Compiz or not Compiz? -old Nvidia

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1

First, how to check what version of OpenSuse I’m running? So far I could only see it in Software manager after searching for OpenSuse. There must be a quicker way.

Ok, it’s 11.1-1.19, with KDE4 (How to quickly check KDE version?).

After life CD install I couldn’t get any desktop effects, realised that I didn’t have Nvidia drivers. Installed them fine, but the system doesn’t look so good now. I can swear fonts were crisper on generic drivers.

Then I tried to run Compiz, shouldn’t have done “one click install” on the second thought, but what’s done is done.

Installation gave me a bunch of errors - three or four components that offered a wordy choice of ignore/skip/cancel or something like that. In the end it told me that some things, like Compiz Fusion Icon, won’t work.

Now I have Compiz settings under Utilities/Desktop and I can click and select and change anything I want but it makes no difference whatsoever.

If I go to Personal settings/Desktop and click “Enable effects” and change something there, the only thing happens is that on Ctr-F11 I my desktop changes opacity and cursor turns into a hand and everything freezes. No other effects, no cube, no animations, nothing.

Sooo…

How can I turn Compiz on without Compiz Fusion Icon? Where can I change window manager?

How can diagnose my Compiz now?

Is it possible to fix it?

Is there something wrong with Nvidia drivers I got?

Can I revert back to drivers from OpenSuse liveCD if Compiz is hopeless?

2

First off, where did you install the Nvidia drivers from? And also what graphics card do you have (more specific, just nvidia is still too vague)? There are plenty of threads on how to get compiz to work, but first we need to get your card working with Kwin (kde4’s default window manager).

Ian

3

Also an easy way to get a quick glance of your computer is to click the application launcher (k-icon or green openSUSE lizard) then go to Computer and choose hwinfo.

The other way to get to it is open Konqueror then type this into the address box

sysinfo:/

Good Luck,

Ian

4

cat /etc/SuSE-release
rpm -qa | grep kdm

5

Thanks for sysinfo:/ tip.

I changed my launcher/menu style to classic, can’t find hwinfo in there. System information is available from “kickoff” style under computer.

It’s Nvidia MX 440 with AGP, installed it via one click from nvidia section on opensuse site, nvidia server is now added to repositories.

Actually what happened is that I aborted nvidia driver installation yesterday and this morning the system wouldn’t load X (or is it X11? - the GUI), it booteds into runlevel 5 and left me with console. I ran “you” from there and it downloaded some 700 MB of updates, it was the first update since install.

I went to the “one click” page again, selected appropriate legacy button and it was all ok. Then I went to the Compiz page on Opensuse and thought I was good to go (nvidia drivers, XGLI or something is on by default in 11.1 version), then I clicked on one click Compiz install, and package manager gave me several errors.

Checking soft manager for dependencies doesn’t say produce anything.

I’m sure there’s a way to run Compiz here, I just don’t know how to diagnose the problems, or how to reinstall it.

6

The compiz conflicts are normal.

Post them here and we’ll tell you what to do.

Good Luck,

Ian

7

But first I’d like you to do something. Open a terminal (konsole) and type (or copy and paste) these commands in one by one:

su

type root password

nvidia-xconfig --composite
nvidia-xconfig --render-accel
nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals -d 24

Then hit alt+f2 and type this

kdesu kwrite /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Type root password

Once kwrite opens up find the section labeled Section “ServerLayout” and if it’s not already there add this line

Option "aiglx" "true"

Then click save.

Restart your computer. Then see if Desktop Effects work with kwin FIRST. Once they work with kwin then we can work on getting compiz to work.

8

nvidia-xconfig - command not found

Bet something should be done about this first.

There WAS “configure nvidia settings” somewhere in the menu, can’t find it anymore. Even when it was there, it didn’t let me configure anything, just displayed them, and now it’s gone, possibly after an earlier restart.

I added “aiglx” “true” to xorg.conf, just in case.

9

Could you please post a copy of your xorg.conf? It’s located at /etc/X11/

Those commands add lines into the xorg.conf for you. Usually with an install of the nvidia drivers you get the script to modify your xorg with those commands. But if you are in fact using the nvidia driver then we can add them manually too.

Good Luck,

Ian

10

/…/

SaX generated X11 config file

Created on: 2009-04-24T14:32:18+0700.

Version: 8.1

Contact: Marcus Schaefer <sax@suse.de>, 2005

Contact: SaX-User list <https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/sax-users>

Automatically generated by [ISaX] (8.1)

PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!

Section “Files”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/local”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/URW”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/Speedo”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/PEX”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/japanese:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/kwintv”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/truetype”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/uni:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/CID”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/xtest”
FontPath “/opt/kde3/share/fonts”
InputDevices “/dev/gpmdata”
InputDevices “/dev/input/mice”
EndSection

Section “ServerFlags”
Option “AllowMouseOpenFail” “on”
Option “ZapWarning” “on”
EndSection

Section “Module”
Load “dri”
Load “dbe”
Load “freetype”
Load “extmod”
Load “glx”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “kbd”
Identifier “Keyboard[0]”
Option “Protocol” “Standard”
Option “XkbLayout” “us”
Option “XkbModel” “microsoftpro”
Option “XkbRules” “xfree86”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Driver “mouse”
Identifier “Mouse[1]”
Option “Buttons” “5”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “Name” “Logitech M-UV69a Optical Wheel Mouse”
Option “Protocol” “explorerps/2”
Option “Vendor” “Sysp”
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
Option “CalcAlgorithm” “XServerPool”
HorizSync 31-48
Identifier “Monitor[0]”
ModelName “1024X768@60HZ”
Option “DPMS”
Option “PreferredMode” “1024x768”
VendorName “–> VESA”
VertRefresh 50-60
UseModes “Modes[0]”
EndSection

Section “Modes”
Identifier “Modes[0]”
EndSection

Section “Screen”
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection “Display”
Depth 15
Modes “1024x768”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1024x768”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1024x768”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1024x768”
EndSubSection
Device “Device[0]”
Identifier “Screen[0]”
Monitor “Monitor[0]”
EndSection

Section “Device”
BoardName “GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X”
Driver “nv”
Identifier “Device[0]”
VendorName “NVidia”
EndSection

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Layout[all]”
InputDevice “Keyboard[0]” “CoreKeyboard”
InputDevice “Mouse[1]” “CorePointer”
Option “Clone” “off”
Option “Xinerama” “off”
Screen “Screen[0]”
Option “aiglx” “true”
EndSection

Section “DRI”
Group “video”
Mode 0660
EndSection

Section “Extensions”
Option “Composite” “off”
EndSection

11

Yup, just what I suspected.

You’re still using the nv driver with composite turned off. Neither compiz nor kwin can display effects with this configuration. So, what you’ll need to do is install the drivers for your card.

First you’ll need to install via the one-click for Legacy cards from here NVIDIA - openSUSE

Then restart the computer. If it won’t boot into the gui then log in as root and then enter your root password. Then run

sax2 -r

This will automatically detect your nvidia card and use the nvidia drivers.

Post back here once you’ve done that.

12

Hi

I have the same graphics card and also had problems with the one klick nvidia drivers - especially after a update involving the kernel been updated.

So I went to the nvidia drivers download site and downloaded the driver from there and compiled my own kernel-module. Was quite easy to do - good instructions on nvidia site.

After that I had a good working/stable display to start with.

However I don’t use compiz at all.

But it might help you if you get that nvidia driver correctly installed first. And - behold - every time your kernel is updated you re-compile a new kernel-module for your new kernel. For compiling you need the kernel-source and kernel-syms packages and gcc of course.

Hope that helps you.
Zebulon

13

Hold on a minute with compiling my own kernel, let me figure out one click install first…

Ok, installed Nvidia drivers (again), system booted into console, ran sax2 -r, and it crashed. First it said it couldn’t start X and was starting its own engine instead, then it crashed.

I ran “you”, it recommended reinstalling nvidia, I accepted. Now system boots ok but only into 800x600 resolution. Tried changing it via Yast-Sax and the test screen looked ok, so I agreed and rebooted, no luck, still 800x600, and the log from the previous sax crash is gone - overwritten.

From what I remember it failed to load nvidia modules and couldn’t configure “screens” - something like ‘screens found but none could be configured’.

14

Hmm… that’s different. Do not listen to the other poster’s advice unless you FIRST uninstall the driver you downloaded via yast.

Try opening up a terminal and retrying these commands:

su

type root password

nvidia-xconfig --composite
nvidia-xconfig --render-accel
nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals -d 24

Then hit alt+f2 and type this

kdesu kwrite /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Type root password

Once kwrite opens up find the section labeled Section “ServerLayout” and if it’s not already there add this line

Option "aiglx" "true"

Then click save.

Restart your computer.

15

All done, this time nvidia-config didn’t throw any errors.

Still in 800x600 mode.

If it’s of any use, here’s current xorg.conf:

nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig

nvidia-xconfig: version 1.0 (buildmeister@builder63) Mon Feb 23 15:43:26 PST 2009

/…/

SaX generated X11 config file

Created on: 2009-04-29T09:06:43+0700.

Version: 8.1

Contact: Marcus Schaefer <sax@suse.de>, 2005

Contact: SaX-User list <https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/sax-users>

Automatically generated by [ISaX] (8.1)

PLEASE DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE!

Section “ServerLayout”
Identifier “Layout[all]”
Screen “Screen[0]” 0 0
InputDevice “Keyboard[0]” “CoreKeyboard”
InputDevice “Mouse[1]” “CorePointer”
Option “Clone” “off”
Option “Xinerama” “off”
Option “aiglx” “true”
EndSection

Section “Files”
InputDevices “/dev/gpmdata”
InputDevices “/dev/input/mice”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/local”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/URW”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/Speedo”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/PEX”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin2/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/latin7/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/japanese:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/kwintv”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/truetype”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/uni:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/CID”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/ucs/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/misc:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/75dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/100dpi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/hellas/Type1”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/misc/sgi:unscaled”
FontPath “/usr/share/fonts/xtest”
FontPath “/opt/kde3/share/fonts”
EndSection

Section “Module”
Load “glx”
Load “dbe”
Load “extmod”
Load “freetype”
EndSection

Section “ServerFlags”
Option “AllowMouseOpenFail” “on”
Option “ZapWarning” “on”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Keyboard[0]”
Driver “kbd”
Option “Protocol” “Standard”
Option “XkbLayout” “us”
Option “XkbModel” “microsoftpro”
Option “XkbRules” “xfree86”
EndSection

Section “InputDevice”
Identifier “Mouse[1]”
Driver “mouse”
Option “Buttons” “5”
Option “Device” “/dev/input/mice”
Option “Name” “Logitech M-UV69a Optical Wheel Mouse”
Option “Protocol” “explorerps/2”
Option “Vendor” “Sysp”
Option “ZAxisMapping” “4 5”
EndSection

Section “Modes”
Identifier “Modes[0]”
EndSection

Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Monitor[0]”
VendorName “–> VESA”
ModelName “1024X768@60HZ”
UseModes “Modes[0]”
DisplaySize 305 230
HorizSync 31.0 - 48.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 60.0
Option “CalcAlgorithm” “XServerPool”
Option “DPMS”
Option “PreferredMode” “1024x768”
EndSection

Section “Device”
Identifier “Device[0]”
Driver “nvidia”
VendorName “NVidia”
BoardName “GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X”
Screen 0
EndSection

Section “Screen”
Identifier “Screen[0]”
Device “Device[0]”
Monitor “Monitor[0]”
DefaultDepth 24
Option “RenderAccel” “True”
Option “AddARGBGLXVisuals” “True”
SubSection “Display”
Depth 15
Modes “1024x768” “1024x600” “800x600” “768x576” “640x480”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 16
Modes “1024x768” “1024x600” “800x600” “768x576” “640x480”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 24
Modes “1024x768” “1024x600” “800x600” “768x576” “640x480”
EndSubSection
SubSection “Display”
Depth 8
Modes “1024x768” “1024x600” “800x600” “768x576” “640x480”
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section “Extensions”
Option “Composite” “Enable”
EndSection

16

Everything in the xorg.conf looks great. Except for your monitor. Now what you want to do is use the graphical version of Sax2. Open Yast. Then under Hardware choose Graphics Card and Monitor. Manually choose your monitor or at least the same brand of monitor. Then choose the resolution you want. Click ok. It will run a test where you can configure anything else you need (such as if it’s offscreen), then once you go through all that restart the computer.

Good Luck,

Ian

17

Changed that in sax, monitor section in xorg looks ok, 1024x768, but there’s no effect.

Found in “Nvidia X server settings” that display is set to 800x600, and there’s no visible way to change it, all the options are grayed out, resolution is “auto” and “configure” has only “separate X screen”.

If there’s some button at the bottom of nvidia windows - it’s off my screen in “X server display configuration”. Using tab I managed to activate some buttons there, at some point it let me manually change “pan” to 1024x768, but what appears to be Apply gave me a list of five possible errors about X and “Apply what is possible” option.

18

Sorry, after restart the display size is perfect. I thought log out -log in would be enough for restarting X.

Ok, Nvidia is fixed, now it’s Compiz problem. Settings manager comes up but no changes, there’s no Fusion icon yet to switch between Compiz/Kwin and know for sure.

There ARE some effects visible already - windows are opaque on dragging, for example, but I think they are from Personal Settings - Window - enable effects. Cube option from there doesn’t work, there’s no transition on Ctrl F11, not even drag, desktops simply switch.

19

I found the problem with compiz installation lies in bad configured one-click-install. I did an update to compiz 8.2 stable version yesterday through one-click-install. I use gnome so used compiz-fusion-gnome click. The packages it tries to install conflict and it doesn’t install properly, giving me options to ignore, not install, etc. The sources it uses are also weird. For the gnome click, it also adds a kde4 repository. Bump ?! This repo contains only 7.8 version and it wants to install packages from it which conflict with 8.2 version in other repos.

Solution: I went to software sources and deleted kde4 repo and other repos which shouldn’t be added. That left me with only repos that contain 8.2 release. Updated compiz and it works great!

The thing what frustrates me most is the bad configuration of compiz-one-click. How can this be so bad configured when lots of people probably use it to install compiz??? I just don’t get it. Luckily I’ve got enough experience to solve the problem myself, but for opensuse beginners I can understand this would be harder and one more reason to not use linux because it’s “to hard”.

20

I believe Compiz was preinstalled, I hope it was a stable, compatible version. I did that one-click install and it probably screwed everything up.

I suspect “factory issued” Compiz was meant to be integrated into default window manager - it has a lot of same plugins and effects, but I’m speculating now.

Anyway, how to fix the existing one click Compiz? It gave several errors on install.