How To: Install Xgl/compiz with Dapper, ATI, Gnome

[mattisking]

HEY: Ignore this... it's too outdated and no longer really relevant. Besides, there are far newer packages than what's in Dapper right now and this thread won't get you there. THIS, however, worked perfectly for me: http://www.compiz.net/viewtopic.php?id=389




Many people have contributed to this, some more than others as I've picked up the pieces I needed to make this work from through-out these forums.
But, in particular: terrax, JoWilly, and poofyhairguy

1. Get your xorg.conf setup properly. The main thread has more than enough information on this. Follow it paying attention to the ATI differences that are well noted.

Just to be clear however, these instructions are targeted for those people using the ATI Proprietary Driver ("fglrx"). This is configured in your xorg.conf. If you're using "ati" that's not going to work for you. If you're using "radeon" then this is theoretically possible (radeon is the OSS driver targeted more - for now - for your lower end Radeon cards, in particular the 9000/9200/9250)... but I wasn't able to get it to work with my lower end PC that uses the 9200. In both cases, there are known/outstanding bugs with both sets of drivers that require work arounds described below.

To make sure you are "accelerated", running with the new driver, try typing fglrxinfo in a terminal and see what you get. If it talks about ATI then awesome... if it talks about Mesa, you still don't have your driver setup properly (xorg.conf).

**For ATI do not enable composite in xorg.conf, xgl does not need it.

2. Install all the new stuff from the Dapper universe repository... this includes xserver-xgl, compiz, libgl1-mesa, libgl1-mesa-dri, libglitz1, libglitz-glx1 and any dependencies.

3. Modify /etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom - For most this file is generally full of empty stubs. Look for the one called [servers] and do this:

[servers] 
# Override display 1 to use Xgl (DISPLAY 1 IMPORTANT FOR ATI FGLRX). 
1=Xgl 

[server-Xgl] 
name=Xgl server 
command=/usr/bin/Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:pbuffer
flexible=true

4. Modify /etc/gdm/gdm.conf to change your display:

#0=Standard
1=Standard

** You may have noticed in both steps 3 and 4 that we're using Display 1 instead of 0... this is due to a bug in the current proprietary ATI driver and this is the workaround.

5. Another bug in the driver... And for video, there is a bug with xv, so we want to start "gstreamer-properties" and tell it not to use xv for video. (This is the same as starting "Multimedia Systems Selector", a Preferences application that is currently hidden in your menu system)

6. Modify your session ("Menu System" -> "Preferences" -> "Sessions") by adding in the following two items:

gnome-window-decorator (must be on top, start first) 
compiz --replace gconf

7. Start gconf-editor and go to "apps/compiz/general/all screens/options", and adjust "plugins" in the following order:

gconf decoration wobbly fade minimize cube rotate zoom scale move resize place menu switcher

It MUST be in this order as there are dependencies between them. If you've already been playing with this from earlier debs - maybe from battlehorse, or maybe you rolled your own - this is an important step because it's very likely in the wrong order. Most people that are missing certain plugins or are missing things like "alt-switch" will find they need to correct this and restart.

8. To get around the problem with <Shift> and <Backspace> enter this in your terminal whenever you login:

xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.<language>

where <language> refers to your country's code. For the US, it would be:

xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.us

Once everything is running along happily, this is a good appendix for the commands for using the nifty stuff compiz gives you:
http://en.opensuse.org/Compiz

That's about as easy as I can make it. Good luck.

Some Issues

• This is a wonderful resource for looking into your video card/driver: http://en.opensuse.org/Xgl
• It appears that you might need a 9800 or better ATI right now.
• It appears there may be problems with Mobility users (laptops)
• The latest compiz package may have a bug that doesn't put the necessary gconf settings in place. One possible work-around is to install the battlehorse v1 deb for compiz, then update to the universe deb.

UPDATES:
I just got this tip for slightly lower end Radeon's like this user's 9600se:

1) sudo gedit /etc/gdm/gdm.conf
2) Go to line 198 and change:
GdmXserverTimeout=10
to
GdmXserverTimeout=50

[poofyhairguy]

Excellent. I will make one for Nvidia. Thanks!

[Bou]

Originally Posted by mattisking To make sure you are "accelerated", running with the new driver, try typing fglrxinfo in a terminal and see what you get. If it talks about ATI then awesome... if it talks about Mesa, you still don't have your driver setup properly (xorg.conf).

OK, I did a fresh install just to follow this guide from the ground up so... I installed the fglrx driver and set it to xorg.conf

Section "Device" Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. RV280 [Radeon 9200 PRO]" Driver "fglrx" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" EndSection

I installed the packages, too, though I can't find either libgl-mesa nor libgl-mesa-dri at the repos: I do find libgl1-mesa and libgl1-mesa-dri... are those the correct names?

I modified gdm.conf-custom too:

[servers] # Override display 1 to use Xgl (DISPLAY 1 IMPORTANT FOR ATI FGLRX). 1=Xgl [server-Xgl] name=Xgl server command=/usr/bin/Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -accel glxbuffer -accel xvbuffer flexible=true

And gdm.conf as well:

[servers] # These are the standard servers. You can add as many you want here and they # will always be started. Each line must start with a unique number and that # will be the display number of that server. Usually just the 0 server is # used. #0=Standard 1=Standard

[Bou]

But then, when I try to reboot, I get the following messages:





I didn't even add the dnome-window-manager and compiz stuff to the session startup. Why can this be caused?

[vaskark]

I have a Radeon 9200 SE 128Mb card with acceleration enabled. I followed your instructions up until Step 6. Xgl is running, I'm in gnome but it is sooo slow. I do step 6 and my screen goes black (although I can still see/move my mouse cursor). Also, both Xgl AND Xorg appear to be running. Is this normal? And is my card too low-end for this maybe? I'm on a P4 3GHz with 512 Mb RAM.

[aamukahvi]

You should change your name to mattisGOD, thank you (and the credited others). Got it finally working on my R9500

My keyboard layout seems to have changed from FI to US. How can I switch back?

[MrRoboto]

I can't get Xgl to work. I get the following error:

Couldn't open RGB_DB '/usr/share/X11/rgb'

any ideas?

[golfie]

Like all previous times I tried: Can someone give me the final answer how to handle this problem. I installed the latest fglrx driver from the ati site.

And with fglrxinfo I get:
display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: MOBILITY RADEON 9700 Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.5642 (8.22.5)

So that's ok. But when I want to run compiz I always get this error message:

compiz.real: GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap is missing
compiz.real: Failed to manage screen: 0
compiz.real: No managable screens found on display :1.0

I also got them from the self-compiled version. But with the packages from the repos I still get this message. When I type glxinfo i get:

name of display: :0.0
display: :0 screen: 0
direct rendering: Yes
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating,
GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_SGI_make_current_read,
GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_hyperpipe, GLX_SGIX_swap_barrier,
GLX_SGIX_fbconfig
client glx vendor string: ATI
client glx version string: 1.3
client glx extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_ATI_pixel_format_float,
GLX_ATI_render_texture
GLX version: 1.2
GLX extensions:
GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_EXT_import_context,
GLX_ARB_multisample
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: MOBILITY RADEON 9700 Generic
OpenGL version string: 2.0.5642 (8.22.5)
OpenGL extensions:
GL_ARB_multitexture, GL_EXT_texture_env_add, GL_EXT_compiled_vertex_array,
GL_S3_s3tc, GL_ARB_depth_texture, GL_ARB_fragment_program,
GL_ARB_fragment_program_shadow, GL_ARB_fragment_shader,
GL_ARB_multisample, GL_ARB_occlusion_query, GL_ARB_point_parameters,
GL_ARB_point_sprite, GL_ARB_shader_objects, GL_ARB_shading_language_100,
GL_ARB_shadow, GL_ARB_shadow_ambient, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp,
GL_ARB_texture_compression, GL_ARB_texture_cube_map,
GL_ARB_texture_env_add, GL_ARB_texture_env_combine,
GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar, GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3,
GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat, GL_ARB_transpose_matrix,
GL_ARB_vertex_blend, GL_ARB_vertex_buffer_object, GL_ARB_vertex_program,
GL_ARB_vertex_shader, GL_ARB_window_pos, GL_ARB_draw_buffers,
GL_ATI_draw_buffers, GL_ATI_element_array, GL_ATI_envmap_bumpmap,
GL_ATI_fragment_shader, GL_ATI_map_object_buffer, GL_ATI_separate_stencil,
GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3, GL_ATI_texture_float,
GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once, GL_ATI_vertex_array_object,
GL_ATI_vertex_attrib_array_object, GL_ATI_vertex_streams,
GL_ATIX_texture_env_combine3, GL_ATIX_texture_env_route,
GL_ATIX_vertex_shader_output_point_size, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra,
GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_func_separate, GL_EXT_blend_minmax,
GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint,
GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_fog_coord, GL_EXT_framebuffer_object,
GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays, GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_point_parameters,
GL_EXT_rescale_normal, GL_EXT_secondary_color,
GL_EXT_separate_specular_color, GL_EXT_shadow_funcs, GL_EXT_stencil_wrap,
GL_EXT_texgen_reflection, GL_EXT_texture3D,
GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc, GL_EXT_texture_cube_map,
GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp, GL_EXT_texture_env_combine,
GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3, GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic,
GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias, GL_EXT_texture_mirror_clamp,
GL_EXT_texture_object, GL_EXT_texture_rectangle, GL_EXT_vertex_array,
GL_EXT_vertex_shader, GL_HP_occlusion_test, GL_NV_blend_square,
GL_NV_occlusion_query, GL_NV_texgen_reflection, GL_SGI_color_matrix,
GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap, GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp,
GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp, GL_SGIS_texture_lod, GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays
glu version: 1.3
glu extensions:
GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess

visual x bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer ms cav
id dep cl sp sz l ci b ro r g b a bf th cl r g b a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x23 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x24 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x25 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x26 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x27 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 1 0 None
0x28 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 1 0 None
0x29 24 tc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 None
0x2a 24 tc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 None
0x2b 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x2c 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x2d 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x2e 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 16 16 16 16 1 0 None
0x2f 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 1 0 None
0x30 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 8 0 0 0 0 1 0 None
0x31 24 dc 0 32 0 r y . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 None
0x32 24 dc 0 32 0 r . . 8 8 8 8 0 24 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 None

And no GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap? I saw more people have this problem, but how can it be solved, since also many people have compiz working on their ati card. My card is actually a ATI Mobility Radeon 9700?

[risbac]

Also, both Xgl AND Xorg appear to be running. Is this normal?

Yes it is, Xgl runs on top of Xorg. Nothing to worry about

[risbac]

To everybody and in order to answer faster to your problems, it would be useful to provide also:

1 your graphic card model and which driver are you using (really using, check with glxinfo which driver is loaded)
2 where did you install from ? (compile, internet deb, repo?)
3 how do you run Xgl ? (in a terminal, from modification in gdm?)
4 copy your Xgl launch command
5 copy your compiz launch command

Thanks in advance!