[Solved] fglrx and kwin effects - won't let me use opengl

[genorax]

I am trying to get the proprietary driver from AMD/ATI to work with desktop effects in KDE. This is a fresh install of 10.10. Under desktop effects in the system setings menu, it will not let me use opengl. every time I switch to it, it gives me an error message and then switches back to xrender.

Failed to activate desktop effects using the given configuration options. Settings will be reverted to their previous values.

Check your X configuration. You may also consider changing advanced options, especially changing the compositing type.

I did run aticonfig --initial, which gave me the following xorg.conf

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier   "aticonfig Layout"
    Screen   0 "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0" 0 0
EndSection

Section "Module"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
    Option   "VendorName" "ATI Proprietary Driver"
    Option   "ModelName" "Generic Autodetecting Monitor"
    Option   "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
    Driver   "fglrx"
    BusID    "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "aticonfig-Screen[0]-0"
    Device   "aticonfig-Device[0]-0"
    Monitor  "aticonfig-Monitor[0]-0"
    DefaultDepth   24
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport  0 0
        Depth   24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

fglrxinfo shows the following:

display: :0.0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: ATI Technologies Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series
OpenGL version string: 3.3.10237 Compatibility Profile Context

glxgears and glxinfo are both working, so to some extent the driver is working. am I missing some small thing that will enable me to use opengl composting in kwin?

[schnelle]

Re: fglrx and kwin effects - won't let me use opengl

Maybe it will help if you disable functionality checks in System Settings>Desktop effects>Advanced tab.

[Yuri sss]

Re: fglrx and kwin effects - won't let me use opengl

Maybe it will help if you disable functionality checks in System Settings>Desktop effects>Advanced tab.

Yes, the functionality checks in Kde 4.5 are borked. You have to disable them for compositing to work properly.

[genorax]

Re: fglrx and kwin effects - won't let me use opengl

I tried disabling the functionality checks and still no luck. finally after some other tests and searching the net, I found the solution.

There is another check that you have to change, but not in the settings menu, but by editing ~/share/config/kwinrc

in order to be able to use OpenGL and most of the effects, you have to change the line to read
OpenGLIsUnsafe=false
Now, upon re-entering KDE, I have my wobbly windows back

CPU usage seems much higher than it should be though - even while not really using any effects. Maybe that's why it was hard-wired off for the time being?