XGL Install and General Tips For Gnome and Nvidia

[poofyhairguy]

My guide is REALLY outdated. Instead use this site:

http://knowledge76.com/index.php/XGL...z_Nvidia_32bit

Thank you!



Hello Nvidia Users. If you are a ATI user then please use this guide instead:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=739758

AMD64 Users look here:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=131659

A few notes:

You must compile the newest CVS version of glitz to get this to work with Nvidia cards that lack Pixel Shaders (aka anything older than a 5200 FX). Hopefully this will be updated in the repository soon.

THIS BREAKS XINERAMA AND TWINVIEW so dual head use is more annoying.

Proceed at you own risk. This is new experimental stuff and I hope you are a little command line savy (or can call someone that is) because if something messes up you might be stuck on the command line.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Also I assume you have installed the newest Nvidia driver from the repos. To get it, this command:

sudo apt-get install nvidia-kernel-common nvidia-glx

Now lets edit some xorg.conf. First thing is to open it with this command:

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Find the “Module” section. Comment out the “Glcore” and “dri “ modules and make sure a “glx” module is there. So basically like this:

#       Load    "GLcore"
#       Load    "dri" 
          Load "glx"

Now find the “Devices” section.

Change every line but the “Identifier” line to look just like mine:

Section "Device"
	Identifier- leave this line alone!
	Driver		"nvidia"
	BusID		"PCI:1:0:0"
	Option 		"RenderAccel" 		"true"
EndSection

IF LATER ON COMPIZ DOES NOT WORK FOR YOU (and complains about composite extension):

Add this to the very bottom:

Section "Extensions"
          Option  "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

DON'T ADD IT OTHERWISE

VERY IMPORTANT:

Make sure your default color depth is 24!

Now save and close the file.

Now on to the second part- install XGL.

I pretty sure this line will do it. I tried it on a clean install:

sudo apt-get install compiz xserver-xgl libgl1-mesa xserver-xorg libglitz-glx1 compiz-gnome

Thats pretty easy. Next step is the making it start when Gnome starts. I get this from the ATI guide with modification. Thanks JoWilly!

First a command:

sudo gedit /etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom

Make it look JUST like this. Delete all thats in the file and past all I have posted:

# GDM Configuration Customization file.
#
# This file is the appropriate place for specifying your customizations to the
# GDM configuration.   If you run gdmsetup, it will automatically edit this
# file for you and will cause the daemon and any running GDM GUI programs to
# automatically update with the new configuration.  Not all configuration
# options are supported by gdmsetup, so to modify some values it may be
# necessary to modify this file directly by hand.
#
# To hand-edit this file, simply add or modify the key=value combination in
# the appropriate section in the template below.  Refer to the comments in the
# gdm.conf file for information about each option.  Also refer to the reference
# documentation.
#
# If you hand edit a GDM configuration file, you should run the following
# command to get the GDM daemon to notice the change.  Any running GDM GUI
# programs will also be notified to update with the new configuration.
#
# gdmflexiserver --command="UPDATE_CONFIG <configuration key>"
#
# For example, the "Enable" key in the "[debug]" section would be specified by
# "debug/Enable".
#
# You can also run gdm-restart or gdm-safe-restart to cause GDM to restart and
# re-read the new configuration settings.  You can also restart GDM by sending
# a HUP or USR1 signal to the daemon.  HUP behaves like gdm-restart and causes
# any user session started by GDM to exit immediately while USR1 behaves like
# gdm-safe-restart and will wait until all users log out before restarting GDM.
#
# For full reference documentation see the gnome help browser under
# GNOME|System category.  You can also find the docs in HTML form on
# http://www.gnome.org/projects/gdm/
#
# NOTE: Lines that begin with "#" are considered comments.
#
# Have fun!

[daemon]

[security]

[xdmcp]

[gui]

[greeter]

[chooser]

[debug]

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

[server-Xgl] 
name=Xgl server 
command=/usr/bin/Xgl :0 -fullscreen -ac -accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:fbo 
flexible=true

That has a special line that I found works best for Nvidia cards- this might solve acceleration issues some people have!

Time for the last step: make compiz work! This part will work for ATI users as well.

Two ways to do that. Either go by what this post says (thanks g14) or use my small script:

This:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showpost...&postcount=507

Or:

First this command:

sudo gedit /usr/bin/thefuture

And empty file should appear. Fill it with this:

#!/bin/bash
gnome-window-decorator &  compiz --replace gconf decoration wobbly fade minimize cube rotate zoom scale move resize place switcher &

Now save the file. Now use this command:

sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/thefuture

Read the rest of this paragraph then reboot. After login in GDM, open a terminal and enter this (credit to rjtd):

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

replacing you country code for language. For US English I use this command:

xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.us

Now put this command in the terminal to get compiz love:

thefuture

That should make compiz start working. If not, just keep using that command (maybe up to 20 times) till it does work. If you have problems, post them in thread so you can get help.

Try it out. Here are the basic key commands:

CTRL + ALT + Left/right arrow key. Switches to the new side of the cube for me.

CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + Left/Right arrow key- Takes the in focused app around cube.

CTRL + ALT + Left Click on Desktop - allows you to use the mouse to rotate cube.

F12 - uses the Expose like trick

Alt- Tab - switcher Vista-style

Now is to solve some general issues. One is the fact that the wobble seems off to many people with Nvidia cards. There is an easy fix thanks to roberTO:

Run the command:

gconf-editor

Now go to:

apps>compiz>general>screen0>option

Then turn off the "detect_refresh_rate" option.

Then set the "refresh_rate" to 60

It will work like a charm. Here is a neat trick if you want to take screenshots from npodges.

Go in the gconf-editor to:

apps>compiz>general>screen0>options

Change “command0” into"gnome-screenshot"

Then change “run_command0” into"Print"

Now the PrintScr button will take screenshots. More helpful advice on the different gconf-editor options can be found on this page:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_XGL

I hope you enjoyed the guide.

To Undo

This command:

sudo gedit /etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom

Then clear the file and save it.

[woedend]

PHG. You have no idea how helpful this was to me. Thanks so much. You are great asset to the community. One quick note / question. compiz gives an error about libmenu.so missing, although it still runs perfectly. Ah well. Thanks again sooo much
woe.

[awakatanka]

Thanks for the guide, hope someone will make one for the kubuntu users to soon.

The community did a good job to get Xgl to work , thanks for those people to.

A rated

[encho]

OK, I'm the unlucky one. All I got is this message:

$ thefuture
$ compiz.real: GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap is missing
compiz.real: Failed to manage screen: 0
compiz.real: No managable screens found on display :0.0

And it kills my gnome-panel, nautilus, and metacity. Maybe I am missing something?
Oh yeah, and I can not find apps>compiz in my gconf-editor

[Belfagor]

thanks for this guide... i was unlucky to get compiz run... tried running thefuture even for 30 times.. sometimes compizreal appears for 5 second in the running applications list then disapperas... any idea? thanks again...

[poofyhairguy]

Originally Posted by encho OK, I'm the unlucky one. All I got is this message: $ thefuture $ compiz.real: GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap is missing compiz.real: Failed to manage screen: 0 compiz.real: No managable screens found on display :0.0 And it kills my gnome-panel, nautilus, and metacity. Maybe I am missing something?

Yeah, I get that sometimes. Just keep running the command till it goes away. Even if thats like twenty times. It will eventually go away.

[frodon]

really nice.

I have 2 questions regarding Xgl/compiz :
1- Do you get the same FPS with xgl and does the game works well ?
2- How to undo that, i mean to make xserver and metacity load as usual ?

Thank you for this neat guide.

[encho]

Originally Posted by poofyhairguy Yeah, I get that sometimes. Just keep running the command till it goes away. Even if thats like twenty times. It will eventually go away.

You're my hero
Finally works!
What now? I'll just play with the windows and wobbling ... 3 hours later ... still wobbling. Seriously, everything works smoothly, changing desktops, transparency, task switching. BTW, is there an easy way to do transparency change on per window basis? And are there any keyboard shortcuts? And why not to <shift> <backspace>? I'm really curious

[scrooch]

This is the first how-to take gets me everything set up... And only under a 3 minutes!

Read the rest of this paragraph then reboot. when you computer reboots all you should have to do is put this command in the terminal to get compiz love: thefuture

A little detail; It wasn't really clear for me when to enter this command exactly. Maybe you should insert 'After login in GDM, open a terminal and enter'...


Resizing windows hasn't improved in performance though, that's a real turndown Maybe some sort of plugin will show up which handels resizing windows/using xgl.

[Belfagor]

is xgl really broken for amd64?