AIGLX enabled by default
I have a nVidia 7950GT w/ 512mb. With 10.3/10.2 I have not used XGL/AIGLX. Before with 10.2 and a 6800 w/ 128mb I used XGL cause of the ‘black window’ issue.
… according to the openSUSE documentation and compiz-fusion is great.
So, since I have been using the whole 3D desktop thing (whichever name it is at the time) I thought, if you had nVidia that it was best (performance/quality) to use the ability of the nvidia drivers and not XGL/AIGLX and I would want to disable (if it is enabled) AIGLX in 11.0? Or am I wrong?
KDE4 11.0 and config files
So, my plan is to snag 11.0 ASAP, rename the user folders under /home, fresh install of 11.0 from 10.3, re-formating everything but /home, creating the users, login-logout each, copy folders over. As you may know, KDE3 config files are located under ~/.kde for all users and kde4 apps in 10.3 are under ~/.kde4.
Will 11.0/KDE4 have all it’s configs under the ~/.kde4 or ~/.kde? KDE3 does not use ~/.kde3 but uses ~/.kde. So I’m unsure.
From my experiences with 11.0 I think you’re correct on both accounts.
With 11.0 you will need to run Nvidia 173.14 else there’s a patch that’s required.
in 11.0 Kde4 apps use ~/.kde4 while kde3 apps are still using ~/.kde. If you copy/rename ~/.kde to ~/.kde4 it’s my understanding that kde4 apps will use/convert existing settings but I think it’s cleaner to start kde4 with a fresh dir.
Fyi - I did an in place upgrade with 11.0 beta 3 and it went well
I am far from an expert with 3D accelerated desktops since I’ve been refusing steadily to drop my trusty and feature-packed KWin (in its KDE 3 incarnation) but from what I understand the nVidia driver is using AIGLX / is build on top of it. In former realeases (< 11.0) openSUSE was pushing their own solution called XGL which has been more or less made obsolete by AIGLX. So I don’t think you want to disable AIGLX.
re: aiglx - this is what opensuse.org says:
“openSUSE 11.0
AIGLX is enabled by default, so nothing needs to be done to enable it. Just install the necessary drivers in case of fglrx/nvidia.” AIGLX - openSUSE
The implication is you don’t need to edit xorg.conf to enable composting and such as done in 10.x all you need to do is load the Nvidia drivers. I’m still using my old xorg.conf from 10.3 and not seeing any problems in 11.0rc1 (but at somepoint I should remove the lines I added just in case).
Generally speaking, compiz and kwin4 will use nvidia directly if it is available, so as long as your xorg.conf is configured to enable nvidia composite, you should have no problems.
KDE4 will use ~/.kde4, and KDE3 will use ~/.kde, for legacy reasons. Though there is a first start wizard that was added to KDE4 that should pull your settings and defaults from KDE3, if it finds them.
I understand the implication. Everyone is trying to get Linux as a whole, more friendly and less intimidating, especially for Windows converts.
But I’m not an “average user”. I didn’t buy a Dell/HP/etc. I bought an ASUS A8N32 SLI Deluxe. I stuck a X2 4200+ and overclocked it to 2.64GHz from 2.2. I put 4GB of DDR RAM and instead of the default 400MHz, it runs at 480MHz.
If using the nvidia drivers is better in performance/quality/etc. I would rather use that. I would rather remove the **Option “aiglx” “true” ** from xorg.conf and use the lines from the initial post, if I do get better results.
I think what I will do, is after I get 11.0, check it out, check memory usage, cpu usage, etc. I think there is a FramePerSecond display in the CCSM.
Please don’t take this reply as a brag or trying to be demeaning/critical, I’m just showing my point of view. Thanks
AIGLX is now usually enabled by default in all drivers that support 3D (this is true for nVidia’s open-source and closed-source drivers, ATI’s closed-source and open-source drivers, and even Intel’s open-source drivers) and you no longer need XGL support for desktop acceleration (Compiz and Compiz-fusion both support AIGLX). However, the bigger problem is that some Linux games still require XGL (if I’m not mistaken, Q3A falls into this category), so you can’t have desktop acceleration and gaming acceleration at the same time, if the games require XGL.
radeonHD: Supports 2D acceleration for all ATI and AMD graphics chipsets including R6xx (R3xx and R2xx are supported by the existing open-source radeon driver) except AMD 780G. However, there is no 3D (example: Compiz) support.
ati: Supports 3D acceleration for R4xx (and most R5xx) ATI and AMD graphics chipsets, in addition to 2D acceleration for these same chipsets. However, some R5xx (example: RV535) chipsets are better-supported using ATI’s closed-source driver.
Catalyst 8.5 (closed-source): Supports 2D/3D acceleration for all ATI/AMD graphics chipsets in R3xx and later series. Unlike the open-source drivers (at present), the AMD 780G and the entirety of R5xx/RV5xx and above have full 2D/3D support. Quirks - custom-compiling method (modified from openSuSE 10.2) is required to use these drivers in 11.0 betas, RC1, and (when released) GM. Compositing bug remains unfixed since Catalyst 8.4 (however, disabling it breaks Compiz-fusion).
You can have AIGLX support with compositing turned off (ATI’s closed-source drivers actually do this by default using:
Option “XComposite” = “disabled”
OR
Option “XComposite” = “false”
in the “Device” section of /etc/X11/xorg.conf).
However, since compiz-fusion requires compositing support, any effects that rely on it won’t work.
Also, there’s an even nastier bugaboo: AIGLX renders XGL moot for not just desktop acceleration, but gaming as well (and the gaming side of things hasn’t really been addressed yet).