[SOLVED] "Desktop effects could not be activated"---why?

[cdupree]

I just got my holiday present and am switching from my old single-core processor, something like 2.79Ghz, and half a gig of memory, to my new AMD Athlon II X4 630 with 8 gigs of memory. I was running 10.10 on the old one, barely, and I've been running Kubuntu since 7.04, so I was very happy to get it going on my new machine.

So now I have computing power to spend on eye candy and I'm trying to turn on the desktop effect. I keep getting a KWin message

"The following desktop effects could not be activated:"

followed by a list of four or five things like Blur and Desktop Cube. Any idea why, or what I should do to fix it?

Since I've never had a 64-bit machine, perhaps I'm failing to configure something I should? Oh yeah, the graphics card is listed as ATI Radeon HD 5450. I'm using Compiz Settings Manager 0.8.2, and I used the package manager to install it at the same time as Compiz, but I don't know where to find Compiz's version number.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give!

- ced

[claydoh]

Re: &quotesktop effects could not be activated"---why?

some gpu's are known to have some issues with some effects, and may be 'blacklisted', the HD5450 may be one of these as it is relatively new.

You may have better luck with the proprietary fglrx driver over the stock, open, ati driver (assuming you don't have that installed already)

Also note that compiz and kwin are two separate systems altogether. Kwin is KDE's native compositing/effects system. You can run compiz in place of Kwin, however.

[woodsmoke]

Re: &quotesktop effects could not be activated"---why?

Soooo a bow hunter eh?

and, speaking from experience Claydoh is pretty much spot on.

woodsmoke

[cdupree]

[SOLVED] Re: &quotesktop effects could not be activated"---why?

FGLRX solves nearly everything, many thanks to claydoh! Woodsmoke is right about that (but ya mighta noticed that's not me in the pic, it's Subcommandante Marcos).

For anyone not sure how to get the driver, there's a choice under the System menu called Additional Drivers. It immediately found FGLRX, downloaded it and installed it, and wow! The difference is impressive; graphics performance is speeded up significantly, and almost all the effects I've tried have worked. Explosion, for one, still fails, but the desktop cube and lots of other stuff now work.

I highly recommend installing this driver for those with configurations similar to mine (ATI Radeon HD5450). It's a huge win. Many thanks, claydoh! Happiest of whatever holidays you celebrate!

- ced

[GreyGeek]

Re: [SOLVED] Re: &quotesktop effects could not be activated"---why?

....
(but ya mighta noticed that's not me in the pic, it's Subcommandante Marcos).
....

Is he smoking a pipe while on his stand?

[mweishaa]

Re: [SOLVED] &quotesktop effects could not be activated"---why?

I have a Nvidia GeForce GT240 512MB card that I got over a month ago. I installed the latest driver from Nvidia's site (260.19.21), which was slightly newer than the one that would be installed via Additional Drivers (260.19.06).

I had desktop cube animation working with no problems (64-bit) for over a month, and today I it just quit working. I was getting the message that it couldn't be activated. No idea why. (I tried enabling exploding windows as a test, and it couldn't be enabled either)

So after seeing this thread, I went through the slightly painful task of uninstalling that version, and installing the version via Additional Drivers. Now the Decktop Cube animation works. Just figured I'd add on to this thread for when it mysteriously quits working for others.

[sithlord48]

Re: [SOLVED] &quotesktop effects could not be activated"---why?

try disableing function checks on the advanced tab. if it still don't work.
then,
edit the file ~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc . look for the black list sections you have got your driver (R700 or R600 ) in the black list by it failing the function check.

i have a 4830, 3200 and 4200 HD chips sets in different boxes, and they all work just fine w/ effects. also having compiz installed might be causeing you issues (but its unlikley)