Member Avatar for The Dude

Wait until the cube multimonitor thing comes up - VERY cool. Stretches your desktop across the surface of a cube.

http://youtube.com/v/Cz_2vKq5cZk

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Nice demo — that cube is a Compiz plugin (the “cube” workspace) running on an OpenGL compositor. ’s clip shows the visual layer (Compiz/Beryl) doing the 3D rendering while GNOME/KDE still provide panels and apps; it isn’t a standalone desktop environment the way GNOME or KDE are. Historically there were two ways to get those effects: Novell’s Xgl (a nested X server that used OpenGL) and AIGLX (an X.Org extension that accelerates indirect GLX). (compiz-fusion.org)

Installation headaches and driver choice are the usual stumbling blocks — and hit that exactly. Xgl required careful matching of drivers, GL libraries and pbuffer/FBO support; ATI’s proprietary fglrx initially worked with Xgl while open drivers and NVIDIA moved to support AIGLX/texture_from_pixmap later. The practical takeaway: pick the driver the compositor expects (vendor driver or a modern OSS driver that advertises texture_from_pixmap/composite support) or use a distro image that bundles AIGLX/Compiz ready-to-run. (compiz-fusion.org)

Quick, practical checks and a troubleshooting workflow (run before you try to enable desktop effects):

xdpyinfo | grep -i composite
glxinfo  | grep -i direct
glxinfo  | grep -i texture_from_pixmap
grep -i AIGLX /var/log/Xorg.0.log

If xdpyinfo shows Composite and glxinfo reports direct rendering (and texture_from_pixmap is present), AIGLX/Compiz should work; if not, update/install the correct driver or test with a live image that has the full stack. If you see blank/oddly transparent Java/video windows under Xgl, that’s a known Xgl quirk — switching to the AIGLX path or using the vendor driver usually fixes it. Note: Xgl was later deprecated/removed in favor of AIGLX in mainline X.Org, so for long‑term stability follow the AIGLX/Compiz route on modern distros. (compiz-fusion.org)

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Member Avatar for John A

XGL is nothing new -- Novel's had it out in public for nearly a year already. But yes I do agree with you, the visuals are amazing. My biggest complaint is that its installation is difficult; I haven't gotten around to completing the install yet, and there's a lot of configuration files that have to be edited.

It's also possible to install XGL on Mac OS X, but if you thought the installation was difficult on Linux... I believe that you have to do a compete recompilation of the Darwin kernel before you can even think about installing. Otherwise, I'd probably be using it on both OS X and Linux.

Member Avatar for jbennet

i like XGL but have never managed to get it working on my graphics card (im not quite sure whether to use flgrx, ati, radeon, or the properiatary driver for my x600)

right now im sticking with the KDE theme that gives you transparent toolbars and vista-like butons (dont know name, its the default one for PCLinuxOS) as it runs on machines with like 512mb RAM

Secodnly, makes vista look crap?
Vista is crap - its expensive, slow, annoying, incompatible and generally gets on ones nerves

When XPH reaches EOL (not that long) i suppose ill dualboot with linux and use XP without inet access for the times i require certain appliatione e.g visual studio and ms acccess

This is what i dp with all my old systems (ive recently opened my win 3.11 and 3.51 systems back up as seemingly no modern viruses can attack them and i keep all my NT4 systems behind a transparent proxy with NAT)

Member Avatar for pty

You can test out the Beryl with XGL (i think its xgl but it may be AIGLX on the sabayon live DVD.

It should work for any modern nVidia/ATi cards

Member Avatar for The Dude

Vista is crap

[img][/img]

Member Avatar for jbennet

it is crap

its slow on my 256mb graphics, 2gb ram, 3ghz CPU machine
wtf!

Member Avatar for 'Stein

it is crap

its slow on my 256mb graphics, 2gb ram, 3ghz CPU machine
wtf!

Which version are you using?

And secondly, I assume you're booting it, and not running it from a VPC, etc, right?

Member Avatar for jbennet

i am booting on a real pc
got the final RC as we have MSDN subscription

On the machine mentioned above vista use 815mb ram and 70% CPU power WHEN IDLE

Member Avatar for 'Stein

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/post281906-4.html

The beta versions of Vista included quite a bit of debugging software which is not present in the RTM version, which from my estimation increased performance of CPU processing by almost 20%, and my ram usuage is down from 1.5GIG (CPU Idle) at the desktop to well under 700Meg.

As he said, most of the usage can be attributed to debuggers.

And secondly, everything I've read regarding the final release says it's a lot more robust then it appeared when compared to the Betas.

Member Avatar for jbennet

700mb ram usage is still excessive though - even with the "classic" interface vista still uses damn loads of memory doing seemingly nothing at all

my xp with all effects and virtual descktop manager is a but less than 512 and a cut down XP can be as little as 320mb on the ram side

Member Avatar for Toba

I haven't tried XGL or Beryl yet, mostly because I like my CPU to be used for actual work ;). Also, I heard that if you're using XGL or Beryl you will not be able to run other OpenGL applications, is this true?

Member Avatar for pty

I haven't tried XGL or Beryl yet, mostly because I like my CPU to be used for actual work ;). Also, I heard that if you're using XGL or Beryl you will not be able to run other OpenGL applications, is this true?

If you use XGL it is kind of true yeah, however if you use AIGLX you'll find that OpenGL apps run fine.

I've been using it for a while and find that the desktop is more responsive under compiz/beryl. I suggest giving one of the compiz/beryl livecds a try; they should give you a good feel for it before installing

Member Avatar for MacGyver Orca

I've been using it for a while and find that the desktop is more responsive under compiz/beryl. I suggest giving one of the compiz/beryl livecds a try; they should give you a good feel for it before installing

So is XGL and its counterpart another desktop enviornment like GNOME and KDE, or is it something different entirely? Also, this liveCD you mentioned, I've been trying to look for one with what the video showed where exactly should I search for this?

Member Avatar for John A

So is XGL and its counterpart another desktop enviornment like GNOME and KDE, or is it something different entirely?

Nope, XGL/Compiz is basically a layer below the window managers. Thus, you can use whatever window manager you want when using XGL.

Also, this liveCD you mentioned, I've been trying to look for one with what the video showed where exactly should I search for this?

http://kororaa.org/index.php

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