compiz and xserver 1.5

[kkkk]

Hi,

Compiz doesn't work for me with X 1.5 and catalyst:

I get no errors or warnings but compiz simply doesn't start

With X1.4 it started correctly.
Tried with catalyst 8.10 8.11 8.12

Also xfwm4 and metacity compositings seem slow to build windows..

Here are my configs:
http://rafb.net/p/iebYeD23.html

logs:
http://rafb.net/p/fqfcCA31.html

Thanks

[SaThaRiel]

Hi,

sorry for a first-post-problem-post. I really like your forum - but was a silent reader. The patch for catalyst 8.9 really made my day :) Thanks for your help.

The problem: I think i have the same issue with openbox on ArchLinux. Installed 8.10, 8.11 and 8.12 - compositing will load, but then resizing windows and desktop switches (to dektops with windows on them!) is very slow (more than 2 secs - up to 5)
When i disable composite in xorg.conf it works as expected.
The only "suspicous" messages are in messages.log:
dmesg | grep fglrx
fglrx: module license 'Proprietary. (C) 2002 - ATI Technologies, Starnberg, GERMANY' taints kernel.
[fglrx] Maximum main memory to use for locked dma buffers: 927 MBytes.
[fglrx] vendor: 1002 device: 7145 count: 1
[fglrx] ioport: bar 1, base 0x2000, size: 0x100
[fglrx] Kernel supports PAT but it has been disabled
[fglrx] Using driver built-in PAT support instead
[fglrx] Driver built-in PAT support is enabled successfully
[fglrx] module loaded - fglrx 8.56.4 [Dec 1 2008] with 1 minors
[fglrx] Gart USWC size:192 M.
[fglrx] Gart cacheable size:60 M.
[fglrx] Reserved FB block: Shared offset:0, size:1000000
[fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:7fb6000, size:45000
[fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:7ffb000, size:5000
[fglrx] It's not necessary to adjust system aperture on this ASIC
[fglrx] It's not necessary to adjust system aperture on this ASIC
[fglrx] It's not necessary to adjust system aperture on this ASIC
[fglrx] Gart USWC size:192 M.
[fglrx] Gart cacheable size:60 M.
[fglrx] Reserved FB block: Shared offset:0, size:1000000
[fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:7fb6000, size:45000
[fglrx] Reserved FB block: Unshared offset:7ffb000, size:5000

Any ideas how i can "catch" this problem? Its really annoying - 3D apps and the like are working "normal", no strange behaviour.

My xorg.conf: http://nopaste.info/74aad6f224.html
Im using an ATI mobility X1400 (IBM T60 built-in)

Many thanks in advance :)

[adamk]

Hi,

Compiz doesn't work for me with X 1.5 and catalyst:

I get no errors or warnings but compiz simply doesn't start

With X1.4 it started correctly.
Tried with catalyst 8.10 8.11 8.12

Also xfwm4 and metacity compositings seem slow to build windows..

Here are my configs:
http://rafb.net/p/iebYeD23.html

logs:
http://rafb.net/p/fqfcCA31.html

Thanks

You don't get any output from compiz when you start it in a terminal? How are, exactly, are you starting compiz?

Adam

[kkkk]

I tried both

compiz --replace

and

LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=True compiz --replace

and yes, I get no output from compiz, just the desktop and the windows disappear for 1-2 sec and then I get the desktop without window manager.
(and without effects, so compiz isn't loaded at all)

I noticed that compiz seems to be running (the process compiz keeps running), but it's not working as I've said.

P.S. I'm using a radeon x1600

[adamk]

I'm guessing that arch is not using the compiz-manager script, renamed to simply 'compiz'. What's the output of "file `which compiz` "?

[kkkk]

[kk@zero ~]$ file `which compiz`
/usr/bin/compiz: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.16, stripped

yeah,
the compiz-manager isn't in the main compiz package.

This is the output of compiz-manager:

[kk@zero ~]$ compiz-manager
Checking for Xgl: not present.
No whitelisted driver found
aborting and using fallback: /usr/bin/metacity

[kkkk]

ok,
I've whitlisted fglrx and compiz starts.

Last question:
compiz is slow to open windows that are iconified.
This happens also with others composited wm (xfwm, metacity).
With X1.4 it was fast..

Some suggestions?

[SaThaRiel]

Last question:
compiz is slow to open windows that are iconified.
This happens also with others composited wm (xfwm, metacity).
With X1.4 it was fast..

Some suggestions?Is it the same when you resize windows and switch to desktops with windows on them?
I have this problem (and just read that you seem to have it too). I can disable Composite in xorg.conf - but this wont help you (also you may try). I just want it for window transparancy - not for cubes and stuff.

Sadly i havent found any way to make xorg working smoothly with compisote enabled.

[kkkk]

yes, same issues...

I've just tried radeonhd driver with DRI and compiz works perfectly..
I've never seen such speed with compiz, even with X1.4 and catalyst :O
I'm just mesmerized!

[SaThaRiel]

Strange - tried the radeonhd driver too and i had no change. Same problem with resizing and desktop switches :(
Do you use any setting in your xorg.conf which may help?

[kkkk]

yes,

try adding this to device section:

Option "DRI"
Option "AccelMethod" "EXA"

and you must have a supported ati card

see http://www.x.org/wiki/radeonhd

[SaThaRiel]

Not completely sure if my chip is supported, because its an mobility chip (Mobility X1400).
The settings above, especially the AccelMethod, nearly broke my Xserver. The performance with Composite was really bad, almost unusable.
With the fglrx driver was working with the settings, but the feeling was that it also slowed down.

One thing i forgot to mention: When i have composite enabled, windows also leave streaks (their "old border psotitions) on the desktop when i move them.

As said before, i dont see any way to debug the problem atm. I cant say if its an fglrx problem at all. I hope that you can give me a hint. Somehow it looks more like an Xserver problem (xorg-server 1.5.3-3), but i cant be sure.

Edit: I played a bit around with the settings...maybe its the color depth thats causing problems. I cant run Xorg with fglrx with 32 color depth, so i cant really verify it. But running urxvt with 24 colors looks a bit faster, also i dont have transparency and other apps seem to cause trouble there too. Can someone give me a hint?

[bridgman]

For radeonhd to work with Compiz you need radeonhd version 1.2.2 or higher, along with fairly new mesa and drm drivers. The X1400 is supported for 3D on the open source drivers.

I don't think you can just "switch back and forth" between the open drivers and fglrx -- you need to uninstall fglrx and reboot before installing the open drivers. Look in xorg log for error messages related to drm; if you see any it probably means that fglrx was not fully uninstalled before installing the open drivers.

[SaThaRiel]

"Sadly" there are no drm errors, i could see
grep -i drm /var/log/Xorg.0.log
(II) Loading sub module "fglrxdrm"
(II) LoadModule: "fglrxdrm"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/linux//libfglrxdrm.so
(II) Module fglrxdrm: vendor="FireGL - ATI Technologies Inc."
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 10, (OK)
drmOpenByBusid: Searching for BusID PCI:1:0:0
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 10, (OK)
drmOpenByBusid: drmOpenMinor returns 10
drmOpenByBusid: drmGetBusid reports PCI:1:0:0
(II) Loading sub module "fglrxdrm"
(II) LoadModule: "fglrxdrm"
(II) Reloading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/linux//libfglrxdrm.so
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] DRM buffer queue setup: nbufs = 100 bufsize = 65536
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 11, (OK)
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 11, (OK)
drmOpenByBusid: Searching for BusID PCI:1:0:0
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 11, (OK)
drmOpenByBusid: drmOpenMinor returns 11
drmOpenByBusid: drmGetBusid reports PCI:1:0:0
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] DRM interface version 1.0
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] created "fglrx" driver at busid "PCI:1:0:0"
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] added 8192 byte SAREA at 0x2000
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] mapped SAREA 0x2000 to 0xb8021000
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] framebuffer handle = 0x3000
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] added 1 reserved context for kernel
(II) fglrx(0): Desc: ATI FireGL DRM kernel module
(II) fglrx(0): [drm] register handle = 0x00004000
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 12, (OK)
drmOpenByBusid: Searching for BusID PCI:1:0:0
drmOpenDevice: node name is /dev/dri/card0
drmOpenDevice: open result is 12, (OK)
drmOpenByBusid: drmOpenMinor returns 12
drmOpenByBusid: drmGetBusid reports PCI:1:0:0

Here are my Warning: http://nopaste.info/cc9e8f8b9d.html
I dont have any EEs at all in Xorg.0.log.

Im also not able to get rid of those stupid AIGLX errors. Disable it in xorg.conf doesnt seem to help.
Any other ideas? Its 8.12 - i fear that 8.13 will be released earliest next month :(

[kkkk]

have you tried to add "nopat" option to kernel?

[SaThaRiel]

Yes, just tried it - thanks for the tip. Sadly it didnt solve the problem, compositing enabled still causes the problems. Also ive found a thread describing this as the solution to exactly this problem...
And yes, i rebooted with the kernel settings ;) Also tried the AccelMode setting from you - no change. Still window resizing/desktop switching hangs and also the borders of windows leave cords on the desktop when i move a window.

[SaThaRiel]

Ok, i tried almost everything i found on the net. it looks like all options i found arent recognized anymore in XServer 1.5.
Is there a way to analyse this problem? Sadly i cant buy a new card from another vendor because the ATI is built into this laptop (T60).
Tried also the 9.1 driver, no change...looks a bit like its a problem with the color depth. 24 is fglrx default, transparency/compositing seems to use 32 bit (well, 24 and the alpha channel). But i dont see any errors...so what can i do?

[bridgman]

You might want to give the open drivers (radeonhd + drm + mesa) another try, depending on how current the packages are for your distro. Main thing to remember is that you need to fully uninstall fglrx first and reboot before installing radeonhd - and remember that you will need three drivers (drm + mesa as well) to get decent acceleration, not just radeonhd itself.

The install/uninstall logic is pretty distro-specific so don't know if the uninstall will get rid of everything on Arch, but give it a try and lets see what happens. I know that resizing on 5xx under compiz is really fast on my systems.

[SaThaRiel]

Hm, that might be a good idea. Sadly i had to remove the radeonhd package maybe one hour ago because of a dependency problem during an upgrade. And, if i remember right, there are a lot of things that depend on the catalyst-utils package - but i think they are also needed by the radeonhd driver. The catalyst driver itself was independant and i also installed it manually.
Hope to make this during the weekend. Also im not sure if games will still run with the open driver.

[bridgman]

radeonhd should not need catalyst-utils... we don't have any dependencies between open and closed drivers.

The fglrx driver will definitely support more games. It has GL 2.x support while the open drivers are somewhere between 1.3 and 1.4.

[SaThaRiel]

I fear i need GL 2.X - i there a chance that the fglrx driver will be fixed because of this issue? I recognized some ppl having the same trouble when composite is enabled (not only Arch users).
And there are really no working xorg.conf parameters anymore?
I really hoped that there will be a patch around like it was for the 8.9/10 driver - it was great. Sadly those versions of catalyst wont work with XServer 1.5 anymore.

[bridgman]

I was just going back through the thread trying to find the original problem - is the problem you are trying to solve slow resizing of windows when Compiz is running ?

If so, can you please pastebin your xorg log ?

[SaThaRiel]

Well - the problem is that window resizing is very slow, or lags when composite is enabled. The mouse cursor moves to the position and the window then resizes step-by-step to the "wish-size". This takes more than 2 seconds. Also it takes very long to switch to another virtual desktop with a window on it (more than 2 seconds). When i switch to a desktop with no window on it, Movement works a bit better but leaves "smears on the screen".

When i disable the Option Composite in xorg.conf, its running as expected, but sure i dont have the compositing effects (actually im just looking for transparency via xcompmgr).
3D apps/games work normal, either with composite enabled or not. Or at least i havent found a difference.
I tried a lot of options in the xorg.conf - lots of them doesnt seem to be activated anymore.

It worked before with the 7.3 XServer and the 8.10 fglrx (if i remember right).

Here is the Xorg.0.log: http://nopaste.info/565bfdfccb.html

Ah, and then there are XServer crashes when xscreensaver is running - sometimes. Either the screen is scrambled (mostly) or blank. Only "workaround" is a hard reset. Sadly i couldnt look deeper into this.

[SaThaRiel]

Ok - the crashes seems to be cause when i run screen on my machine. No idea why this happens, but i can also live with multiple terminals too ;) Also i really would like to have tranparency with those terminals. Sadly Compositing still doesnt work. Have no idea where to look anymore :(