[SOLVED] Re-enable desktop effects

[digitalhead]

Yesterday, I suspended compositing in order to boost performance for a game, when I finished and tried to resume, it did nothing. In trying to troubleshoot the problem, I completely turned off desktop effects via the checkbox at the top of the desktop settings window. Now, when I try to enable it again, I get this error message:

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.

Desktop effects worked flawlessly right from the start in a fresh install of Karmic, just as it did in Jaunty. My graphics chipset is Intel GM965/960 according to sysinfo, Dell says Intel GMA945, but either way, the graphics have always worked perfectly out of the box.

Any suggestions on getting my desktop effects working again?

[Snowhog]

Re: Re-enable desktop effects

I hope you, or someone else, has/finds the answer/solution. Was Karmic an upgrade from Jaunty? If it was, *maybe* you were simply lucky, in that your Intel card was still being accepted. Don't know. I know that Karmic doesn't work well with my Intel GPU, even with compositing not working. That's why I went back to Jaunty.

[digitalhead]

Re: Re-enable desktop effects

I did perform an upgrade from Jaunty, which worked perfectly up until a hard drive failure, which I performed a fresh install with my new drive. I have been running Karmic since the day it was released. Last night was the first problem like this, which everything is still working fine on my wife's computer with identical hardware and similar desktop effects settings. As a matter of fact, the graphics performance has been considerable better in Karmic than in Jaunty.

I was actually surprised when I was doing my searching on this problem and couldn't find anything that matched appropriately. Did I miss a bug on this? Intel chipsets in general are supposed to be known for being thoroughly supported in Linux from my experience, so this seems especially odd to me if it's a GPU issue.

[Snowhog]

Re: Re-enable desktop effects

Not 'all' of the Intel GPU's are affected - mine is for sure. It's the compatibility of the xserver-xorg-video-intel and the affected Intel GPUs that is the issue. Affected Intel GPUs don't work well with the .31 kernel and the driver.

[i965] [karmic][GM965] low intel graphics performance - again There are other reports for other Intel GPUs.

Ubuntu “xserver-xorg-video-intel” package Bugs

[digitalhead]

Re: Re-enable desktop effects

That's odd. Going by your signature, we have the same basic 945 mobile chipset, and this is the first problem that I have encountered. I would like to look into this more. Could you tell me where you found the information on the incompatibility?

EDIT: Nevermind, thanks for the link.

[Snowhog]

Re: Re-enable desktop effects

I experienced it on my upgrade from Jaunty (everything worked fine) to Karmic - no compositing, meaning degraded 3D, slower desktop, and not able to use Desktop Effects. There is plenty on this 'issue' on the 'Net and as I've linked, many bug reports.

[josefko]

Re: Re-enable desktop effects

Failed to activate desktop effects ........ Settings will be reverted to their previous values.

I experienced a similar message when I upgraded to Karmic and in the first hour the computer was completely slowdown. After solving a problem, when the computer regain its full speed I was able to set desktop effects on and the message disappeared.

GPU: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)

[Snowhog]

Re: Re-enable desktop effects



@josefko

What are you trying to say? "After solving a problem,...I was able to set desktop effect on..." What problem was 'solved?'

[josefko]

Re: Re-enable desktop effects

Snowhog@
See the last post
Somewhat Slow
I prepared the whole answer for you here as you asked yesterday
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3107820.0

[Snowhog]

Re: Re-enable desktop effects

Thank you! Remember, I'm an 'old guy' and thus, tending to forgetting some things.

[digitalhead]

Re: Re-enable desktop effects

I figured my problem out. It had nothing to do with my Intel video. It was plasma-widget-toggle-compositing. It appeared to be stuck after using it to disable compositing followed by using the System Settings panel to enable. I disabled the widget and removed it's settings directory, restarted, and all was fine after that. The graphic performance is top-notch with desktop effects enabled, taking into consideration the GPU's capabilities.

[Snowhog]

Re: [SOLVED] Re-enable desktop effects

I'm not familiar with the widget you describe. Can you elaborate on this, please?

[josefko]

Re: [SOLVED] Re-enable desktop effects

I figured my problem out.

I think it is promising that according to yours and mine experience the problem might be temporary and can be solved. Whatever it caused. I was all the same happy yesterday as you are today.

[digitalhead]

Re: [SOLVED] Re-enable desktop effects

I'm not familiar with the widget you describe. Can you elaborate on this, please?

It's in the repositories, although I'm not sure if it's installed by default or not. One of the very first things I did after installing a fresh Karmic was run "sudo apt-get install plasma-widget-*" to have them all available without going through to pick and choose in the Install New Widgets window. Toggle-compositing is just a widget that places a button for a one-click on/off switch for compositing... same idea as pressing ALT+SHIFT+F12. I used that button to suspend compositing, then when I was finished, I used System Settings > Desktop to resume. What I did may not have been the only factor in getting it working again as it could have been the game that caused the widget to stop working properly.

I'm just happy to have compositing back. I often use the transparency effects to view running programs behind the active window, mostly checking on a terminal that's behind Firefox.