Hi,

I am running KDE 4.2.2 on Debian Sid. My graphics card is a ATI Mobility Radeon X2300.

Prior to the new xorg I was using fglrx for 3D rendering and the like. But after that upgrade, with the new kernel 2.6.29 and the new KDE 4.2.2 I don't have any GL it seems. I have tried the drivers radeonhd, ati and vesa but non allow me to use the desktop effects, the GL screensavers don't work and transparency for the konsole doesn't work either.

If I enable these lines in xorg.conf, then I get the slowest desktop I have ever seen:

# Option "AccelMethod" "exa"
# Option "DRI" "on"

Any ideas how the desktops effects can be run? I would appreciate any pointers and help.

Thanks.

debsid wrote:I am running KDE 4.2.2 on Debian Sid. My graphics card is a ATI Mobility Radeon X2300.

The Mobility X2300 is an r500 chipset, so the correct driver to use is "radeon". You can use "ati" as that is synonymous. Do not use radeonhd, as that is for newer chipsets. You can use vesa, but there is never any desktop effects in vesa.

The hard part is getting your xorg.conf tweaked so that stuff works. You may want to try XAA instead of EXA. Also look at your file /var/log/Xorg.0.log, which is a log of X.org starting up. There could be warnings or errors that could give a clue.

p.s. KDE4 is intolerant of older Xorg drivers. So get the latest stable drivers you can.

Brandybuck:

Thanks for your quick response.

I tried your suggestions, but no change. I removed the radeonhd driver and have the latest Debian radeon driver installed. The log file looks good, nothing that looks suspicious to me.
This is my xorg.conf:

Code: Select all

Section "ServerFlags"
        Option          "DontZap"               "Off"
        Option          "AllowMouseOpenFail"    "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Device 0"
        Driver          "radeon"
        Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"
        Option "DRI" "on"
        BoardName       "ATI Technologies Inc Mobility Radeon X2300"
        BusID           "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
       Option  "Composite"     "1"
EndSection


This is the only line from Xorg.0.log that may give a clue to the problem:

Code: Select all

(II) RADEON(0): Max desktop size set to 2560x1600
(II) RADEON(0): For a larger or smaller max desktop size, add a Virtual line to your xorg.conf
(II) RADEON(0): If you are having trouble with 3D, reduce the desktop size by adjusting the Virtual line to your xorg.conf


The error message that I receive from KDE is:

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.

[/code]

I should maybe mention that when I boot with a Kubuntu Live-CD with KDE 4.2, then the desktop effects work. But I fail to see what they use that I don't use with my Debian. Kubuntu's xorg.conf doesn't even mention a xorg driver.

Check to make sure DRI is actually working. Run the program "glxinfo" (should be a part of Mesa). Near the top it will mention DRI.

I also suspect that you just need to turn on compositing. Merge the following options into your xorg.conf:

Code: Select all

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option       "AIGLX" "True"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load  "dri"
    Load  "glx"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Option      "RenderAccel" "on"
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
    Option "Composite"  "Enable"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
    Mode 0666
EndSection

Thanks, merging the options you mentioned worked. Another solution is to execute the command:

Code: Select all

sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg


This gave me this xorg.conf, which works as well:

Code: Select all

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
EndSection


However, both options allow me to only use Xrender. But I had to disable the desktop effects again, because the performance is quite bad and half of the effects don't work for me. I think, something else is wrong!

Brandybuck wrote:Check to make sure DRI is actually working. Run the program "glxinfo" (should be a part of Mesa). Near the top it will mention DRI.

[...]

No, no DRI is mentioned when I execute glxinfo. Maybe this is the problem!

debsid wrote:No, no DRI is mentioned when I execute glxinfo. Maybe this is the problem!

Sorry, my mistake. It should say "direct rendering: Yes".

Brandybuck wrote:

debsid wrote:No, no DRI is mentioned when I execute glxinfo. Maybe this is the problem!

Sorry, my mistake. It should say "direct rendering: Yes".

Direct rendering seems to be working, at least it says "yes".

If I enable the desktop effects the login process becomes problematic. I have to login twice and the splash screen disappears half way through and then comes back only cut in half. Editing in kile is slow too and so is the konsole.

Then you may just want to turn off desktop effects entirely. I get **** performance on my laptop and Mobility chipset. It sucks. And the appropriate KDE developers don't seem to care. The official response seems to be "get a different video card", not realizing that it is not an option for most people.

(Metacity or Beryl compositing has no problems at all, only KDE4).

My desktop systems work awesome with KDE4 desktop effects, even my old clunker with a decrepit Radeon 9000. But it sucks on significantly newer laptop with Radeon X1300 Mobility. So on my laptop I stick to the Plastik window decoration, plastique style, and keep desktop effects turned off.