Talk:HOWTO nVidia GL Desktop Effects

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[edit] Running beryl

Will this howto contain information about how to run beryl? Some command line, .xinit examples. Some steps what to run first, next, last ...

Yep, I'm working on that for tonight --Jbdubbs 19:34, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

Maybe it is better that this information be posted elsewhere now that there are three paths to running a compositing WM (AIXGL, XGL, and this howto). Plus, there are multiple compositing managers (Compiz, Beryl, et.al) --68.54.107.13 07:05, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] More DEs needed

Can anybody post instructions for running Beryl on XFCE, Fluxbox, E16, 17, or any other DE not mentioned? I don't have the information do to so and have never used these desktops. If you want me to format it, just post in the discussion section and I'll place it into the article.

[edit] Confusion on xorg.conf options

Hey guys, I've been a linux user for like 10 years, and I've configured X a number of times, but I usually figure it out, make a backup copy of xorg.conf, and then forget all the syntax until I need it again haha. When I was reading through this it hit me that I wasn't sure if the two options need to be added to your EXISTING sections or if you can just drop them in as written at the bottom of your xorg.conf. Would it be possible to be a tad more descriptive in this regard? Once I get home tonight and figure it out for myself I'd be more than happy to do the leg work, but I don't wanna ruin anyone elses party either, any comments?

Yeah they're supposed to be added to your existing sections. I'll see if I can change the article to be a bit more clear. --Jbdubbs 03:12, 14 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes, that change makes it much more clear, I didn't have an extensions section, but figured out pretty quick that it needed to be in my existing screens section, thanks though, I hope it helps out other people. I have another question, is anybody else having keyboard issues with Beryl? When I run it half my keys don't work in certain programs, but do in others, I'm thinking that I'm just gonna unmerge it all and try the compiz that's in portage, so what if I have to have gnome there for now, doesn't kill me, but I really like the idea of the beryl manager, so hopefully they get that all figured out sooner than later!!!

[edit] GLX

Is it normal for the GLX module not to load after following these instructions?

Nah, it should load. If you're getting a decent framerate on glxgears and your effects are working properly, I wouldn't worry about it. As a point of reference, I'm getting between 4800 and 5200 fps on a 6600GT with 9625 BETA drivers.--Jbdubbs 15:33, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is AllowGLXWithComposite needed?

According to xeffects.org, this: 

Option    "AllowGLXWithComposite" "True"

is needed in xorg.conf. Is it required? --Dgrant 04:07, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

The option is not required. I'm running without it right now and there is no performance or visual difference. --Jbdubbs 15:52, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
Can anyone explain exactly what this Option does? Or point us to documentation somewhere that does? --216.13.217.231 16:52, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
AllowGLXWithComposite is used when the composite extension of XOrg is used in combination with 3D accelerated drivers. Without this option, using OpenGL applications inside the old style composite extension would be extremely slow, and if I'm not mistaken, software rendered. It's not needed in AIGLX, XGL, or nVidia compositing because the entire screen is accelerated, like it or not. --Jbdubbs 23:38, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Will 3D apps still work?

Back in the day I had a good time playing around with Compiz and XGL, but I abandoned them when I couldn't get some apps to work well in the XGL environment. Now that we are using nVidia drivers more directly, I'm hoping things will work better. Could anyone confirm that apps such as xscreensaver, glxgears, and gnucash work well with this environment? I don't know why gnucash had issues, but it wouldn't update/display well at all.

Thanks! --Blarson 22:11, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Most likely

In my experience, 90% of my 3D apps work just fine. I've had some problems with playing DirectX games through cedega, but common linux 3D apps usually run just fine, with a minor slowdown. glxgears, xscreensaver, counter-strike through wine, and blender are confirmed on my system.

--Jbdubbs 00:52, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Supported Cards

Can we get someone to test this configuration on a Geforce 2 Style card, especially one that's supported by the current UDA? GF2 MX series is of particular interest.

[edit] Problems with nVidia GeForce Go and 640x480

I have nVidia GeForce Go on my ASUS laptop with WXGA 1280x800 screen and when any game switches resolution to 640x480, without GL Desktop it cuts the bottom part off (which is not nice but is still usable); with Beryl it displays everything wrong (the picture is moved about 80 % downwards while all buttons are clickable as it was not). Does anyone find any solution on this? -- Sten 11:55, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

It seems there’s no solution. Is there any possibility to forbid this resolution (omitting it in xorg.conf in both ‘Modes’ and ‘MetaModes’ does not work)? -- Sten 21:10, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
Seems to me that there isn't a good way to forbid a resolution change. You should probably just change the resolution which the program uses. 640x480 is about useless these days anyway...--Jbdubbs 20:46, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
That’s too bad because some programs (Windows games under Wine) cannot run in another resolution and running them in a window is slow. --Sten
I also have this problem on a similar screen. With nvidia-settings-1.0.20070302, after going to advanced mode, 640x480 has two refresh modes 60Hz (DoubleScan) and 60Hz, 640x480 appears normally under 60Hz and distorted with DoubleScan. Is there some way to disable DoubleScan? AlReece45 19:04, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
Disabling DoubleScan is pretty easy but scary, so here is the fix.
Just add the following to your xorg.conf, Monitor section (maybe the numbers must be modified):
ModeLine "640x480" 25.2 640 656 752 800 480 490 492 525 +HSync +VSync
--Sten 23:19, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Problems with GL games

When I play GL game with Beryl, it usualy works fine, but after I exit the game, everything is wrong; all windows display incorrect content and the only way I found to fix it is to restart Beryl. Is this the only way to fix this? -- Sten 11:55, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

I have seen this problem, but only with Beryl 0.1.2 and nvidia-drivers which supports the new 8xxx series GPUs. I noticed that I didn't have that problem with 9629 drivers and Beryl 0.1.1. --Jbdubbs 19:39, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
This is how it happens: Beryl works strange with the 9742 driver. With the 9629 (or older) driver it works ok althrough it takes some time (ca. 5 sec.) before the screen is redrawed. --Sten 20:11, 1 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Removed temporary solution from main page

Removed a temporary solution from the black window bug section which asked users to downgrade to an 8xxx driver revision and use Mesa to get the pixmap extension. This is incorrect information. You cannot simply use Mesa for the texture from pixmap extension without using another GL solution such as XGL or AIGLX in between. See those wiki articles for information on setting those up if desired. If none of these options are available, you should probably use non-tfp beryl, which does work with 8xxx drivers.

[edit] removed twinview explanation

The twinview explanation posted on the main page has little to nothing to do with running Beryl or any compositing window manager, other than some options that are already explained on the page. I recommend that it be reposted in the HOWTO nVidia TwinView section instead.

[edit] Fix for the nVidia 7900/7950 mobile series

After having had problems on my laptop with a mobile GeForce (7900GTX Go) for quite some time, I finally found a solution on the net. I think this should be added here somewhere.

The following happened: When using beryl or compiz either the screen went black, froze for a few seconds or totally froze without a way to recover after some time (no particular event to trigger this, at least AFAIK). The regular X-Server (w/o compiz) worked fine, it just happened with the 3D Desktop stuff.

I now know it's a problem with the driver, although the solution is dangerous itself. One shouldn't try this, UNLESS the same Problems occur with a mobile card (7900 / 7950 series AFAIK).

To get it working, simply modprobe nvidia with a special Option:

modprobe nvidia NVreg_RegistryDwords="PerfLevelSrc=0x2222"

To permanently use it, add this to the /etc/modprobe.conf:

options nvidia NVreg_RegistryDwords="PerfLevelSrc=0x2222"

BTW: at that point I also have the options NVreg_SoftEDIDs=0 NVreg_Mobile=3 set. e.g. it looks like this:

options nvidia NVreg_SoftEDIDs=0 NVreg_Mobile=3 NVreg_RegistryDwords="PerfLevelSrc=0x2222"

But I cannot confirm that these are mandatory at that point. Also: the NVreg_Mobile should be set to an appropriate value according to your notebook manufacturer.

For more Information read:

for the solution: http://nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=80888 for further comments: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=80630

cya


NOTE: The fix mentioned here worked also on a Asus G1 laptop with a GeForce Go 7700 graphics card.

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