KWin OpenGL compositing self-check failed

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1

Hi.

I have recently updated my ATI drivers to Catalyst 10.10 (ati-driver-installer-10-10-x86.x86_64.run) from the AMD website and I have not been able to get KWin to enable compositing.

I am using:
openSUSE 11.3 x64
KDE 4.5.2
kernel 2.6.34.7
kwin 4.5.2
ATI Radeon HD 4870

This is what KWin is saying when I try to enable compositing.

kwin(9353) KWin::CompositingPrefs::detectDriverAndVersion: GL vendor is "ATI Technologies Inc." 
kwin(9353) KWin::CompositingPrefs::detectDriverAndVersion: GL renderer is "ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series         " 
kwin(9353) KWin::CompositingPrefs::detectDriverAndVersion: GL version is "1.4 (3.3.10243 Compatibility Profile Context)" 
kwin(9353) KWin::CompositingPrefs::detectDriverAndVersion: Detected driver "fglrx" , version "3.3.1024" 
kwin(9353): OpenGL compositing self-check failed, disabling compositing. 
kwin(9353): Failed to initialize compositing, compositing disabled

I tried fgl_glxgears and glxgears and they both work perfectly fine.
fgl_glxgears:

Using GLX_SGIX_pbuffer
13671 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2734.200 FPS
11627 frames in 5.0 seconds = 2325.400 FPS

glxgears:

*** NOTE: Don't use glxgears as a benchmark.
    OpenGL implementations are not optimized for frame rates >> 60fps,
    thus these numbers are meaningless when compared between vendors.

43336 frames in 5.0 seconds = 8667.183 FPS

I tried modifying ~/.kde4/share/config/kwinrc and changing OpenGLIsUnsafe to false

[Compositing]
AnimationSpeed=3
Backend=OpenGL
DisableChecks=false
Enabled=true
GLDirect=true
GLMode=TFP
GLTextureFilter=1
GLVSync=true
HiddenPreviews=5
OpenGLIsUnsafe=false
XRenderSmoothScale=false

I mainly wanted to update KDE, KWin, and my ATI drivers because I was having problems with KWin enabling at start up but now it’s not working at all.

2

for me, i disabled the functionality checks long ago for the same type of annoyance, i.e. effects work fine but is disabled on session startup. Either hit the checkbox available in DesktopEffects>AdvancedTab or change the line in kwinrc to “DisableChecks=true”… seems something kwin expects to verify simply isn’t returned properly at session start, i think there are bugs reported on this issue.

not really a solution, but you aren’t the only one! :slight_smile: