-
HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
(NOTE: THIS ONLY WORKS IN HOARY, DOES NOT WORK IN WARTY. Also, since I use an nvidia card, I'm not sure how well this will work in ATI. I've put in some ATI instructions that I've read but I'm not 100% sure if they'd work.)
I've spent the last day and a half trying to get compositing working in ubuntu. This is actually an amalgamation of a bunch of guides I've found; I shouldn't be given full credit for this.
The first thing you need to do is install xcompmgr and transset. These are found in the hoary universe repositories, if you havent already done so, enable the universe repo in your /etc/apt/sources.list. Its not very hard to do this, search the forums for how to do it :p
Code:
sudo apt-get install xcompmgr transset
xcompmgr is the composite manager (the program/extension that makes things look pretty) and transset sets windows transparencies.
Now, the next thing you have to do is actually enable compositing. This is done via a simple edit of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Code:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Add the following section after the "module" section:
Code:
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection
This tells xorg to enable compositing. Now, just so you know, unless you have a good video card, compositing most likely slow down xorg. Apparantly nvidia cards fare better than ati cards, since you can enable acceleration (which we'll do later) which'll actually make x use your video card for rendering.
As I said earlier, if you have an nvidia card it'll run better. I'm assuming you've already installed the nvidia binary drivers and such, if you haven't then do so. Add the following lines to the "device" section:
Code:
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
"RenderAccel" is actually an option you should already have if you're running an nvidia card, but I've included it incase you haven't put it in yet. I'm pretty sure this only works on nvidia cards; can someone tell me if there's an equivelant for ati?
"AllowGLXWithComposite" is a command that allows you to use OpenGL while compositing is running. Apparantly it can be buggy, though, so if you have problems you might want to disable compositing in your xorg.conf whenever you want to use opengl (just comment out the compositing option with #)
Now, if you have an ati card, add these lines instead:
Code:
Option "backingstore" "true"
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
According to a cached google page, backingstore is "used to enable the server's support for backing store, a mechanism by which pixel data for occluded window regions is remembered by the server thereby alleviating the need to send expose events to X clients when the data needs to be redisplayed."
(Since I don't own an ati card, I apologize if any of my facts are incorrect. If someone with an ati card can correct me, I'll make sure to update this.)
OK, now for the really fun part. We're going to actually set it so compositing is enabled when you start GNOME. Go to system -> preference -> sessions. Go to startup programs, and click "add."
Now, before I continue, I'm going to explain a few of xcompmgr's options:
-c : enable shadows
-s : enable simple shadows
-fF : enable fadeins/fadeouts
You can mix-and-match those commands. For example, if you want just shadows, use xcompmgr -c. If you want simple shadows, use xcompmgr -s. If you want to enable shadows and fadeins, use xcompmgr -cfF. I wouldn't recommend using -cs; that'll probably break the program.
So, where it asks you for the command, enter xcompmgr and then the argument. For example, if you'd like to enable shadows and fadeins/fadeouts, you'd enter:
Finally, in the order, change it to 0. This'll make sure it's the first thing that GNOME runs. Apparantly things run much better this way.
Alright! Now you can restart X (ctrl+alt+backspace), log back in, and you should have compositing running!
Using Transset
This is just an extra little command. If you want to set certain windows as transparent, then run the command "transset" in the console. Your mouse will turn into a crosshair; simply click on the window you want to set as transparent. The transparency value can be anywhere from 0 (completely transparent) to 1 (opaque.) It defaults to .75, and back to 1 if the window is already transparent.
For example, if you want to make a window half-transparent:
Have fun!
(By the way, I'm running xcompmgr and transset half-decently on a 32mb nvidia card, but I'm only using fadein/fadeout. Your mileage may vary.)
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Thanks, arnoct.
The HOWTO worked perfectly on my system. Performance is fine with GNOME; it's definitely useable.
One problem so far: xcompmgr died on me for some reason a few minutes ago. It went away gracefully; I just noticed that I was no longer getting drop shadows, so it wasn't a big deal.
Anyway, my system specs, just in case any of you are wondering about performance:
Athlon XP 2500
512MB
60GB 7200RPM
Nvidia GF FX 5600
2.6.10-k7 kernel
nvidia 1.0.6629 driver package from apt-get
Once again, thanks for the HOWTO. I've been anxious to try this for quite awhile.
--Sorry, I should have mentioned that I'm using "xcompmgr -cfF". I might ditch the fading, as I wish it were a little quicker. I don't know if this is a performance issue or a configuration issue. I'm thinking it's the latter for me.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Is there a way not to make xcompmgr's shadows apply to gdesklets? Is there a way not to make xcompmgr maximize every window over the gnome-panel?
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by HungSquirrel
Is there a way not to make xcompmgr's shadows apply to gdesklets? Is there a way not to make xcompmgr maximize every window over the gnome-panel?
IIRC, gdesklets has a transluecency option to use your own transparency. I don't remember, and I havent even tried it yet, but it's worth a shot maybe.
Just do a quick "killall gnome-panel" to reload the gnome panels. It should work just fine after that. Also, if you're having trouble with your terminal window not responding after you did that, then open a new one and type "killall `whatever terminal you use`"
I hope this helps a little.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
if you have xcompmgr start up at gnome login you won't have that problem.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Yeah, it's a known bug that xcompmgr makes windows overlap the gnome panel, afaik the only way to fix it is to make sure it's the first thing loaded (order 0)
[edit] Oh, also, just FYI you don't need a "boss" system to run compositing: I had a few issues with shadows, but fading is working fine using the following specs:
Celeron 667
~480mb ram
4gb hdd
nVidia GeForce2 32mb
Latest 386 kernel
Latest nvidia drivers in the universe repo
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Come on then, lets see some screen shots!
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Pardon my ignorance: how does one load xcompmgr before the rest of Gnome?
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by HungSquirrel
Pardon my ignorance: how does one load xcompmgr before the rest of Gnome?
Order "0" will make xcompmgr load first.
This HOWTO works perfectly :P Too bad my computer is so old that I can't use those shadows, everything gets slower.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
it just didnt work for me
help pls
Code:
root@ubuntu:/home/tianbo # apt-get install xcompmgr transset
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
transset: Depends: libxcomposite1 but it is not installable
Depends: libxdamage1 but it is not installable
Depends: libxfixes3 but it is not installable
xcompmgr: Depends: libxcomposite1 but it is not installable
Depends: libxdamage1 but it is not installable
Depends: libxfixes3 but it is not installable
E: Broken packages
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
First, I think you have forgotten sudo and the command should be:
Code:
sudo apt-get install xcompmgr transset
Second, have you checked your repository list? But I don't think this is related to that because all the components are in the main repository. And that is enabled by default.
Anyway, thanks arnoct. It works but I kinda don't like the look... maybe too used without shadow :p
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Buffalo Soldier
First, I think you have forgotten sudo and the command should be:
Code:
sudo apt-get install xcompmgr transset
Second, have you checked your repository list? But I don't think this is related to that because all the components are in the main repository. And that is enabled by default.
Anyway, thanks arnoct. It works but I kinda don't like the look... maybe too used without shadow :p
i did use type sudo and here's my repo list
## Uncomment the following two lines to fetch updated software from the network
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty main restricted
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty main restricted
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hoary main restricted
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hoary main restricted
## Uncomment the following two lines to add software from the 'universe'
## repository.
## N.B. software from this repository is ENTIRELY UNSUPPORTED by the Ubuntu
## team, and may not be under a free licence. Please satisfy yourself as to
## your rights to use the software. Also, please note that software in
## universe WILL NOT receive any review or updates from the Ubuntu security
## team.
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty universe
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty universe
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hoary universe
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hoary universe
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty-security main restricted
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty-security main restricted
deb http://backports.ubuntuforums.org/backports/ hoary-backports main universe multiverse restricted
deb http://backports.ubuntuforums.org/backports/ hoary-extras main universe multiverse restricted
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty multiverse
deb-src http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ warty multiverse
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ stable main
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ unstable main
deb ftp://ftp.nerim.net/debian-marillat/ testing main
deb http://ubuntu-bp.sourceforge.net/ubuntu/ warty-backports main universe
deb-src http://dijkstra.csh.rit.edu/~mdz/debian/ unstable mythtv
deb http://wine.sourceforge.net/apt/ binary/
deb-src http://wine.sourceforge.net/apt/ source/
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
It's because you're running warty, you have to be running hoary for this to work.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
I don't mean to alarm you, but I don't think it's a good idea to mix warty, backports and hoary repositories.
Anyway, this howto was written with Hoary in mind. Not sure whether it would work in Warty.
Quote:
Originally Posted by arnoct
NOTE: THIS ONLY WORKS IN HOARY, DOES NOT WORK IN WARTY. Also, since I use an nvidia card, I'm not sure how well this will work in ATI. I've put in some ATI instructions that I've read but I'm not 100% sure if they'd work.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
i did upgrade my dist with sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
is there any way to check whether my os is warty or hoary
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by kingofhell
i did upgrade my dist with sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
is there any way to check whether my os is warty or hoary
If you're running Hoary, what you should see at the top panel (or taskbar as MS Windows users like to call it)=> Applications Places System.
And click at System -> About Ubuntu. It should pop up a window saying "Welcome to Ubuntu Linux 5.04 : The Hoary Hedgehog Release."
Guys, any other better ways for him to check this? I'm not sure this way is the best. There could be exceptions to this scenerio.
King, just out of curiosity. What made the mixed up of hoary, warty and backports in your repository list?
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
I've been using this for about a week and it looks beautiful. However, I've found that I cannot log out while xcompmgr is running (if I have it run as part of my session). I have to manually kill it before logging out.
Does anyone have a way to automatically kill the process on logout?
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
hmm, that's strange. I haven't had too many problems with logging out. All I can suggest is that you killall xcompmgr, or restart x using ctrl+alt+backspace. It's still pretty buggy, so you're bound to hit problems.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
I've had freeze ups on logging out a couple times too. Restarting X saves it, but it's still weird. Guess it's not quite ready for prime time.
One other thing I've noticed: it does some funny things when used in combination with 3ddesktop. It hasn't caused either one to crash or slow down, but you can tell neither were designed with the other program in mind. It's a minor thing, and I'm sure things like that will be corrected over time.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Next question: how does one make xcompmgr not crash when xscreensaver starts? Happens every time for me.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
I had that problem too. If you did the AllowGLXWithCompositing thing, then all I can suggest is that you disable xscreensaver or pick one that doesn't use OpenGL. I had many problems with XScreensaver and OGL, and the best thing I could think of was just setting it to be a blank screen.
I should probably put a note somewhere, reminding people that this is still very very early in development and probably won't work very well :p
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Man! That's about a million times cooler than I thought it would be. Thanks!
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dromio
I've been using this for about a week and it looks beautiful. However, I've found that I cannot log out while xcompmgr is running (if I have it run as part of my session). I have to manually kill it before logging out.
Does anyone have a way to automatically kill the process on logout?
Just press enter after you clicked logout, the dialog is just hidden, but it is focused :)
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by mayco
Just press enter after you clicked logout, the dialog is just hidden, but it is focused :)
Eeeew that is annoying I turned off the default xcompmgr -c because of this.
The fade stuff was cool but made my box seem slow as heck and the simple option just kind of looked fugly.
Anyone got any idea how long before this handles logout dialog boxes? Or performs the cool tricks without a huge drag on the ui?
I am running this on a fairly slick laptop with like 512MB. Frankly, gnome running with that much memory is as faster if not faster than XP on the same box. I am getting too used to the good performance to give it up.
Btw, looking forward to the memory optimizations in gnome 2.12. Gnome seems very memory dependant in relation to its performance/speed feel.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Thank you for this howto
I'm using only shadows with my laptop with ati mobility 7500 and they work great and they are great. :)
Fade in/fade out seems to use a lot of cpu power (I can see cpu scaling up while fade in and fade out of gnome menus) so I disabled them.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
If it's laggy, guys, it's probably a misconfiguration with your video card. I'm running on a celeron 667 with no lag at all. Make sure acceleration is on, and like I said, it might not work well with ATI cards.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
after i installed it it worked and all. however my glxgears performance took a 300fps hit. i really don't want that kind of overhead when i play a game. it was pretty cool though.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
So I've run into a small hitch trying to get this to work. I'm on a clean install of Hoary, and I installed the nVidia 7167 driver according to the instructions in this HowTo.
I made sure that I followed the instructions to the letter. (I used -cfF for shadows and fading.) When I restarded X, the Gnome splash screen came up and had a lovely shadow. The background turned grey (from the usual brown) and the splash started to fade away. Before it finished fading it just stopped. My mouse cursor would still move, but nothing else would respond.
I couldn't kill X with Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, and I couldn't switch to a virtual terminal with Ctrl+Alt+F1. I had to do a hard reset and decided to try it one more time. This time the splash faded away completely, but it then locked up the same as before.
That's the only user account I have, so I can't log into Gnome at all. Any ideas?
XP 2500+
nVidia GF4 Ti4600
nVidia driver version 7167
Ubuntu Hoary 5.04 / Gnome 2.10 - still all default settings except for the new kernal for the glx driver (2.6.10)
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by digby
So I've run into a small hitch trying to get this to work. I'm on a clean install of Hoary, and I installed the nVidia 7167 driver according to the instructions in
this HowTo.
I made sure that I followed the instructions to the letter. (I used -cfF for shadows and fading.) When I restarded X, the Gnome splash screen came up and had a lovely shadow. The background turned grey (from the usual brown) and the splash started to fade away. Before it finished fading it just stopped. My mouse cursor would still move, but nothing else would respond.
I couldn't kill X with Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, and I couldn't switch to a virtual terminal with Ctrl+Alt+F1. I had to do a hard reset and decided to try it one more time. This time the splash faded away completely, but it then locked up the same as before.
That's the only user account I have, so I can't log into Gnome at all. Any ideas?
XP 2500+
nVidia GF4 Ti4600
nVidia driver version 7167
Ubuntu Hoary 5.04 / Gnome 2.10 - still all default settings except for the new kernal for the glx driver (2.6.10)
I ran across the same thing and the one thing that I found fixed it was going into Failsafe GNOME from the GUI Loader and doing a apt-get dist-upgrade after that it worked. However that was before I tried the instructions here but the same symptoms. I do have to say while it is cool. Until I can get my Nvidia card to work I am going to just wait. I had already tried it and worked like a charm however was slow on my onboard.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
How do I access the GUI loader to use the failsafe?
Edit: Never mind. Found it.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
anibody tried this howto on a S3 card?
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
I guess you guys never play any games, eh?
Since there are severe bugs with composite and opengl, games etc. I was playing around with it, sometimes x crashed, sometimes the computer hardlocked.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
So here is what I've discovered:
If I start xcompmgr from a terminal inside Gnome, it works fine with shadows ( -c ), and I can use transset to transparify (is that a word?) everything. However, as soon as I tried to use fading ( -fF) with or without shadowing all my windows and pannels faded away and the computer locked.
Oh, I did have that rather annoying problem of my windows covering the top and bottom pannels, but I believe I saw a reference to that happening when xcompmgr wasn't the first thing started when Gnome was loading.
Unless anyone has ideas, I shall have to get my fix for eye candy another way.
-
1 Attachment(s)
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Somebody wanted screenshots. I've only one but it's the default ubuntu gnome with all this stuff enabled. It's so pretty.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by xodeus
Somebody wanted screenshots. I've only one but it's the default ubuntu gnome with all this stuff enabled. It's so pretty.
Looks pretty, um... normal. ^^'
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
I followed the guide.
But i don't see any transparency ! Damn !
Why ?
The command transset works but .... I don't see the transparency after.
Yes my drivers work ^^
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
ok it works with Gnome, but does it work with KDE?
Plus I am getting the following error:
"No damage extension"
Any Ideas?
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
I decided to try this out of curiosity, not really thinking it would work on my dinosaur of a computer. Well, let me tell you something, when I restarted X and once GNOME loaded, the first words out of my mouth were, "Whoa! Holy sh*t!"
I am really impressed with how this works on my system, although it does run a little slow as I am on a PII 400 MHz with 128 MB SDRAM. I'm not sure how much memory my video card has, but I do know that it is an on-board card manufactured by NVIDIA/SGS Thomson (according to the Device Manager). The model of the card is a Riva 128 and the OEM is Gateway 2000 (as this is an older Gateway PC) and the OEM product information is STB Velocity 128.
I didn't download any NVIDIA drivers, because I figured with the card being autodetected and configured by Ubuntu and all, I really wouldn't need them. If anyone can verify that by using the NVIDIA drivers, my performance would increase, let me know and I'll fetch 'em immediately.
Anyway, thanks for an awesome how-to.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChaperonNoir
I followed the guide.
But i don't see any transparency ! Damn !
Why ?
The command transset works but .... I don't see the transparency after.
Yes my drivers work ^^
Xcompmgr has to be running before you use transset. After that, the procedure that I used was to open a terminal, enter the transset command, and then click on the window that you wanted to be transparent.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by digby
Xcompmgr has to be running before you use transset. After that, the procedure that I used was to open a terminal, enter the transset command, and then click on the window that you wanted to be transparent.
So we need more screenshot on how this looks!!! Can't believe you think the screenshot of xodeus was nice.. (The screenshot was nice but windows look like crap on the inside)
Any word on how this will work on Warty? :P
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kev0r
So we need more screenshot on how this looks!!! Can't believe you think the screenshot of xodeus was nice.. (The screenshot was nice but windows look like crap on the inside)
Any word on how this will work on Warty? :P
I'll don't have anywhere to host screenshots, so I can't help you there.
This won't work on Warty at all. All these eye-candy additions are features of X.org. Warty uses XFree86.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
A screenshot of my desktop is available at http://f-lips.de/images/Screenshot.png
Funny thing is, with xcompmgr moving windows takes almost no CPU at all and acts _very_ smooth, even with all the eye candy. Still very buggy though - but that's kinda to be expected, what with the time it had to mature and stuff ;).
Quote:
Any word on how this will work on Warty? :P
It won't :). Not with stock warty, anyway, as you need xorg. Maybe if you install xorg from hoary or elsewhere, get xcompmgr and get recent nvidia stuff. Might as well just upgrade the rest too, when you're at it ;)
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
I've been testing xcompmgr with various WMs, they all work with it but some run better than others. For example:
xfce - has a major bug where if certain windows are resized to be bigger, it won't redraw the new part of the window until the window is moved. This bug is also present in GNOME.
fluxbox - seems to work OK, although I'm having problems with fluxbox being stupid :p
openbox - Works very well when xcompmgr is on, but has a major bug where, after it turns on (or off,) apps don't come back as visible--you have to kill them through a console. This is using the verison in the hoary universe repository, I think it's out of date though
icewm - didn't have alot of time to look at it, but it seems to work OK.
So far, I'd recommend openbox (with fbpanel) except for the horrible "windows will disappear" bug.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by zukeft
Looks pretty, um... normal. ^^'
If you look at the picture you can then see some shadows. :D
I havn't yet configured my desktop in other ways so it isn't so visible.
//XoDeus
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Hello,
I tried this yesterday and it works wonderfull.
I got myself the nVidia drivers from the repository.
Than i ran sudo nvidia-glx-config enable
Now i got nVidia working and i installed transset and xcompmgr as described in the tut.
Hitted Ctrl-alt-backspace.
And eveything camu up fine.
The ugly windows is transset, Some don't become completly transparant. And have strange block in them. the fade in and fade out work ok and look amazing. Drop shadown also works. Only real problem i have is i can't shutdown. The box doesn't appear. So i shutdown with: sudo shutdown -h now
Thx for the great tut.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
After further use, I have edited my original post.
This works poorly with ATI Radeon Pro 9800 on Mac G5 dual 1.8ghz 2gb ram
Use of transparency severely slows things down. Use of shadowing and/or fade/ins fade/outs causes problem with logout. What happens is after selecting logout from the system menu the system will hang. No logout/restart menu will appear. CPU usage skyrockets. ctrl+option+backspace will kill X and bring you back to a graphical login when the system hangs.
It's a shame really, because these are some very nice effects. I think it's great someone took the time to share this info ;)
I wonder why ATI Radeon Pro 9800 with 256mb ddr ram and 8 pipelines would have these issues on a dual 1.8ghz G5 processor with 2gb ddr ram.
-
1 Attachment(s)
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kev0r
So we need more screenshot on how this looks!!! Can't believe you think the screenshot of xodeus was nice.. (The screenshot was nice but windows look like crap on the inside)
Here's another screenshot -
I'm using a lot more customised GNOME settings (theme, background, icons and the rest)
Shadows around window edges are turned on
Transparency of Firefox window with Ubuntu page is set to 0.6 - can see some of the desktop background through it
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Well, thanks for the tutorial. This is a lot of work for the average home user though. I hope that once the bugs are worked out, that this will become an option in the System menu.
Also, I have dual displays, so following the tutorial gave me one desktop nice, the other crap. I worked around it though.
It's alright, but it's no Luminocity... :(
For some reason, the -C option does NOT work for me properly... Argh.
EDIT: ARRRGGGHHHH. This plays havoc with BMP. Artifacts everywhere when dragging, and don't even try to expand the playlist. Grr. Oh well, it was pretty cool while it lasted.
Bring on the Luminocity.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Hi
ATI Radeon 9200
Shadows works great. The fade in doesn't. I get the fading, however its slow and it hear my hard disk reading everytime I move down the menu.
However, just the shadows is a nice change. Thanks.
If anyone knows how I can speed up the fading, would be greatly appreciated. ATI Radeon 9200 is pretty new.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
I ended up with all GLX completly horked, running Quake3 would crash X completely. Disabled it all and now I am eye-candyless.
Total bummer.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Funny, same thing happened with me in Quake 3, although all of my other GL apps work.. and the xcompmgr runs great!
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Alias' Maya has problems with it. Titlebars are invisible, windows disappear. Even with just compositing enabled (nevermind running xcompmgr) problems like disappearing windows and window contents disappearing happens.
Just a warning to anyone who uses Maya. :)
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by out of the blue
Alias' Maya has problems with it. Titlebars are invisible, windows disappear. Even with just compositing enabled (nevermind running xcompmgr) problems like disappearing windows and window contents disappearing happens.
Just a warning to anyone who uses Maya. :)
Yes, I have the same problem :)
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Doesn't work well for me. The gnome panel log out buttons are completely disabled if I run xcompmgr. Too bad - its looks slick.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
It's sweet alright!
There are only a few things bugging me with this:
- When i minimize a program, it starts to fade out, however, it also moves to the taskbar. Can i disable the moving? I think it would be better if it simply fades out.
- Is there a possibility to automatically fade a window to half transparancy when it loses focus, and set it back to full opacity when it gets focus? That would be even nicer, since it makes your screen look less cluttered.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Just wondering, as I've been seeing conflicting reports about this, but has anybody gotten fglrx and composite working together? And also, has anybody gotten good solid performance using the ati (open source) and composite? Mine is slow as heck and I have a 9700pro.
It looked awesome while it lasted though. :grin:
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by teumima
Hi
ATI Radeon 9200
Shadows works great. The fade in doesn't. I get the fading, however its slow and it hear my hard disk reading everytime I move down the menu.
However, just the shadows is a nice change. Thanks.
If anyone knows how I can speed up the fading, would be greatly appreciated. ATI Radeon 9200 is pretty new.
Hi!
How did you get it work. I have Ati Radeon 9600pro and tried but nothing happens. And the transset wont work..
Anyone??
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
it is pretty cool....still very slow though, almost unusable....although I do have a rather old laptop
p3 850mhz
575mb ram
ati rage mobility (mach64)
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
I don't understand all the commotion, it's totally unusable at normal uses. If you use composite with glx (3D hardware acceleration) you're quite ****ed, since it most certainly will crash your X or otherwise behave unstable. And it's the buggiest thing ever. It's not near ready, anywhere. :)
But when it's finished, it will be great.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Code:
xcompmgr -cCfF -r7 -o.65 -l-10 -t-8 -D7 &
Very nice xcompmgr settings courtesy of gladiac.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by fackamato
I don't understand all the commotion, it's totally unusable at normal uses. If you use composite with glx (3D hardware acceleration) you're quite ****ed, since it most certainly will crash your X or otherwise behave unstable. And it's the buggiest thing ever. It's not near ready, anywhere. :)
But when it's finished, it will be great.
Totally agree. I ran with it for a day or two, and disabled it now. It constantly stopped working and my desktop was slow as a turtle.
It was nice, but I just want Luminocity already!
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Fading was too slow, shadow was great.
Note for ATI users. It's either composite or 3d accl, not both.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
I have a problem that when i enable xcompmgr -cfF as described, selecting the System - Log Out i dont get the log out screen up - its functional (ie i can press return and it will log out, go down and shutdown..etc etc) but its really bugging me! whats goin on?
Regards, Will
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by ba5e
I have a problem that when i enable xcompmgr -cfF as described, selecting the System - Log Out i dont get the log out screen up - its functional (ie i can press return and it will log out, go down and shutdown..etc etc) but its really bugging me! whats goin on?
Regards, Will
xcompmgr is buggy...that's about the best answer you'll get for now.
In fact I'm kind of relucant to even use it now that I've had it completely crash the xserver on me 3 times. When it is working right the effects are quite sweet though.
http://img17.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img17...apshot55vk.jpg
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by ba5e
I have a problem that when i enable xcompmgr -cfF as described, selecting the System - Log Out i dont get the log out screen up - its functional (ie i can press return and it will log out, go down and shutdown..etc etc) but its really bugging me! whats goin on?
Regards, Will
Umm, did you read this thread? I am pretty sure it was already mentioned.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Definately looks alright although it slowed my box down considerably using the recommended -cfF. Trying transset left my machine unusable. I clicked to close the transparent window and waited a good 25 seconds until the window did close and my system became usable again. Gonna just go with the shadows for now I think. I thought my machine would have been more capable with this stuff considering the specs others have mentioned. Barton 3200 and a nvidia 5200 with a gig of ram. Oh well.
Oh, and chalk up another user that has the log out dialogue window problem. Kinda a pain.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Compositing works great over here...for one screen. A few bugs here and there but its not perfect yet. When I set it up to do twinview I get all kinds of interference on the screen. Did it in gentoo too, not sure what causes it :( Pentium 4 1.6 ghz geforce4 ti4200 128mb video ram, 256 mb system ram
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Well. I made my windows look super sweet.
Unfortunately X windows crashed shortly after
but that could have been because I installed and was running skippy
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
hello,
my video card is
Code:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device"
Driver "i810"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection
do i take the risk and try this, or it will be maybe too risky?
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Oh well, just followed this guide.. (nice guide)
BUT, this is way to unstable n buggy.. atleast for me, I do have
a Radeon 9800pro - And it was major buggy and really fuxed up.
So.. if theres anyone around with a similar card running this
composite thingies nicly, please tell..
Cheers
-
Can't get past first step.
I've tried it several times -- went over every detail. But no matter what I do, when I type "xcompmgr -cfF", it simply says "No composite extension". How can I get past this?
(Kubuntu Hoary, xcompmgr, transet, nvidia -- all installed. xorg.conf modified with extensions section as described at the top of this thread)
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Quote:
Originally Posted by xodeus
Somebody wanted screenshots. I've only one but it's the default ubuntu gnome with all this stuff enabled. It's so pretty.
Got a link to the desktop wallpaper you were using there? I like brown ones that fit in with the default brown color theme.
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
Those drop shadows are really nice and the only thing I managed to get to work somewhat on my system - and then only from a terminal before the system froze solid ;-)
It'll be very cool when things are more stable.
AMD Athlon 1 gig and Nvidia Geforce 440 mx
-
Re: HOWTO: Making your windows look super sweet in Hoary (compositing)
This is what I've done with it:
Clean
Dirty
Just running the drop shadows cause anything else is too much.