Enabling transparency
From Sawfish
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The quirks needed to get transparency running are explained here
Contents |
[edit] Configure XServer
Add new code to /etc/X11/xorg.conf:
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection
If you have nvidia card, then add to Section "Device" this:
Driver "nvidia" # don't add this, it's already there Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True" Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "True"
If you have an ATI card and an version of FGLRX older than 8.5, then make sure you have disabled the Textured2D Option as follows
Driver "fglrx" # don't add this it's already there. #Option "Textured2D" "on"
There are also a plenty of options, which may increase the speed of the compositing manager.
The Following is for ATI Cards:
Section "ServerFlags"
Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "on" # Don't care about if there's no mouse
Option "IgnoreABI" "off" # This option "on" to use an driver which officialy
# does not support your xorg version
Option "AIGLX" "on" # Enable the 3D XServer AIGLX
EndSection
Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
Load "extmod"
Load "glx"
Load "dri"
Load "record"
Load "fbdevhw"
Load "GLcore"
EndSection
Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI RADEON X1600"
Driver "fglrx"
Option "UseInternalAGPGART" "no"
Option "VideoOverlay" "off"
Option "TexturedVideo" "on"
#Option "Textured2D" "on" # Disable this with FGLRX < 8.5
Option "TexturedXRender" "on"
Option "OpenGLOverlay" "on"
Option "UseFastTLS" "1"
Option "EnablePrivateBackZ" "on"
Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"
Option "KernelModuleParm" "agplock=0"
Option "KernelModuleParm" "agpgart=3"
Option "KernelModuleParm" "su_flags=0xdead0003"
Option "backingstore" "true"
Option "DRI" "true"
EndSection
Section "Extensions"
Option "DAMAGE" "on"
Option "Composite" "on"
Option "RENDER" "on"
Option "XVideo" "on"
EndSection
Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
If Firefox crashes when viewing Flashvideos and Composite is enabled, add the following to the firefox startup-script (normally /usr/bin/firefox) [or iceweasel in case of Debian].
export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1
The same may be required when using XMMS in "double-size" mode, add a startup script (eg. /usr/bin/xmms-start)
#!/bin/bash XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 xmms $@
If the output of MPlayer flickers, change the video driver to gl2. Either via the settings dialog or mplayer -vo gl2 on the terminal. That solves the issue in most cases.
[edit] Software
When Installing the xcompmgr, please make sure to install version 1.1.4 (or newer),
because older version have some bugs, that make working impossible in some cases
Note: XCompMgr + FGLRX v8.6 is known not to work. But with v8.7 it's just working fine again.
The xcompmgr is necessary for all this to work.
On debian etch it was enough to add to /etc/apt/sources.list the line:
deb-src ftp://ftp.pl.debian.org/debian/ unstable main non-free contrib
then do:
Installing from source
sudo aptitude update apt-get source xcompmgr cd xcompmgr fakeroot debian/rules binary sudo dpkg -i ../*deb
Installing from binary
instead of deb-src ftp:/... add deb ftp:/...
to your /etc/apt/sources.list.
then do:
sudo apt-get install xcompmgr
If you use the native-focus-transparency.jl then xcompmgr is enough.
But if you use the focus-transparency.jl repeat the installation steps for transset.
[edit] Advanced XCompMgr Configuration
Just starting "xcompmgr" will give you a plain 3D Desktop, without fancy effects (exept the ones from 3rdparty apps like gnome-panel/awn).
Enabling Drop-Shadows
-c -> Enable drop shadows
-C -> Don't draw drop shadows on Docks/Panels
-r -> Shadow Blurring radius
-l -> left offset of Shadows
-t -> top offset of Shadows
-o -> Opacity of Shadows
Enabling Fading Animations
-f -> Fade when Opening/Closing a Windows
-F -> Fade when the Opacity Changes
-I -> Fade-in Steps
-O -> Fade-out Steps
Note: if your XCompMgr gets more and more unstable (it's only drawing fractals, or nothing anymore), then this is because of enabled fading, either kill and restart xcompmgr or disable fading.
Example
xcompmgr -cCfF -r7 -o 0.65 -l-10 -t-8 -D7 -I 0.020 -O 0.020
run "xcompmgr --help" for a full list of options and adjust your autostart entry.
[edit] Scripts
A few scripts are already using this: Focus-transparency and Native-focus-transparency, and maybe few others were added since this text was written, thus check out the Scripts page.
[edit] Patches
See Missing patches.
[edit] External links
Links useful when dealing with XComposite extension
