A very short Ubuntu XGL howto for ATI cards


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I thought i'd make a howto as it took me a while to get it working on my laptop (with an M200 chipset)

ok, firstly, enable all the repositories and install xorg-server-xgl compiz, compiz-gnome and also make sure any packages such as mesa, glitz and cairo are up to date and that fglrx is installed and enabled in the xorg config

the easiest way to get it up and running without messing up anything is to do this

create a file in your /home/%user% folder called .Xsession (sudo gedit /home/%user%/.Xsession)

#!/bin/sh

# Start up Xgl, compiz, and GNOME

# Run Xgl server on :1, on top of normal X

Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -accel xv -accel glx:pbuffer &

# Tell subsequent X programs to access the Xgl server at :1

DISPLAY=:1

# Start Compiz window manager

gnome-window-decorator &

compiz gconf decoration wobbly fade minimize cube rotate zoom scale move resize place menu switcher &

xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.us &

# Start GNOME

exec gnome-session

next you must chmod +x .Xsession

you must next edit your xorg.conf (sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf)

add these lines under the "Device" section to stop the card randomly locking up

Option "OpenGLOverlay" "off" #this isn't necessary for me

Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"

Option "KernelModuleParm" "agplock=0"

log out and in again and Xgl will work, note: if something breaks you can log in with the failsafe session and remove the .Xsession to get back to normal X

I was having problems with my X randomly crashing, I assumed it was due to my Xgl/Compiz versions being old, this wasn't the case, it's simply that shift+backspace causes the Xgl server to shutdown, you can remedy this by adding xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.us to .Xsession as above

If you want to get the latest up to take debs try these two repositories (you need both as they both contain vital updates)

deb http://xgl.compiz.info dapper main

deb http://www.beerorkid.com/compiz dapper main

-------------------------------------------------------------

NVidia users try this

/usr/bin/Xgl :0 -fullscreen -ac -accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:fbo instead and change DISPLAY to 0

You also need the nvidia drivers installed

Edited by Z3r0
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Thank you so much. Finally after countless attempts I got it working like it should!

One question though... how can I do the cube trick?

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I'm glad that someones found this useful too.

Press ctrl+alt whilst dragging the desktop to get the cube effect

You can also drag apps across screens and that rotates the screen like a cube

Alt tab has a pretty cool transparency effect

Also try double clicking the top of an app to make it maximize/minimize with the wobble effect

Holding ctrl whilst moving an app makes it stick to the sides of the screen briefly

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  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I believe you just need to change the following code:

# Run Xgl server on :1, on top of normal X

Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -accel xv -accel glx:pbuffer &

# Tell subsequent X programs to access the Xgl server at :1

DISPLAY=:1

to:

Xgl :0 -fullscreen -ac -accel xv -accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:fbo &

# Tell subsequent X programs to access the Xgl server at :0

DISPLAY=:0

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