XGL + Compiz

I've been experimenting with XGL and Compiz on my two Linux systems for some time, and thought I'd share with everyone and see how other people have experienced it. Many of you are probably wondering what XGL and Compiz are: I could say that XGL is a fully OpenGL accellerated X server, and that Compiz is a window & composite manager that runs on top of XGL, but since a picture is worth a thousand words and a video is a thousand pictures, the Novell demonstration of XGL/Compiz should do a much better job than I. For those too lazy to watch an eleven minute video, a few screenshots of my system will have to suffice.




OK, now that you've seen the video, you're probably wondering how to get it working under your system. First of all, a Linux system is required; *BSD might work, but I have no clue about that. It would be best to run a 32bit x86 version of Linux; 64bit and PPC versions have problems of their own. The three distributions that currently seem to run (relatively) well with it are Ubuntu Dapper (possibly Breezy as well), Gentoo, and Suse. Gentoo apparently has a LiveCD available, but I don't know much about that option; Ubuntu Dapper is probably the easiest of the three and is what most of my experience is on.

First a word of warning: XGL and Compiz are still considered alpha (if not pre-alpha) software packages, and as such should not be installed lightly. Do not blame me if your computer needs a reinstall, blows up, makes long distance phone calls, or spawn into a self-aware being that launches the US nuclear arsenal at Russia in an attempt to star a War of the Machines. That said, I've run into relatively few problems with them once I got them working, and they shouldn't do any damage to your system; at most a couple of config files will have to be changed back to default. Anyways, read through the official UbuntuForums thread on XGL/Compiz for installation instructions under Dapper; for the most part that should work. I use two custom package repositories, by Quinnstorm and Reggaemanu, which seem much easier to use, feature-rich, and stabler. They can be found at Quinnstorm's Compiz forums: to use them, add the following to /etc/apt/sources.list

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

On my two systems, I've gotten one to work perfectly and one...well, that one is having problems. The working one has the specs:
32bit AMD 2800+, GeForce 5600, 1GB PC333, 19" monitor @ 1280x1024
while the second
64bit AMD ML37, ATI X700 Go, 1GB PC333, 15.4" monitor @ 1680x1050
I don't know if its the 64bit, ATI, or a combination that's giving me the problem, bit I'll be trying a 32bit install on it some time this week so I'll know more then.

On the working system, stability is remarkable for alpha software; I've noticed problems only when switching an app from fullscreen to window mode repeatedly, and restarting the app solves he problem. There isn't much slowdown; some videos play somewhat slowly, but that could just be my computer being too slow to handle the h264 codec or 1080p quicktime files.

Anyways, that's all I have time for right now. I'd like to hear other people's experiences with it, and non-Linux users impressions.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

As far as the whole benefit of eyecandy debate goes, yes I know alot of it has no usability benefits. Then again, things like the Exposè feature, the 8x zoom are extremely useful. Lots of Linux users do use the multiple desktops they get by default, and the cube rotation is good in that it gives a visual cue that one is changing desktops. I've also used the transparency to good use; running a program behind my web browser, I can still see its status. The live Vista-like switcher is useful, especially when using multiple desktops, as it helps you pick which window you want to move the focus to. Even the wobbly is somewhat useful; true, its pretty much just eyecandy the way they showed it (when moving the windows), but it also can make windows wobble when they receive focus, which is a good way to show the user which window is currently active. And as Cyrus said, because compiz is based on plugins so the user will have full control of what features are used and what features aren't used. Plus you could always just not install XGL/Compiz at all, for those with slower computers.

In terms of speed, XGL doesn't seem to affect normal operations much, if at all. I haven't tried anything intensive yet with OpenGL, but glxgears runs fine and mplayer runs with gl2 output. Compiz has a setting to disable most effects when an app goes fullscreen, so that should cut down on problems. The only slowdown I've noticed was when playing 1080p quicktime files and h264 matroska files. I'm pretty sure that its not Compiz or XGL causing those problems though; my computer is probably just too slow to handle 1080p video and the new h264 codec is more computationally intense than, say, xvid.

As far as trying it on your own, XGL actually needs X.org, and runs on top of it (I currently have Xgl and Xorg in my process list). Its fairly easy to disable XGL, all I have to do is comment out a few lines in my /etc/gdm/gdm.conf. Compiz is even easier to disable; just take it out of you Sessions list in Gnome or whatever you use to autostart it. The way I'm set up, my default X server is XGL without compiz., and I have a button in my panel that replaces the default window manager with compiz.

Or you could always try the Live CD I mentioned earlier. Actually, I know at least of one other, a quick google search should turn up others if this one doesn't work for you.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I've been doing more experimenting, and the OpenGL situation seems worse than I originally thought. I've tried two games; Enemy Territory runs incredibly slowly and with alot of visual glitches, while Doom 3 doesn't run at all. Both run fine when I login without XGL, but not when I log in with XGL and without Compiz, so it seems its more an XGL problem than a Compiz problem. Fortunately its not terribly difficult to turn XGL on/off, merely a few commented out lines in /etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom (and would be an even easier option in the Sessions menu of gdm if I ever set that up), so for now I'll just have to know when I login whether I want games or eyecandy.

Magic: Actually, the current implementation I'm using (the Quinnstorm patches to Compiz) uses a simple alt+mousewheel action to control the transparency, with a menu option to reset the transparency to 0 (or opacity to 100, which is how it is internally I think). There's also a way to set the default opacity for selected applications using the transset plugin.

Cless: My thoughts are that while the average user, indeed, doesn't really know what they want in a UI design, more advanced users are capable of that decision. Which is why the important thing is to provide sensible defaults; the defaults should be optimized for the standard user who doesn't know anything about tweaking, while the ability left open for an advanced user to customize everything to his/her taste. But then again I'm a Linux user, and that seems to be what most Linux users think.

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BurningRanger:

Found this on the web. Does this answer your question? The thread on UbuntuForums, XGL/Compiz at KDE startup, should contain details. You can try searching for more threads there, but be warned; in the last few weeks they changed it so only registered users can use the search function.

Let us know how it turns out.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?