Quitting KDE4 applications on GNOME desktop kills Compiz

[wondercow]

Hello all,

I did a fresh install of OpenSUSE 11.1 a few days ago and selected the GNOME desktop. However, I use a few KDE programs, specifically Amarok and Ktorrent because I prefer their interface/features over their GNOME equivalents. Whenever I quit the KDE4 version of Amarok or Ktorrent while using GNOME, Compiz will get turned off (not sure if it's crashing or just quitting). When I quit those programs, the screen will flicker and all my windows will redraw, and all my Compiz plugins will be turned off. If I then go to Desktop Effects in Control Center, the "use desktop effects" box will be unchecked and I have to activate it again.

One note is that this only seems to happen when I quit the KDE4 version of Amarok (version 2.0). If I quit Amarok 1.4, my desktop effects keep running unphased. I haven't tried an older version of Ktorrent, but I am suspecting it would leave my desktop effects alone as well.

Has anyone else seen this happen? Have you had any success fixing it? Any ideas how I would go about diagnosing this?

[fecam]

Hi, I have the same problem but, with VLC. When I close VLC Compiz Compiz will get turned off...

[bela42]

Hi,

so it is a general problem with Qt(4) Apps?

The same applies to VirtualBox...

[wondercow]

Ok, I have solved this problem now. There is another thread reporting this same problem (here: OpenSUSE 11.1 Compiz and QT4 - openSUSE Forums ) and user olivn posted the solution:

CyberOrg » Compiz on openSUSE 11.1

I had to do some extra steps to get everything working, though.

Originally Posted by CyberOrg

Although openSUSE 11.1 is almost ready, Compiz that is in it is still not there yet. If you run into some of the remaining annoyances, here is how to get Compiz Fusion bliss on openSUSE 11.1.

Add X11:XGL repository that contains compiz without NOMAD patches

zypper ar Index of /repositories/X11:/XGL/openSUSE_11.1 X11:XGL

Update all compiz packages from that repo

zypper up -t package -r X11:XGL

After making sure compiz is switched off and disabled, remove old configuration:

rm -rf /home/your-username/.config/compiz

The step it doesn't cover that I had to do was go into Yast Software Manager and make sure that ALL my compiz-related packages were from the X11:XGL source. By following those quoted directions alone, I had mixed XGL and OSS packages, and they didn't play nice together (plugins failing, window decoration not loading, etc.).

Then you go back to the CyberOrg solution:

Originally Posted by CyberOrg

Launch simple-ccsm and enable Compiz.

Have a lot of fun…

Hope this helps you as much as it did me!

[LuisC-SM]

Originally Posted by wondercow

Ok, I have solved this problem now. There is another thread reporting this same problem (here: OpenSUSE 11.1 Compiz and QT4 - openSUSE Forums ) and user olivn posted the solution:

CyberOrg » Compiz on openSUSE 11.1

I had to do some extra steps to get everything working, though.



The step it doesn't cover that I had to do was go into Yast Software Manager and make sure that ALL my compiz-related packages were from the X11GL source. By following those quoted directions alone, I had mixed XGL and OSS packages, and they didn't play nice together (plugins failing, window decoration not loading, etc.).

Then you go back to the CyberOrg solution:



Hope this helps you as much as it did me!

Hi.

I've followed the steps you kindly posted and also made the changes in Yast to use X11 repos instead of OSS but I still have the meralld problem... here is the simple-cssm output:

cacho@linux-vkrj:~> simple-ccsm
Checking for Xdmx: not present.
Checking for Xgl: not present.
Detected PCI ID for VGA: 02:00.0 0300: 10de:01d3 (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: present.
Checking for non power of two support: present.
Checking for Composite extension: present.
Comparing resolution (1280x1024) to maximum 3D texture size (4096): Passed.
Checking for nVidia: present.
Checking for FBConfig: present.
Checking for Xgl: not present.
Dry run finished: everything should work with regards to Compiz and 3D.
No compiz manager config found!
Checking for Xdmx: not present.
Checking for Xgl: not present.
Detected PCI ID for VGA: 02:00.0 0300: 10de:01d3 (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: present.
Checking for non power of two support: present.
Checking for Composite extension: present.
Comparing resolution (1280x1024) to maximum 3D texture size (4096): Passed.
Checking for nVidia: present.
Checking for FBConfig: present.
Checking for Xgl: not present.
* Detected Session: kde
* Searching for installed applications...
* NVIDIA on Xorg detected, exporting: __GL_YIELD=NOTHING
* Using the GTK Interface
* Decorator "compiz-decorator --replace" is invalid.
* Setting decorator to Emerald ("emerald --replace")
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Error: Plugin 'core' has ABI version '20081121', expected ABI version '20080828'.

/usr/bin/compiz (ccp) - Error: InitObject failed
/usr/bin/compiz (core) - Error: Couldn't activate plugin 'ccp'

If I use emerald I get no window borders.
Is there any solution??

Thanks in advance

Luis

[LuisC-SM]

I can answer myself... After 4 hours of search in suse mailing lists.. and the bug archives, I found the same answer all the time.

There is NO solution... emerald is borked

So I'll go back to OS 11.0

Luis.

[wondercow]

Bummer that you couldn't get it to work. If I understand correctly, you don't need Emerald to use Compiz and still get window borders, though. I just checked, and I don't even have Emerald installed on my machine. So, if you just want the neato Compiz effects, you could probably remove Emerald packages and be ok, but if you have your heart set on using Emerald, then I've got no solution for you. Sorry.

[LuisC-SM]

Originally Posted by wondercow

Bummer that you couldn't get it to work. If I understand correctly, you don't need Emerald to use Compiz and still get window borders, though. I just checked, and I don't even have Emerald installed on my machine. So, if you just want the neato Compiz effects, you could probably remove Emerald packages and be ok, but if you have your heart set on using Emerald, then I've got no solution for you. Sorry.

Thanks for your comments.

However I seemed to have "partially" fixed the emerald issue, Take a look to this blog from cyberorg

CyberOrg » Compiz Fusion Git snapshot for openSUSE 11.1

It seems that git repos fix in some way this problem... My bad was that I installed it without removing the old compiz packages.. I'm still having issues but it seems to be just a matter of time.. (which I don't have now), so maybe tomorrow or in some days I'll bring back some news. I really hope so.

Kind REgards

Luis

[LuisC-SM]

Hi again.

So far, emerald is now working perfectly....

I just updated one or 2 packages to cyberorg s git repos..and installed compiz-kde4 (it did not get installed with one-click-install. I also installed fusion-icon-kde.

That was all... they work greaat... BTW... QT4 apps dont break compiz anymore

I've not shutdown my desktop but if something happens I'll update this post...

Good luck and enjoy "emerald"

Luis

[LuisC-SM]

UPDATE:

@Admin.. I hate to repost.. is there somehting I can do to overpass the 10 minutes edit time limit? TIA

Everything is ok after the reboot....
sound Works, QT4 apps work ;=)... VirtualBox works... ... but... I must "<Alt + F2> fusion-icon" to have emerald... Maybe there is a way with the "echo" comand to change this like in GNOME... This is my first attempt with KDE4 and I'm planning to stick to it, it's really impressive. (and I was a Kde hater), but I must find the way... Fonts were so ugly in kde but after some minor teawks they are almost as perfect as in gnome..........

Good luck and happy emerald themming (Also happy new year).

Luis