KWin is missing

So I’m pretty new to openSUSE. Been using it for maybe a week now, and I have to say although it took some getting used to, I’m really diggin’ it so far.

The one problem I’ve ran into so far that I can’t seem to fix myself is one with KWin. I’m trying to enable desktop effects so I can do all the cool cube, wobbly windows etc etc. However, when I go into Apps > Utils > Desktop >

And then look for KWin, it doesn’t appear there. But in YaST, it says that KWin is installed, and I did an upgrade of it just to make sure.

Also, when I go into “Configure Desktop” and try to enable the features there, everything is grayed out and I don’t have the ability to change any of the settings. If it helps, the bottom of that window says

“Compositing is not supported on your system
Required X extensions (Xcomposite and XDamage) are not available”

Does this mean I have to install those two things to get it to work?

First hurdle has been taken: you’re enjoying linux/openSUSE.

Now, to help you out, we need some more info:

What’s the videocard in your system ? It needs to be capable of doing the desktop effects, AND probably needs a driver to be installed and configured. Don’t get scared, millions have done that to enjoy the eye-candy provided by the linux desktops.

If a proper driver has been installed, the config file for the graphical desktop, /etc/X11/xorg.conf, will contain a part that enabled the compositing for your system:

Section “Extensions”
Option “Composite” “on”
EndSection

No use to put it there by hand, will be done during configuration of the video card.

Thanks for the quick reply!

I’m currently using a Gforce 8800GT. I just installed a new driver earlier today via a 1 click download, which then DLed the new driver and installed it via YaST.

At one point this morning I did have KWin and Compiz on my computer. But I read that KWin can do all the things (pretty much) that compiz can, so I deleted compiz and KWin seems to have gone with it (except for the fact that YaST still says I have it).

I checked the etc/x11/xorg.conf and my file looks just like what you said it should.