Desktop Effects on Ubuntu Feisty + ATI + Beryl
Now that I have a nice fast machine at work with an ATI X1300 dual-head video card, I had to get my desktop effects going. It is very simple to get the basics on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn.
First things first. With a recent ATI card you must use Xgl. It will not work with AIGLX. The Free radeon driver doesn’t support these newer cards. This leaves you with resorting to the proprietary ATI driver (fglrx). This driver doesn’t support the Xorg composite extension which is required for AIGLX to work. It’s ok, Xgl isn’t that much harder to setup.
* Install the proprietary ATI driver
apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati
* Activate the driver in /etc/X11/xorg.conf (Composite must be disabled for direct rendering to work)
Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. ATI Default Card"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "DesktopSetup" "horizontal"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "0"
EndSection
* Verify direct rendering works
glxinfo | grep direct
Should be yes
* Install Xgl
apt-get install xserver-xgl
* Activate Xgl
The Ubuntu Site has other options, but my method of using the Xsession is a lot cleaner.
Add the following line to: /etc/X11/Xsession.options
use-xgl
Save the following script as: /etc/X11/Xsession.d/91Xgl
# This file is sourced by Xsession(5), not executed.
STARTXGL=
XGL="/usr/bin/Xgl"
XGL_OPTIONS=":1 -fullscreen -ac -accel xv:pbuffer -accel glx:pbuffer"
if grep -qs ^use-xgl "$OPTIONFILE"; then
if [ -x "$XGL" ]; then
STARTXGL=yes
fi
if [ -r /tmp/.X1-lock ]; then
xglpid=`cat /tmp/.X1-lock`
if [ -d /proc/$xglpid ]; then
echo "Xgl already running"
STARTXGL=
fi
fi
fi
if [ -n "$STARTXGL" ]; then
$XGL $XGL_OPTIONS &
DISPLAY=:1
fi
# vim:set ai et sts=2 sw=2 tw=80:
* Here you can use the default compiz installation just by activating it in the Desktop Effects panel in System -> Preferences. To get the much better Beryl working we can install it by adding just a few more steps.
* Install Beryl and friends
apt-get install beryl beryl-manager emerald-themes
* Disable compiz if you enabled it (just in case)
* Run Beryl Manager in Applications -> System Tools.
That’s it. You now have the Manager in the tray that lets to change many aspects including the window decorator (Emerald themes are pretty cool), etc. The Beryl Settings manager give to the power to tweak the aspects of the Effects.
A future article to come covering the effects that are actually useful and productive.
Posted: May 7th, 2007.
Tags: Linux/BSD
Comments
Comment from Gary
Time May 13, 2007 at 3:41 pm
@Yonatan
1. Save the script /etc/X11/Xsession.d/91Xgl
2. Logout
3. Click “Options” at the bottom-left of the Login screen
4. Click “Select Session”
5. Click “Run Xclient script”
6. Click “Change Session”
7. Log back in.
8. Goto System, Preferences, Desktop Effects
9. Enable Desktop Effects
10. Enjoy!
Comment from Sebastian Fabian
Time May 16, 2007 at 2:08 am
When I do the 3rd step I get this:
sebbe@seblaptop:~$ glxinfo | grep direct
Xlib: extension “XFree86-DRI” missing on display “:0.0″.
direct rendering: No
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
What should I do? :/
Comment from Jake
Time May 16, 2007 at 10:41 pm
Thanks alot but I have a slight problem.
When I click on exit it appears the shut down button has disappeared How do I fix that?
PS: Yes I do realize I can just log out and shut down from options. But I’d like that button back.
Comment from fungus
Time May 18, 2007 at 12:43 pm
You can do this by copying your Xauthority cookie to the new display number.
cookie="$(xauth -i nextract - :0 | cut -d ' ' -f 9)"
xauth -i add :1 . "$cookie"
I thought about adding it to the session startup, but it doesn’t have to be done every time.
Comment from Donald
Time May 24, 2007 at 12:08 pm
Everything works here!
Except for the themes? Emerald is running because i can see themed corners. Only the top-left-bottom-right sides are missing??
Beryl is running OK, effects and transparency are visible.
If I run ‘emerald’ in the terminal i get:
emerald: Could not acquire decoration manager selection on screen 0 display “:1.0″
Does anyone has a solution? Thanx alot!!
Comment from UltraMan
Time May 24, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Ehm…i have a problem. When i did that glxinfo command i got this.
X Error of failed request: GLXBadContext
Major opcode of failed request: 142 (GLX)
Minor opcode of failed request: 5 (X_GLXMakeCurrent)
Serial number of failed request: 17
Current serial number in output stream: 17
Comment from jonatan
Time June 1, 2007 at 12:23 am
hello, congratulation for this post!, but, i have the same graphics card and some times it hangs out, well i want to know if you can tell me what is you motherboard, processor, etc.
I have an Intel DG965ss whit core 2 duo E6600 2gb ram, 250 sata, widescreen 19′, Does you have a similar
PS. im running ubuntu studio!
thank anyone.
Comment from Gary
Time June 9, 2007 at 6:03 pm
@ fungus
Where do you copy your Xauthority cookie to the new display number?
In the /etc/X11/Xsession.d/91Xgl script?
If yes, where in that script?
Thanks
Comment from fungus
Time June 10, 2007 at 2:52 pm
@Gary
The best place to add those lines would probably be in the 91Xgl script after the DISPLAY=:1 variable setting, but before the end of the if statement.
Comment from dah-rat
Time July 13, 2007 at 8:16 am
friend had that video card, all the steps worked great no troubles what so ever! thanks so much. But I’m also writing to know if you might have any ideas on a X1900 series card?
Comment from khelll
Time July 31, 2007 at 3:51 am
i tried this tutorial, and at least i dont get the old extension error.
but now whenever i try to run desktop effects, i get:
Desktop effects can’t be enabled.
does anyone have an idea abt it?
Comment from jake
Time September 1, 2007 at 7:07 pm
hey great guide! i cant seem to get emerald to work, everything else is 100%.
thanks again,
jake
Comment from crouzilles
Time September 7, 2007 at 11:35 am
Hi, I have followed your instructions and I have a big problem, so big that I am writing this on my windows machine.
The X sever will restart when I shutdown and restart the machine. It asks me if I want to look at the log file, I say yes and I get this on screen.
——-start of log——–
(EE) Failed to load module “fglrx” (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) No drivers available.
Fatal server error:
no screens found.
—–end of log——–
This is rather strange because desktop effects worked after I did your instructions, but once I restarted the machine I got all that stuff.
The problem is that I am very new to linux and I haven’t got a clue what to do. I guess I could re-install ubuntu, it only takes 30 minutes at most, but I would rather solve the problem which would allow me to learn in the process.
Thank you
Comment from crouzilles
Time September 7, 2007 at 11:36 am
Actually, I meant to say that the Xserver will NOT restart
Comment from fungus
Time September 7, 2007 at 1:31 pm
(EE) Failed to load module “fglrx†(module does not exist, 0)
This indicates that the fglrx module is not installed.
Try to re-install the driver.
apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-ati
Comment from crouzilles
Time September 7, 2007 at 4:41 pm
It says that xserver-xorg-video-ati is the latest version
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0to remove and 0 not upgraded
What should I do next?
Thank you
Pingback from rossenstoyanchev.org Blog »
Time September 29, 2007 at 5:45 pm
[...] get the 3D effects. You can find instructions by searching for “Beryl Xgl fglrx” or use this [...]
Comment from Mark Xu
Time January 4, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Thanks a lot for this instruction. Being a Linux newbie, I’m a bit taken back by the relative complexity of setting up a driver. Definitely not a point and click procedure. I managed to install the driver and enabled the effect, but couldn’t install Beryl. The error I got was:
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
E: Couldn’t find package beryl
Is it just a problem with Ubuntu?
Comment from Yonatan
Time May 11, 2007 at 6:59 am
10x a lot. I followed your instruction until, (not included) the section :Activate Xgl . Instead I used the instruction specified in the like you have pointed “Ubuntu Site” - https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CompositeManager/Xgl
I didn’t understand your instructions for activating Xgl. The 3 command, and the script bellow them :
/etc/X11/Xsession.options
use-xgl
/etc/X11/Xsession.d/91Xgl
I didnt understand where to put all of them ? can you please make it more clear ?
Your article (with the Ubuntu-site, you point to) helped me to activate Ubuntu dekstop effect. I also managed to activate beryl but it works partly only.
I can choose only ‘compiz’ and not ‘beryl’ window manager. beryl does have all the effects but the 3d doesn’t.
can you helo me with that ?
10x Yonatan