KDE 4 no blur effect

dan542 · 2011-03-08 17:44:39

Hi all,
I have Intel GMA 4500MHD indide my Thinkpad SL410 laptop. Until a system update blur effect in kde 4 was working well, but now it's not working anymore. As it seems, it's not even using direct rendering, because in ~/.xsession-errors, there is the folowing snippet:

OpenGL vendor string:                   Tungsten Graphics, Inc
OpenGL renderer string:                 Mesa DRI Mobile IntelÂ® GM45 Express Chipset  
OpenGL version string:                  1.4 (2.1 Mesa 7.10.1)
Driver:                                 Intel
GPU class:                              i965
OpenGL version:                         1.4
Mesa version:                           7.10.1
X server version:                       1.9.4
Linux kernel version:                   2.6.37
Direct rendering:                       no
Requires strict binding:                yes
GLSL shaders:                           no
Texture NPOT support:                   yes

but glxinfo | grep direct returns direct rendering: Yes.
I also tried to enable testing repository and update system, but it's the same (maybe a bit faster ).
If somebody will want some logs, I'm gonna send them to him.

adee · 2011-03-08 20:50:34

In kwinrc there is:

[Blacklist][Lanczos]
Advanced Micro Devices=DRI R600:-:7.8.1,DRI R600:-:7.8.2
Intel=GM45 Express Chipset GEM 20100328:-:7.8.2,GM45 Express Chipset GEM 20091221:-:7.7.1,965GM GEM 20100328 2010Q1:-:7.8.2,965GM GEM 20091221 2009Q4:-:7.7.1,Ironlake Mobile GEM 20100328:-:7.8.2

So your card is blacklisted.

Last edited by adee (2011-03-08 21:14:24)

nqn1976 · 2011-03-08 21:47:24

Same issue here. Downgrading mesa to 7.10.0.git20010215 fixes the problem

adee wrote:

In kwinrc there is:

[Blacklist][Lanczos]
Advanced Micro Devices=DRI R600:-:7.8.1,DRI R600:-:7.8.2
Intel=GM45 Express Chipset GEM 20100328:-:7.8.2,GM45 Express Chipset GEM 20091221:-:7.7.1,965GM GEM 20100328 2010Q1:-:7.8.2,965GM GEM 20091221 2009Q4:-:7.7.1,Ironlake Mobile GEM 20100328:-:7.8.2

So your card is blacklisted.

That is the lanczos filter blacklist, it has nothing to do with blur.

dan542 · 2011-03-09 05:39:59

@nqn1976 dowgrading helped, but I needed to downgrade also intel-dri and libgl.

off220 · 2011-03-09 08:53:41

same for my i3 915 video card. I asked at kde.org but they say that it's dev's decision and the don't know how to force using blur.

ANOKNUSA · 2011-03-09 14:58:34

The KWin devs blacklist not cards, but rather the open-source drivers for them. The blacklisted drivers are in a stage of development where they report certain values necessary for a proper KWin visual effect incorrectly, which causes KWin's compositing to switch on and off to avoid crashing. You can try either disabling functionality checks in the "Desktop Effects" module, or installing the proprietary drivers for your cards, and see if they work (although I'm sure that's not the best solution for some).

dan542 · 2011-03-10 16:49:08

@ANOKNUSA I don't know about any Intel proprietary drivers for Linux, they're only OSS drivers for Linux, which are mostly developed by Intel.

ANOKNUSA · 2011-03-10 18:35:47

dan542 wrote:

@ANOKNUSA I don't know about any Intel proprietary drivers for Linux, they're only OSS drivers for Linux, which are mostly developed by Intel.

Yeah, good point; I seem other people have had issues using Intel cards and compositing with other window managers, too, though I know the KWin devs' reasoning for blacklisting them is the same as with other drivers. Can't remember exactly where I might have come across info on Intel and compositing before (sorry), but it is out there.

cinan · 2011-03-10 19:58:28

I have intel HD graphics (Acer TimelineX 5820TG) with no blur. Here's kwin error output:

OpenGL vendor string:                   Tungsten Graphics, Inc                                                 
OpenGL renderer string:                 Mesa DRI Intel(R) Ironlake Mobile                                      
OpenGL version string:                  1.4 (2.1 Mesa 7.10.1)                                                  
Driver:                                 Intel                                                                  
GPU class:                              i965                                                                   
OpenGL version:                         1.4                                                                    
Mesa version:                           7.10.1                                                                 
X server version:                       1.9.4                                                                  
Linux kernel version:                   2.6.37                                                                 
Direct rendering:                       no                                                                     
Requires strict binding:                yes                                                                    
GLSL shaders:                           no                                                                     
Texture NPOT support:                   yes
...
Effect "kwin4_effect_blur" is not supported
...

glxinfo says Direct rendering is enabled.
When I first installed KDE4.6 it was working. I don't remember since which upgrade it's broken.

VALIS · 2011-03-16 02:48:54

I installed KDE 4.6 when it first released and had it running perfectly out the box.

Blur was working, the AUR oxygen-transparent-svn theme was stable and working perfectly, the panel was blurred, and so were the taksbar thumbnails and start menu. I went through a couple of upgrades with no problems concerning my intel i5-430m.

Then one day I ruined my computer installing "Go-preload" (which had nothing to do with my perfectly running KDE 4.6) so I did a fresh install.

My problem started after the fresh install of Arch.

I used the same xf86-video-intel, and oxygen-transparent-svn packages and even SAW the blur effect work "for like 2 minutes" before it completely broke. (what had happened was that I had just clicked the theme settings from oxygen to oxygen-transparent and all of my open windows blurred in the way that it should blur. Then I went to the workspace appearance section to configure the oxygen-transparent settings for the window decorations, pressed "OK" and saw the blur effect break on every single window that was open)

Anything I tried to do after that would never bring the blur effect back. (I followed any tip from google, kde forums, and arch forums). And since a ftp Arch install only takes around 30 minutes, I figured that the blur would work again if I started from scratch, so I reinstalled again.

No luck.

The blur effect was broken from the very beginning because my panel had no blur, and neither did the taskbar thumbnails or the start menu.

Now I've spent the last couple of weeks without the blur efect, and I've even done a few more fresh installs to see if it would automagically fix the problem but it didn't, and I've tried various suggestions like disabling every other desktop effect except the blur effect and nothing has helped.

I have noticed one possible thing that may be doing this. On my panel the 'notifications widget' will sometimes show this dark gray square box (like the compositing is broke), but I still can't figure out how to fix this, which is lame because the KDE 4.6 with "transparent everything" was the best looking desktop that I've ever used.

Jessica · 2011-03-16 03:57:02

Earlier it was suggested that you downgrade mesa, intel-dri and libgl to the previous versions. That's the only way that seems to work for people. If you've tried that I apologize for being repetitive! If not it's worth a shot if that's a feature that you really dig.

birdflesh · 2011-03-16 08:40:47

The good news is that this is fixed in *-git packages from AUR. Mesa 7.11 (coming soon) should not have this.

Here are parts of my xseession-errors
with mesa 7.10.1

OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) G41
OpenGL version string: 1.4 (2.1 Mesa 7.10.1)
Driver: Intel
GPU class: i965
OpenGL version: 1.4
Mesa version: 7.10.1
X server version: 1.9.4
Linux kernel version: 2.6.37
Direct rendering: no
Requires strict binding: yes
GLSL shaders: no
Texture NPOT support: yes

and with mesa 7.10.0.git20110215 (similar output with current mesa-git packages)

OpenGL vendor string: Tungsten Graphics, Inc
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI Intel(R) G41 GEM 20100330 DEVELOPMENT
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 7.10.1-devel
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20
Driver: Intel
GPU class: i965
OpenGL version: 2.1
GLSL version: 1.20
Mesa version: 7.10.1
X server version: 1.9.4
Linux kernel version: 2.6.37
Direct rendering: yes
Requires strict binding: yes
GLSL shaders: yes
Texture NPOT support: yes

Last edited by birdflesh (2011-03-16 08:47:24)

cinan · 2011-03-16 14:52:08

thanks, upgrade to mesa-git and other -git dependencies helped. Blur is working altough there are some artifacts (pic - I was moving window under the panel). Still better than nothing.

dan542 · 2011-03-16 17:35:56

Thanks, I can also confirm that it's working with *-git packages from AUR, with artifacts reported by cinan. These artifacts are happening only when moving chromium under panel, not with other apps, so I guess it's caused by chromium's own unusual decorations.

Last edited by dan542 (2011-04-02 10:51:09)

birdflesh · 2011-04-12 21:40:40

I just tried mesa 7.10.99.git20110412 packages from [testing] and this is not fixed. I'm staying with mesa-7.10.0.git20110215 for now.

birdflesh · 2011-04-14 11:41:47

I think I figured this out. Please check https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=270942

nqn1976 · 2011-04-15 07:56:32

Workaround: add "export KWIN_DIRECT_GL=1" to your .bashrc

birdflesh · 2011-04-15 09:26:47

Thanx nqn1976, this works great. It seems that this won't get a proper fix until KDE 4.7

KlavKalashj · 2011-04-15 15:36:25

nqn1976 wrote:

Workaround: add "export KWIN_DIRECT_GL=1" to your .bashrc

Does not seem to work for me

dan542 · 2011-04-15 15:47:02

KlavKalashj wrote:

nqn1976 wrote:
Workaround: add "export KWIN_DIRECT_GL=1" to your .bashrc
Does not seem to work for me

It doesn't work for me too , but KWIN_DIRECT_GL=1 kwin --replace does the trick.

Last edited by dan542 (2011-04-19 17:46:47)

KlavKalashj · 2011-04-15 15:58:27

dan542 wrote:

KlavKalashj wrote:
nqn1976 wrote:
Workaround: add "export KWIN_DIRECT_GL=1" to your .bashrc
Does not seem to work for me
It doesn't work for me too , but KWIN_DIRECT_GL=1 kwin --repleace does the trick.

That works for me too, but only for the panel. Applets in the panel (nm plasma applet for example) stays un-blurred.

Edit: Wouldn't this mean that .bashrc is not being read properly, or something like that? What method are you using to start X?

Edit2: Hm. Using the workaround provided by nqn1976 but adding it to .xinitrc works perfectly for me, using some kind of automated startx method. Desktop is a little more sluggish now, but much more beautiful.

Edit3: (lol) disabling vsync made it fast again. Win!

Last edited by KlavKalashj (2011-04-15 16:44:17)

dan542 · 2011-04-19 11:53:40

It seems to be known by kde developers http://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/2 … with-intel

dan542 · 2011-04-19 18:32:34

Adding "export KWIN_DIRECT_GL=1" to /etc/profile works great for me. But I cannot understand why the hell intel developers removed "GEM" string from the minor version.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-03-08 17:44:39

KDE 4 no blur effect

#2 2011-03-08 20:50:34

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#3 2011-03-08 21:47:24

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#4 2011-03-09 05:39:59

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#5 2011-03-09 08:53:41

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#6 2011-03-09 14:58:34

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#7 2011-03-10 16:49:08

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#8 2011-03-10 18:35:47

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#9 2011-03-10 19:58:28

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#10 2011-03-16 02:48:54

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#11 2011-03-16 03:57:02

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#12 2011-03-16 08:40:47

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#13 2011-03-16 14:52:08

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#14 2011-03-16 17:35:56

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#15 2011-04-12 21:40:40

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#16 2011-04-14 11:41:47

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#17 2011-04-15 07:56:32

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#18 2011-04-15 09:26:47

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#19 2011-04-15 15:36:25

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#20 2011-04-15 15:47:02

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#21 2011-04-15 15:58:27

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#22 2011-04-19 11:53:40

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

#23 2011-04-19 18:32:34

Re: KDE 4 no blur effect

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