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Compiz Updates
Filed under: Compiz, UbuntuWhee, haven’t done this in quite some time.
Let’s see, what has been going on since last time I blogged.
First off, unfortunately it looks like the X3000/X3100 (also known as 965) intel chip will still be blacklisted in Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (hardy). We tried switching to EXA so we could get Xvideo and Composite at the same time but in order for EXA performance to match XAA performance we have to use the ttm version of the driver. The work on this is not yet complete and is not believed to be ready for use, especially in an LTS release. Unless things change in the next month or so this is probably the final word on the subject and these unforunate Intel users will have to wait for Ubuntu 8.10 to use Compiz.
On a more positive note, we think we might have a partial solution for the problems with OpenGL when using the intel and ati drivers with Compiz. Here is the most obvious demonstration of the problem I’m talking about:
That doesn’t look right…
The true fix for this is called redirected direct rendering and would be great to have however it too is not yet realistic for inclusion in Ubuntu. Instead we have a way to at least make sure OpenGL apps behave when you put them under another window (and when you rotate the cube too but not the way you want). This is all very preliminary and we don’t even have the code for it yet but we’ve proven the concept. I’ll write a new post explaining what we’re going to do when we have something to show.
When you combine this with the various window management fixes happening upstream and increased integration with the rest of the system Compiz in hardy should be very nice. We’ve also cleared out the blacklist to see if cards that had problems in gutsy are working better in hardy. We’ll probably end up adding back some of these (like the 965) but hopefully we can have a smaller list this time. We also added the fglrx driver to the whitelist but due to a bug the GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap extension is not being offered correctly so Compiz will not work with this driver in Ubuntu yet.
On an unrelated note, I’ve added a reCaptcha to this blog to cut down on spam. None of the spam was getting through to the site but it also wasn’t being caught by akismet so I had to go through all posts in moderation and filter out the spam manually. This is why no comments posted to this blog since late November had been accepted, it was too much of a hassle. I’m leaving the comment moderation on for now until I see how things go so if you haven’t commented on this blog before you’ll have to wait for me to approve your comment.
26 Responses to “Compiz Updates”
Cool stuff.
I currently use Gutsy (7.10) and I have Intel 965. As far as I can tell, everything with Compiz works perfectly (except for the occassional crash of “emerald” theme manager which a quick “nohup emerald & ” fixes).
Why will this be broken in 8.04? I don’t understand.
It does not “work perfectly” in gutsy, you can’t use Xv. That’s why you had to force compiz to start to use it. I don’t know about you but I’d rather have video playback (that doesn’t eat CPU) than Compiz.
It’s sad to see that the x3100 chipset will be blacklisted again considering that there are the graphic chips used in the dell ubuntu laptops at http://www.dell.com/ubuntu
Several people (like me :-)) purchased those laptops expecting that it was the best way to get ubuntu supported hardware.
Those laptops are “Ubuntu supported” they’re just not “Compiz supported”.
Seriously though, it’s a driver problem. The solution is known but not ready yet. It’s only a matter of time.
Sigh. I was really hoping to get some compiz prettiness up and running on my shiny (matte) new T61.
This grasshopper will have to be patient!
I’m realy looking forward to this intel work to be completed - my new HP 6720s is in dire need of some Compiz+video excitement.
Who do I need to buy beers for to speed things along?
I am really disappointed that the i965 chipset will still not be fully supported after one year.
Actually, for me it is even worse, I have not only none-working compiz, but the desktop resolution cannot be correctly recognized (1280×800) due to an interfering TV output (which I don’t even have on this laptop). And that’s not all. If I log into the desktop, the screen turns completely black, the only thing I hear is the login sound.
Great indeed. So I have been using the vesa driver for about 9 months now. Of course without accelerated 3D support.
I bought my current laptop with this chipset specifically because there were open source drivers. However, non-working open source drivers are even worse than working proprietary ones.
Ubuntu disappointed me already in the past with the Ralink RT2500 wireless cards that had an open source driver that made all of my computers equipped with them freeze. Guess what, it took Ubuntu a year to fix this (this was at the time of Dapper), by then I bought several replacement cards because this problem never got fixed even though I reported this bug.
Ubuntu seems to be all focused on the distribution racing game but forgets to make available driver updates for existing users and working on quality instead of adding new features.
I am getting tired of being an eternal beta tester.
But it is all free and you can download a sources and fix the bug by yourself and send patches. Or donate some money to the project you need.
tuxo: I’m sorry about your problems but they are not a typical Ubuntu experience (otherwise we’d have no users). The problem here seems to be that no one in the Ubuntu community (or working for Canonical) does driver development so we’re at the mercy of the upstream developers. All we can hope is that they have something stable we can use every 6 months.
Also, all computer users are eternal beta testers, no system is ever done.
I wonder there is anywhere a good explanation about this X3100 bug?
I just got the message that GL and XV doesn’t seem to work together.
Is this a driver bug? And why EXA is always mentioned as solution?
It’s not possible to “just” fix XV?
I consider to buy a laptop with this chip. My main argument for Intel was always the open source driver and thus the strong support in the community. However this issues is really old now and still unfixed. Maybe I better choose the upgrade option and go for the nvidia chip. It’s closed source, but should “work”.
I don’t expect to hear that again, I bought a new R61 Thinkpad laptop with 1500$, and i still can’t play with compiz. Compiz works with Intel 965 in very bad way, i can’t play video, more than half of the plugins does not work, and it’s even worse also metacity makes many problems, Alt+Ctrl+F1 make gnome crashes so i can’t use tty1.
I’m happy use linux, in Jordan [my country] many new cheap offers for Laptops are available supported by government, they have linux on them, but the problem that all of them use Intel 965, so I can’t persuade people to use linux instead of Vista because they want such candy to be present on their laptops.
I know that you are doing great jobs, but i think with more focusing on Intel 965 chipset, you will get allot of new users, especially those who can’t buy laptops with nVidia.
Thanks for your post, hoping to hear good news.
Best Regards
Thomas: The problem is that the 965 only supports textured output, there is no more overlay hardware. On older cards both are available (or just overlay is available) so we patched the driver to prefer to use that. The upstream developers of the intel driver have no plans to add support for this when using XAA and afaik the driver was designed in such a way to make doing so difficult anyway. EXA is the future, we have to get there eventually.
Ramy: I don’t think anyone working on Ubuntu, paid or not, does any significant driver development and this is a driver problem.
Given that Hardy is a “long term support” release, surely the revised Intel drivers, when they are eventually completed, will be released as backports to Hardy, and then will no longer be blacklisted in Compiz?
Is that correct?
I’m reticent to keep upgrading my laptop OS every six months, hence why I’ve kept to Dapper until now. I am participating in the Hardy Alpha test programme and reporting bugs, but the sad thing is that few bugs that I report get fixed.
The reality I’m seeing is that closed-source drivers such as Nvidia have less bugs and work better than the open-source drivers that Ubuntu philosophy promotes as supposedly superior.
See
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=4396734#post4396734
for my workaround
I have purchased four different laptops in the past six months trying to find a system that ubuntu could recognize video drivers, sound drivers and wireless drivers with very little or no user input. I have almost determined that ubuntu cannot use any wireless card as is and requires ndiswrapper, terminal configurations and in some cases a firmware driver. I have ended up with a dell laptop (trying to support anyone offering ubuntu) and my 965 won’t show advanced desktop features because I’m too new to be able to unblacklist it. I would gladly donate to create a driver support division. Ubuntu shouldn’t have to work around the problem and I shouldn’t be punished for using ubuntu on a laptop.
You’re in luck, we’ve figured out a way to run compiz on this chip in hardy (next release).
Hello, any idea of when this will be implemented. Could you also tell us about the fix. Thanks for all the hard work.
This is working for me:
http://linux.pengin.de/#intel
Hello, If I install ubuntu 8.04 hardy alpha 6 now will compiz-fusion work.
Yep, it should work just fine on intel now.
Thank you sir.
I got alpha 6 and compiz is working. The water plugin doesnt work correctly though. The desktop goes away but comes back when the water effect stops.
Water working now???
Thanks Travis u r our personal Jesus!
Iv installed Hardy (ubuntu 8.04) on my dell vostro 1400 with the intel X3100 card, and it doesnt work. Some desktop effects do , wobble etc but the 3d cube wont, when that is enabled then I cant switch workspaces, etc
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