Well R6.8.0 is out (if you haven't see the /. article already)

I'm sure some Slack users will want to upgrade so that we can have real transparency.

Is it just a case of using pkgtool to remove X and then install 6.8.0 from source? - I'm fairly happy with my current set up and I don't particularly want to have to reinstall if I muck up :)

Cheers for reading

Steve

Just wait for it to appear in current if you're worried about messing up your system... or you could install from source using checkinstall...

Got it working here.

Did the removepkg thing and compiled the sources. Not too much was mucked-up. You'll have to cook a fresh xorg.conf file to support the new keyboard driver and to enable the composite extensions.

Composite is still a bit flaky for me, so it's up to you if you think it's worth the upgrade. I'd imagine that once the new features are officially supported in all WMs, the bugs should slowly disappear.

Wow, that screenshot looks absolutely amazing. I might switch back to slackware as soon as xorg 6.8 hits current... Did you get the cvs version of xcompmgr and transset? There's supposed to be a new patch for xcompmgr that fixes the crashing with nvidia cards (it's in the gentoo ebuilds at least). I hope someone makes packages of transset/xcompmgr (cvs versions) @ linuxpackages.net

for normal ppl, there will not be any "real" transparency for a while. The new extensions have to be supported by toolkits first, and then migrate to the desktop environments.

For KDE it means, no go for at least QT4, KDE 4, unless someone patches the current tree.

@jymbo

So how did you get real transparency now? That looks like fluxbox but from what little I know, flubox only supports pseudo - is there any special tweaks or is that a different manager?

Cheers

Steve

That's Fluxbox 0.9.10 running on Xorg 6.8 with XComposite Extensions enabled. You'll need to install the new version of Xorg in order to get the effects.

Opps, I just removed 6.8 because my fonts went all messed up, tried reinstalling freetype, fc-cache - didn't seem to want to budge - so I'm back on 6.7 until a package comes out on current :)

Never mind,

Cheers

My approach to this event:

Major New features:
1. Better Radeon drivers. (3d mostly)
2. Xcomposite - flickerless picture
3. Transarencies/Shaddows

Look at that list, and tell yourself if they are worth the trouble of compiling.
1. My OpenGL screensavers are ok already.
2. Would be cool, but alone, not worth bothering to compile/risk of screwing system up.
3. What for? Transparency - you can only make the whole windows transparent - all text/controls get blurry. I know KDE's konsole transparency is fake, but it is more functional.

It's not like Slack 10 is Debian Stable. I'll hold.

Short (stupid?) question:

what happens with playing movies on a transparent desktop?

I don't know for sure, but I believe it would not be translucent at all -

If you use a xv output, it should just create an overlay which will not be translucent at all - however, a GUI around the video should be translucent if set that way

And it ain't that stupid a question :)

Steve

Mplayer won't even run on my desktop with Xcomposite enabled.

Hmm, mplayer / gmplayer runs fine on mine with xcomposite / transparencies :)

When I say fine - I mean slowly ;)

Steve

SBing, did you try with "RenderAccel" "On"? xcomposite¡s permfomance was decent after adding that option to my xorg configuration.

That's for Nvidia cards, not ATi cards mate - my friend with a 5500 finds "RenderAccel" "On" makes his transparencies ultra quick - the radeon driver just drops that option :'(

I could try swapping my cards around again, putting in my Geforce 2 MX - but to be honest, I'm not sure it would actually help - it's too old!

Cheers - but I think I'm just going to wait until transparencies are bugless :)

Steve