[SOLVED] - composting stopped working

[TheBigAmbulance]

Just yesterday, I turned on my lucid x_64 machine, and composting stopped working.

When I go into System Settings > Desktop Effects, the checkbox for "Enable desktop effects" is checked, but there is a red circle/line stating "Composting is temporarily disabled. Ok, so I go to the button that says "Resume Composting". I click it, and then the circle turns into a green check. Cool! But then composting is not active, and when I get back into the general tab, it still says "Composting is temporarily disabled.

How can I go after this? I've never troubleshot Composting before.

[dibl]

Re: composting stopped working

Just reinstall the Nvidia driver.

[TheBigAmbulance]

Re: composting stopped working

Hey dibl,

I'm a little green with the nvidia driver.

This system was an upgrade from Karmic. I installed the video driver in Karmic using the following method:

add-apt-repository ppa:nvidia-vdpau/ppa
apt-get update
apt-get install envyng-core nvidia-190-modaliases

It was then installed via Envy.

So I'm not certain how to reinstall it....

[julio_cortez]

Re: composting stopped working

Do you have an ATI video card by the way?

If so, it happened also to me with my HD5770.

Try to go to System Settings > Desktop Effects > Advanced and disable the functionality check, then try restarting the computer.

It has solved the issue for me, at least.

EDIT: sorry, I've read just now that you have an nVidia card.. What I wrote obviosly applies to ATI cards but might apply to nVidia ones aswell..

[TheBigAmbulance]

Re: composting stopped working

Nope, nvidia Quadro FX 3700M.

I'm running 195.35.24 by the way.

[dibl]

Re: composting stopped working

I installed the video driver in Karmic using the following method:

add-apt-repository ppa:nvidia-vdpau/ppa
apt-get update
apt-get install envyng-core nvidia-190-modaliases

It was then installed via Envy.

So I'm not certain how to reinstall it....

I must confess -- I have never done it that way. I always do it like Method 2 here: http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3107406.0

After the driver installer is downloaded and first installed, I just keep the download. Then, if there is a kernel upgrade, or a change to the xserver-xorg that breaks compositing, it is easy to reinstall like this: http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...3618#msg233618

[TheBigAmbulance]

Re: composting stopped working

Oh boy.... 256.35 is the latest driver from nvidia.com....

So I went into another terminal (alt+f1) and shutdown kdm using "service kdm stop". I then manually installed the 256.35 driver. Then started kdm.

All is well.

dibl, again.... Thank you for the advice!!

[dibl]

Re: [SOLVED] - composting stopped working

Excellent. Keep the little re-install recipe handy, and you'll be fine. Once in awhile a software upgrade will break compositing, even though the basic video display is still working right. If you're suspicious that there's a problem, pop open a Konsole window and run

glxgears

-- that's a quick test that will reveal the issue.