Compiz/Beryl/Xgl... Best Practices?

mac57 · 2007-08-22 23:16:32

I have a fresh Arch 2007.08 (Dont Panic) install, running on a 3.0 GHz PIV HT, 1 MB RAM and an nVidia G-Force graphics card with 128 MB of RAM. I would like to install something that gives me the spinning cube desktop effect, and maybe a few others as well. I have been through the Wiki entries and see that my choices seem to be Compiz with or without Xgl, Beryl with our without Xgl, the most recent nvidia drivers of course, and goodness knows what else.

It is not clear from reading all this what the best path to solution is. It *sounds* like Beryl and Xgl will be best, and afford the most control over the result, if only because it seems the only control applets I saw for Compiz related to gnome, and I am a KDE and XFCE4 user. However, it isn't clear to me if I need Xgl if I am using the latest nvidia drivers, since the required extensions seem to be be in the drivers already...

Can anyone advise on the best practice here for my particular hardware set up? I REALLY don't want to screw up my shiny new Arch install. I had to do a new install after royally screwing up a wonderfully configured old Arch 0.7.1 install which I have used for some time. I would like to take the safest path to clever visuals, if such a path exists! Any and all advice most welcomed!

Kknd · 2007-08-22 23:29:35

Well, the best is to use Compiz-Fusion, but since the packages at the unofficial repo / aur have some flaws, you will have to do some work to compile / package / install it right.

aythun · 2007-08-23 00:10:28

You don't need Xgl if you have a nVidia card.

Misfit138 · 2007-08-23 00:28:48

If you have an nVIDIA card, get Beryl working with the nVIDIA driver first. Then, if you want an extra degree of fluid smoothness, add xgl, though it is not necessary. Either way you shouldn't hose your system unless you do something really stupid.
I personally have a separate session for XGL in KDM, and it works fine, but there is a slight bug in XGL which sort of grays out the splash screen on desktop loading. Lately, I don't use Beryl much, but when I do, I just open it from a regular KDE session, using only the nVIDIA driver. Works perfectly.
enjoy

Kknd · 2007-08-23 00:54:52

With Beryl or Compiz-Fusion, you can switch Window Manager at "run-time", that means that if you want to use a Java app, you can switch back to metacity / kwin without logging off.

low · 2007-08-23 01:35:02

I use nesl247's unofficial repo, works great and is updated regularly so any kinks are gone quickly. Just make sure you use nvidia's driver with an xorg file generated with "nvidia-xconfig --composite --render-accel --allow-glx-with-composite --add-argb-glx-visuals" and you should be dandy

mac57 · 2007-08-23 19:39:10

Hi All, just a word of thanks to everyone. Following the advice here, I upgraded my nvidia drivers, loaded all the beryl packages, updated my xorg. conf and fired it up. It worked first time!

Kknd, you suggest that I can change back to kwin WITHOUT loosing the rotating cube and perhaps even the wobbly windows? The only thing I don't like about this new setup is that I lose kwin. As silly as it seems, I LOVE the little sound cues that kwin gives when opening/closing windows and so on. Everyone talks about "eye candy"? While I like "ear candy" too! :-)

Is it possible to keep all of Beryl's clever effects while still using kwin? I know that I can change the "window decorator", thus reclaiming my KDE visual style, but that doesn't seem to return fully to kwin, and thus the audio cues. Is this possible? Thanks!

Kknd · 2007-08-23 20:23:18

mac57 wrote:

Kknd, you suggest that I can change back to kwin WITHOUT loosing the rotating cube and perhaps even the wobbly windows? The only thing I don't like about this new setup is that I lose kwin. As silly as it seems, I LOVE the little sound cues that kwin gives when opening/closing windows and so on. Everyone talks about "eye candy"? While I like "ear candy" too! :-)

Unfortunately, no. My tip was that you can turn "on / off" the compsiting at run time (loosing all the effects), rather than having to log off and change sessions, but since youre running beryl, you probabily already can do that with beryl-manager.

mac57 · 2007-08-23 21:04:18

OK thanks Kknd. Yes, I can already turn it on and off - I was hoping maybe I could still use kwin too. Oh well... thanks again.

Arch Linux

#1 2007-08-22 23:16:32

Compiz/Beryl/Xgl... Best Practices?

#2 2007-08-22 23:29:35

Re: Compiz/Beryl/Xgl... Best Practices?

#3 2007-08-23 00:10:28

Re: Compiz/Beryl/Xgl... Best Practices?

#4 2007-08-23 00:28:48

Re: Compiz/Beryl/Xgl... Best Practices?

#5 2007-08-23 00:54:52

Re: Compiz/Beryl/Xgl... Best Practices?

#6 2007-08-23 01:35:02

Re: Compiz/Beryl/Xgl... Best Practices?

#7 2007-08-23 19:39:10

Re: Compiz/Beryl/Xgl... Best Practices?

#8 2007-08-23 20:23:18

Re: Compiz/Beryl/Xgl... Best Practices?

#9 2007-08-23 21:04:18

Re: Compiz/Beryl/Xgl... Best Practices?

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