Nvidia-Beryl problem -- am I the only one?

[dibl]

With Adept fixed, I returned to my efforts to set up Beryl on my Feisty system. First, I used the script installer from the Nvidia web site to install the 1.0-9746 driver, which was working fine on this hardware with Kubuntu Edgy. I have a Ge7900GS card. All indicators from the Nvidia XServer Settings utility indicate that it is installed correctly, with all GLX functions and so forth.

However, the Nvidia GLX package reports "Break" in both Adept and Synaptic. The basic Beryl package also reports "Break". I just tried the wiki "123" method found here:

http://wiki.beryl-project.org/wiki/I...ty_with_nVidia

and got a dependency error -- it says something -GLX depends on the 1.0-9746 driver.



I'm wondering if it's a Feisty bug that I (and others) must wait out, or if I've actually snarfed something and need to back up and reinstall everything.

Advice ?

[FyreBrand]

Re: Nvidia-Beryl problem -- am I the only one?

I have an Nvidia 6800XT and Beryl installs just fine. It works just kinda fine, but not really. By that I mean:

1. Whenever I start beryl-manager kwin crashes. Then when I select beryl as the window manager kwin crashes again. I'm searching through launchpad to see if this is a common bug. If not I'll reinstall Feisty with Herd 5 and then install beryl and see if the crash still happens.

2. Beryl sometimes doesn't start through Autostart or with the menu entry (I get the dreaded infinite bouncing icon with no start). I often have to start it with Konsole.

So more back to what you're doing:

1. What repository are you using for nvidia-glx? I'm just using the regular Feisty repo and have version 9631 installed and that driver works good for my card. Will it work for yours?

2. Did you make sure you used the --add-argb-glx-visuals --composite when you ran nvidia-xconfig?

Basically These are the steps I used to install beryl:
1. Completely removed Beryl, Emerald, and Emerald-Themes. In Synaptic be sure to select "completely remove". In Konsole:

sudo apt-get remove --purge beryl emerald emerald-themes

Make sure to check that the ~/.beryl directory has been removed.

2. Make sure restricted, universe, and multiverse are enabled. Also add this section to your sources.list. I like to do it manually so my sources.list doesn't get messy.

## Beryl Repository
## lupines key: wget [url]http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org/root@lunine.me.uk.gpg[/url] -O- | sudo apt-key add -
deb [url]http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org[/url] feisty main

Then add Lupine's key from the Konsole:

wget [url]http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org/root@lunine.me.uk.gpg[/url] -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

3. Install (or reinstall) nvidia-glx
a. backup xorg.conf via Konsole

cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf ~/xorg.conf-backup

b.

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx

or if it's already installed

sudo apt-get install --reinstall nvidia-glx

The latter probably isn't necessary but it's just to make sure everything is installed properly.

c. Configure the nvidia driver via the Konsole:

sudo nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals --composite

4. Logout of your session. When you are at the login screen again select "restart x-server" or press "left-alt" and "e" together to restart the the x-server. Now log back in.

5. Start the Konsole again. Install beryl

sudo apt-get install beryl emerald emerald-themes

You can make a link to Autostart if you want or manually start it from the menu or type "beryl-manager" from the Konsole.

I'm sure you've read through these steps elsewhere, but maybe we can find out at what point things are breaking. I'm not an expert but I'll try and help the best I can.

[dibl]

Re: Nvidia-Beryl problem -- am I the only one?

Thank you for the reply!

Well, nividia-xconfig is one of the bits that will not install, so I can't run it.

OK, Nvidia driver story. On the same platform, running Edgy, I was able to use Alberto Milone's Envy script to install the -9746 driver, and it worked great, including running Beryl (eventually ...). But Envy is not yet supporting Feisty, so I used the installer utility from the Nvidia.com site, and following the instructions it appears to work correctly. The Nvidia Xserver configuration utility comes up and shows all functionalities, including GLX extensions. In xorg.conf, the AARGBVisuals line is entered correctly.

On a different hard drive I have an Elive installation, and in that one the 8779 driver was automatically selected and installs, and it works very well. I tried to run the Nvidia installer script to install the 9746 driver in that system (same underlying hardware), but there is a missing kernel-sources path and consequential configuration issues, and I really don't wish to spend more time fiddling with that one -- I wasn't going to install Beryl there, and the Enlightenment E17 desktop and everything is just fine as-is.

So, I think maybe I am going to make a Herd 5 CD, and go back to the drawing board on the Kubuntu installation. I want to try the "1-2-3" installation process that I found in the wiki link, but I think I've somehow compromised the Feisty system with all my experimentation.

Thanks -- I've got your post to refer back to if "1-2-3" turns out to be missing "2a" or "3a and 3b"!

[FyreBrand]

Re: Nvidia-Beryl problem -- am I the only one?

Thanks for the added info. That makes a lot of sense.

Just a note. nvidia-settings is now part of nvidia-glx on newer drivers. So that separate package shouldn't be installed as it conflicts. You should be able to type nvidia-settings from the Konsole, but also this page by tseliot (who makes envy) is what I refer back to when I forget something. He's pretty smart.

TSEltiot's Edgy Nvidia Install Page. It has good info on installing from the repos or with a manual bin install.

I think I'm also going to do a Herd 5 install. I'm curious how a few changes will be. Good luck with your install. I'll be looking forward to hearing what the results are.

[dibl]

Re: Nvidia-Beryl problem -- am I the only one?

Update -- I now have a clean new Herd 5 installation. It wasn't easy -- the partitioner in the Herd 5 Alternate CD installer is non-functional, as far as I can tell. I did a clean installation of Herd 4, then upgraded, then updated, and got back to a new Herd 5 installation. Emerald and Beryl somehow came along for the ride, so I have completely removed/purged them. Next step is to attempt to install an Nvidia driver. Will report results.

EDIT: Success! The winning process:

1. Did NOT install Nvidia-glx-anything.

2. To install Nvidia driver -9746, Followed precisely Alberto Milone's "Method 2", as described here:

http://albertomilone.com/latest_nvidia_udsf_edgy.html

3. Ran nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals --composite

4. Installed Emerald, Aquamarine, and Heliodor from the Adept Manager.

5. Installed Beryl from the Adept Manager.

Upon the first run of beryl manager, it scanned the system, reported everything fine, the burped up a "this should not happen" error message, related to an interrupt conflict. I did a graceful shutdown and restart of the system, and when the xserver came up, Beryl was on my kicker panel and both Beryl Settings Manager and Beryl Manager appeared on my System menu list. Beryl is active and functional, and I can set my appearances, skydome, etc. with the Beryl Settings Manager, so I'm declaring victory (before I start switching window decorators and break it!) and hoping this will help someone else.

[FyreBrand]

Re: Nvidia-Beryl problem -- am I the only one?

I had pretty good success too. I did a reinstall with a Herd 5 disc. I didn't use the partitioner either just because I use LVM and wasn't sure how to do this with the way the installer is configured. I saw on the Ubuntu forums that you must right click a driver and select your option from the context menu. So I didn't change partitions, but reformatted one instead and set mount points by right clicking.

I did have some initial problems with the live cd using the vesa driver instead of the nv driver. I had to use the System Settings -> Display Settings (which I never use any more cause it breaks my display) to get to an nv driver and a decent resolution. Then I had some problems with resolution defaults on install and after installing the 96xx driver from the restricted repo I had to do a dpkg-reconfigure of the xserver and then use nvidia-xconfig to update after that. I also had to do a little manual rearranging of xorg.conf to get the default resolution to work.

Beryl installed just fine and I'm actually getting fewer kwin crashes than I did before. Beryl is starting up and running fine.

The positive to this hassle is that I'm learning more about xorg.conf. I would really like to read a manual on xorg and find out what all those modules are it's loading in the Module section.

[dibl]

Re: Nvidia-Beryl problem -- am I the only one?

I think the new version of Xserver is going to introduce new features that will affect how you set up xorg.conf, so you might be wise to hold off on your studies until it is released -- I think it is Ver. 7.2.

[bishounen]

Re: Nvidia-Beryl problem -- am I the only one?

Just as a side note, this just flat does NOT work on the SIS video chipset. I have an ASUS laptop with that chipset and Beryl won't work on it. All you get is a black screen. I actually ended up having to boot using Knoppix so I could re-edit the xorg.conf file and get my GUI back.

Although I shouldn't be surprised, it isn't exactly a 3D chipset. Although Google Earth works using glx, and I have actually played some 3D games on it.