slack 10.2 installation? I am a bit desperate :(

Thanks, bye! :)

well I've used transparency since 10.1 and I don't think it's any setting in Slack.

Must be in configure options, but I think I just did a plain ./configure when I installed aterm. Keep trying it should work

Maybe try ./configure --help and see what options are available

What output do you get with 'aterm +tr' in a term?

What I am saying is that I configured it right, it says there is transparency when I run "aterm -help", but I cannot see any of it. I am now in WinXP (have some crappy adsl modem with no drivers for Linux), so I can't say what will "aterm +tr" print out, but when I try it, I'll say here. ;)
I installed just 1st slack CD in first place, and have later added kde and 2.6 kernel, maybe that's the prob. Next thing to do is to reinstall it completely when I finish downloading all Slackware disks, even though I don't see how could *that* solve my mystery.

I'll be back! ;)

So, now I've reinstalled whole Slackware, excluded KDE and other boring stuff, and it doesn't work. Command 'aterm +tr' prints out nothing about transparency or stuff, just info about terminal window geometry (which is supposed to happen because it is compiled with transparency, otherwise it would print some error message, probably). But, alas, something weird IS happening: when I run aterm from xterm window (.Xresource is the one you, dive, use), in the moment (just moment) of bringing up window, I can see through it, I can see background image. But just for that moment, which is not very joyfull :(. I am confused...

ps.
Sorry for my annoyance :P ;)
Cheers!

Actually that should have been -tr (sorry) and -trsb for the scrollbar trans:

aterm -tr -trsb

But it should give you transparency if it's there

I know that, both (+/-tr) say same thing - nothing. Does Xorg need to load some module, or kernel perhaps?... I mean, some module which enables transparency? I freaked out, I don't know what to think anymore... :lol: Tomorrow, after faculty, I'll try to install 10.1, then to upgrade to 10.2... If that fails... Dunno, I'll have to finish my LFS :D

Bye-o :)

Dunno maybe some xorg.conf settings:

Section "Module"
Load "record"
Load "extmod"
Load "dbe"
Load "glx"
Load "xtrap"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Driver "nvidia"
Identifier "Card0"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "NV17 [GeForce4 MX 420]"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "HWcursor" "true"
Option "CursorShadow" "true"
Option "NvAgp" "3"
Option "TwinView" "1"
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT,TV"
Option "MetaModes" "1280x960,800x600;1024x768,800x600;800x600,800x600"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "Clone"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "30 - 50"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "60"
Option "TVStandard" "PAL-I"
Option "TVOutFormat" "SVIDEO"
Option "NoTwinViewXineramaInfo" "True"
EndSection

Now, I have installed 10.1 from some DVD (it is official, I think, I've copied it from friend), and transparency works flawlessly! In both (10.1 and 10.2) installations I did all packages except KDE (both) and GNOME (10.1); I did configure xorg on 10.2, but not on 10.1. That might be problem, but I don't get it. So, I'm happy, problem is not in myself :). I'll try to install it later, when I'm back from science.

Bye-o!