Rats! Gnome reverted to fallback !!!

English Install/Boot/Login
1

I installed openSuSE 12.1 several days ago and FORCED myself to use the new Gnome 3 interface. Finally, I had all the extensions I needed and things configured to use Gnome 3 in it’s non-fallback (full?) mode that I found quite usable.

Like an idiot however, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. One thing that bothered me with my openSuSE 11.4 setup (that I upgraded to get to openSuSE 12.1) was the inability to use Xinerama mode with my Nvidia Geforce GT530 card. I had been using TwinView. Well, today I tried switching to Xinerama (using the nvidia-settings application) and upon restart, Gnome reverted to fallback mode.

Rats! I was actually liking the full mode and desperately want to get back there. Try as I might, however, nothing seems to work to get it going again. First thing I tried: Reverting back to TwinView. No go, still fallback. Next, I uninstalled the Nvidia drivers, restarted in safe mode, and then reinstalled them again (from the openSuSE Nvidia repository.) Again, no go, still in fallback.

I was running fine with my original Nvidia with TwinView setup with the new Gnome interface BEFORE I did the switch to Xinerama. Something about switching to Xinerama and back to TwinView changed something that twiddling the System Settings -> Graphics -> Forced Fallback Mode isn’t undoing. I’m at a loss as to how to track down what changed.

Any ideas/hints would be GREATLY appreciated as to how to get my full Gnome 3 interface back. I was to the point where I really preferred it to this fallback interface.

2

Run gnome-control-center -> System Info -> Graphics and set “Forced Fallback Mode” to OFF.

3

Well, I believe I’ve answered my own question.

After analyzing the various versions of /etc/X11/xorg.conf* files, I noticed the /etc/X11/xorg.conf being used now had the following:

Section “Extensions”
Option “Composite” “Disable”
EndSection

In looking at the versions of it from BEFORE my change to Xinerama and back to TwinView, that wasn’t there. On a lark, I deleted that and restarted and my full Gnome 3 UI came back.

4

I had tried that, many times, to no affect.

5

You got it. Explicitely disabling compositing in xorg.conf will prevent Gnome3 from starting and switch to fallback (whatever other settings you have).