Lost Desktop Effects

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

I’m a recent Kunbuntu convert so am still learning the ropes. I recently installed 11.1 and did the 1-click for Nvidia drivers (for my GEForce 8600 GT) and for KDE 4.2. Everything was working beautifully for several days, until today.

Now, I don’t get any desktop effects. glxgears reports:

glxgears: Error: couldn't get an RGB, Double-buffered visual.

glxinfo reports:

name of display: :0.0                                        
Error: couldn't find RGB GLX visual                          

   visual  x  bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer  ms  cav
 id dep cl sp sz l  ci b ro  r  g  b  a bf th cl  r  g  b  a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x21 24 tc  1  0  0 c  .  .  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
(etc, all "None")

When I try to set the compositing rendered to OpenGL in the system settings, I get an error message:

Failed to activate desktop effects using the given configuration options. Settings will be reverted to their previous values.

Check your X configuration. You may also consider changing advanced options, especially changing the compositing type.

xorg.conf is:



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" "7"
  Option       "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
  Option       "Name" "Microsoft Trackball Explorer"
  Option       "Protocol" "explorerps/2"
  Option       "Vendor" "Sysp"
  Option       "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection


Section "Monitor"
  Option       "CalcAlgorithm" "XServerPool"
  DisplaySize  340 270
  HorizSync    31-64
  Identifier   "Monitor[0]"
  ModelName    "1280X1024@60HZ"
  Option       "DPMS"
  Option       "PreferredMode" "1280x1024"
  VendorName   "--> VESA"
  VertRefresh  50-60
  UseModes     "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Modes"
  Identifier   "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Screen"
  DefaultDepth 24
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      15
    Modes      "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1280x720" "1024x768" "1280x600" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      16
    Modes      "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1280x720" "1024x768" "1280x600" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      24
    Modes      "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1280x720" "1024x768" "1280x600" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480" 
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      8
    Modes      "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1280x720" "1024x768" "1280x600" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480" 
  EndSubSection
  Device       "Device[0]"
  Identifier   "Screen[0]"
  Monitor      "Monitor[0]"
EndSection


Section "Device"
  BoardName    "GeForce 8600 GT"
  Driver       "nvidia"
  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]"
EndSection


Section "DRI"
    Group      "video"
    Mode       0660
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
  Option       "Composite" "on"
EndSection

I’m not sure where to look, exactly, for a diagnosis or solution. I haven’t made any configuration changes or installed anything else, but YaST does pull down about 60 updates each day. (I’m just telling it to download any packages that have a new update available.) Perhaps last night’s updates caused this problem. I’m running Nvidia 180.22 but think that driver was running fine for a few days before this started happening.

Any hints, or is this what the “RC” in “4.2 RC” is all about?

Thanks for your patience!

#2

Hi
Try adding the following options to the xorg.conf file in the section
called “Screen” after the DefaultDepth 24;


Option         "AllowGLXWithComposite" "True"
Option         "DisableGLXRootClipping" "True"
Option         "RenderAccel" "True"
Option         "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"

Restart the X server with ctrl+alt+backspace twice.

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.1 x86 Kernel 2.6.27.7-9-default
up 2 days 21:55, 1 user, load average: 0.46, 0.24, 0.20
GPU GeForce 6600 TE/6200 TE - Driver Version: 180.22

#3

This didn’t fix anything. Same responses from glxgears and glxinfo. No desktop effects.

#4

Hi
Strange, you restarted the X server? What about the nvidia-settings
command does is still show your driver installed?

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.1 x86 Kernel 2.6.27.7-9-default
up 3 days 20:43, 3 users, load average: 0.06, 0.15, 0.16
GPU GeForce 6600 TE/6200 TE - Driver Version: 180.22

#5

My guess is compiz is running that’s why you cannot enable the desktop effects. First, go to systemsettings or personal settings and under session manager, you have to tick start with an empty session. Next is to open the run command and run killall compiz and logout from the current session.In your next login go back to system settings or personal settings and enable desktop effects. If you wish to run compiz you may do so after enabling the desktop effects. I can see at the bottom of your post that you’re using kde 4.2 rc1 in this case it’s desktop effects features are almost similar to compiz, so maybe you may not need to run compiz unless you want to use it on another DE.

#6

malcolmlewis: I’m away from that computer now, but will try your suggestion later. This problem has persisted not only after restarting X (CTRL-ALT-DEL 2x), but also after multiple shutdowns and restarts. I haven’t started with a new session, though.

Tsandu: if compiz were running, would that cause the glxgears and glxinfo errors I’m seeing? This is a new installation, so I never installed compiz by myself. There was a kde-compiz dependency issue when I upgraded to 4.2 RC 1; I took someone’s advice and told YaST to ignore the dependencies on that package. Everything was working fine in 4.2 RC 1 until just a couple of days ago.

Everyone: would uninstalling/reinstalling the NVidia driver possibly help? How do I do that cleanly in this distro?

Thanks! Please don’t let me go back to Kubuntu! I was having too much fun with OpenSuse!

#7

Sorry … forgot to mention that nvidia-settings shows 181.22 installed. The drivers were in place for a couple of days with no problems.

#8

Reinstalled and now everything is working well. Consider this closed. Thanks for your help!