Upgraded from 8.04 - Lucid: Can't get Desktop Effect/Compiz working

[klytu]

I'm already regretting I upgraded from Hardy - had flawless, zippy Desktop effects before I upgraded.

After upgrading, it took me some trial and error just to get a working desktop without using failsafe gnome. (Got that fixed by purging and reinstalling the package xserver-xorg-video-radeon). Now I can't get any Desktop Effects or Compiz working whatsoever.However, I can get desktop effects and compiz to work if I run from a Lucid live CD. Before I try a clean installation (which I would really rather not do ...) Any suggestions about how I can troubleshoot?

Brief system specs:

Intel E6600 processor, Intel D975XBX2 motherboard, 4GB ram, Radeon X1650 Pro graphics card

[realzippy]

Have you used the catalyst driver?

[klytu]

Have you used the catalyst driver?

My card is not supported by the latest one. The last catalyst driver that would work with my card is not compatible with the Xorg version that's in Lucid. :-( However, the radeon driver works well enough for desktop effects and Compiz from the Lucid Live-CD ....

[realzippy]

Maybe an old xorg.conf file conflicts with the newer free ATI driver?

[klytu]

Maybe an old xorg.conf file conflicts with the newer free ATI driver?

I tried:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg and rebooted, but that didn't help.

I noticed that while the desktop was loading, a warning message about not being able to access settings for the monitor flashed by. At that's what I think the warning was about; it flashed by too quickly for me to read it. I don't know if that's relevant, but my monitor resolution is what it should be.

[realzippy]

Mind posting your xorg.conf?

[klytu]

Mind posting your xorg.conf?

Sure:


# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
Defaultdepth 24
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
# Driver "fglrx"
# Option "TexturedVideo" "off"
Option "VideoOverlay" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off"
EndSection

# commented out by update-manager, HAL is now used and auto-detects devices
# Keyboard settings are now read from /etc/default/console-setup
#Section "InputDevice"
# Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
# Driver "kbd"
# Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
# Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
# Option "XkbLayout" "us"
# Option "XkbVariant" "intl"
# Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:ralt_switch"
#EndSection

# commented out by update-manager, HAL is now used and auto-detects devices
# Keyboard settings are now read from /etc/default/console-setup
#Section "InputDevice"
# Identifier "Configured Mouse"
# Driver "evdev"
# Option "CorePointer"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-id/usb-Logitech_USB_Receiver-event-mouse"
#EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
screen "Default Screen"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

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

[realzippy]

AFAIK the ATI free driver in the liveCD needs no xorg.conf (you could boot the liveCD;
if there is a xorg.conf,copy it and compare/swap).So I would suggest to rename
the file -so it is not found- and boot without xorg.conf...


The outcommented fglrx shows that you formerly used this driver (?)
According to the wiki you should uninstall every fglrx package (synaptic) and reinstall xorg & co:


sudo apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-core

As mentioned,you need no xorg.conf.
the command sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg does not work anymore;now it is: sudo Xorg -configure,but you should only run it if the driver is not working without xorg.conf...

Since Lucid uses KMS for ATI cards,you can disable KMS if the driver is not working properly by creating a file:


gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/radeon-kms.conf

with this content:

options radeon modeset=0

[klytu]

AFAIK the ATI free driver in the liveCD needs no xorg.conf (you could boot the liveCD;
if there is a xorg.conf,copy it and compare/swap).So I would suggest to rename
the file -so it is not found- and boot without xorg.conf...


The outcommented fglrx shows that you formerly used this driver (?)
According to the wiki you should uninstall every fglrx package (synaptic) and reinstall xorg & co:


sudo apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-core

As mentioned,you need no xorg.conf.
the command sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg does not work anymore;now it is: sudo Xorg -configure,but you should only run it if the driver is not working without xorg.conf...

Since Lucid uses KMS for ATI cards,you can disable KMS if the driver is not working properly by creating a file:


gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/radeon-kms.conf

with this content:

options radeon modeset=0

Thanks for the advice.

Last night I did notice, as you indicate above, that xorg.conf was not being used and I tried booting without it. No difference.

Poking around in the logs, I think I've figured out one of the issues - I'm missing the file ati_drv.so in /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers. Maybe reinstalling as you suggest will correct this. I'll give it a shot and post back.

FYI, I thought I removed fglrx before I upgraded. How can I check to be sure that there are no remnants left over that might be interfering?

[realzippy]

How can I check to be sure that there are no remnants left over that might be interfering?

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/FglrxInteferesWithRadeonDriver

[klytu]

How can I check to be sure that there are no remnants left over that might be interfering?

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/FglrxInteferesWithRadeonDriver

Thanks, this was very helpful!

I purged the remnants of the proprietary fglrx drivers and reinstalled ati as per the linked page:


sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx*
sudo apt-get remove --purge xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-radeon
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati
sudo apt-get install --reinstall libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri xserver-xorg-core
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Then I also purged and reinstalled compiz with:


sudo apt-get remove --purge compiz python-compizconfig compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-plugins compiz-gnome compiz-core libdecoration0 compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-fusion-plugins-extra fusion-icon

and:


sudo apt-get install --reinstall compiz python-compizconfig compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-plugins compiz-gnome compiz-core libdecoration0 compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-fusion-plugins-extra fusion-icon

Now I'm able to get desktop effects and compiz running, but it's painfully slow and almost unusable. Since the effects are very smooth running off a Lucid Live-CD, there's still something wrong; but this is significant progress.

Again, thanks so much for your help. If you think of anything else I could try to get compiz running better, please post it. Meanwhile, I'll keep plugging away to see if I can figure out what needs to be adjusted.

[realzippy]

Have you tried to disable KMS (suggested in post8 ) ?:

Since Lucid uses KMS for ATI cards,you can disable KMS if the driver is not working properly by creating a file:


gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/radeon-kms.conf

with this content:

options radeon modeset=0


Have to reboot of course....
and might need a xorg.conf then (test it,I do not know...)
Creating xorg.conf:


sudo Xorg -configure

[klytu]

Have you tried to disable KMS (suggested in post8 ) ?:

Since Lucid uses KMS for ATI cards,you can disable KMS if the driver is not working properly by creating a file:


gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/radeon-kms.conf

with this content:

options radeon modeset=0

Yes, I already did try this and it helped somewhat. Average FPS in glxgears went from about 11000 fps to 16000 fps



Have to reboot of course....
and might need a xorg.conf then (test it,I do not know...)
Creating xorg.conf:


sudo Xorg -configure

I'll give that a try later today. I suspect my performance issue with Compiz is related to this error:
WARNING: Application calling GLX 1.3 function "glXCreatePixmap" when GLX 1.3 is not supported! This is an application bug!
I googled and searched around - many have reported this error after a distribution upgrade. I've tried reinstalling the kernel, but the error persists. I'll work on it later today and over the next day or two as time permits and post back what I come up with. If I can't locate the issue by then, I'll likely give up and do a clean installation.

Again, thanks so much for your help!

[realzippy]

"...clean installation"

Don't want to discourage;maybe you have the best 3D perormance with catalyst 9.3
on ubuntu 8.10....my neighbor sticks with 8.10 because he wants snappy desktop effects
running an old ATI 9500 chipset on a laptop;since Jaunty it got worse (downgrading Xorg was a workaround,don't know if that is still possible).So good luck!

[klytu]

"...clean installation"

Don't want to discourage;maybe you have the best 3D perormance with catalyst 9.3
on ubuntu 8.10....my neighbor sticks with 8.10 because he wants snappy desktop effects
running an old ATI 9500 chipset on a laptop;since Jaunty it got worse (downgrading Xorg was a workaround,don't know if that is still possible).So good luck!

Yeah I can relate. I definitely had much better performance in 8.04 with ATI's proprietary driver which is why I stuck with it for so long. But I had installed Kubuntu 10.04 a couple of months ago as an experiment and the desktop effects worked very well. The graphics performance and compiz effects from the LiveCd are also more than adequate. So I'm sure that the open source driver will work fine for my purposes; I just don't know why it's performing so dismally after an upgrade.

[klytu]

Just when I was about to give up on this for the night, I managed to get everything working! I noticed an old profile config file for compiz that was left over from before the upgrade; it contained all the desktop effects settings I liked and would load automatically whenever compiz ran. Some of those settings were no longer valid or had different names in the newer version of compiz that Lucid uses. I wondered if that profile was still being automatically loaded ... and it was. I reset to the default profile in the Preferences section of CompizConfig Settings Manager and voila - everything works fine!

Thanks again, realzippy, for your help!