How to set up AIGLX and Beryl on Ubuntu 6.06 running GNOME
Published August 3rd, 2006 in TechnologyWhile browsing the web, I noticed there were a lot of tutorials on how to set up Ubuntu with XGL and Beryl, which is great if you have a card that runs with 3D accelerated proprietary drivers on a dedicated video chipset with good OpenGL acceleration (in other words, a fairly recent nVidia or ATi card). For the rest of us the users of open source drivers, including the laptop users with shared memory Intel chipsets, XGL just doesn’t cut it in terms of speed. Thankfully, there’s another option: Accelerated Indirect GLX (AIGLX).
AIGLX, much like XGL, is an indirect rendering X server architecture with compositing support. This basically means you can run Beryl on it and get all those crazy eye candy effects. However, AIGLX differs from XGL in a the following ways:
- AIGLX is built on X.org, XGL on the other hand is a completely seperate X server architecture (although in it’s current iteration it runs on top of X.org).
- AIGLX allows for direct rendering in some cases, for example, XVideo. XGL does not, instead all rendering ultimately goes through OpenGL. On a fast video card with good OpenGL acceleration, the performance hit is minimal, but on ones which don’t have good OpenGL acceleration (such as the aforementioned Intel shared video chipsets), these applications recieve a significant performance boost from this ability.
Disclaimer: This tutorial is for advanced users only. I take no responsibility if you manage to damage your system doing this, and I strongly advise you to make a backup of each configuration file mentioned before editing it, or better yet, your entire system.
What you will need:
- A working Ubuntu 6.06 install, to which you have root access
- A video chipset that supports 3D acceleration with open source video drivers. This includes the Intel i8xx and i9xx chipsets and some ATi Radeons 9200 and below among others. If you’re using an nVidia card or a more recent ATi Radeon, you have to use XGL.
- GNOME
Do you have everything you need? Let’s get started.
1. Set up your repositories.
First of all, enable the Universe and Multiverse repositories. Then, open /etc/apt/sources.list as root using your favourite text editor.
Inside there, you will need to add the following repository lines to the end of the file, and save:
# Beryl
deb http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org/ dapper main aiglx
deb-src http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org/ dapper main aiglx
2. Update your system
In a terminal, execute the following commands:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
3. Install the Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) modules
In a terminal, execute the following commands:
sudo apt-get install linux-dri-modules-common
sudo apt-get install linux-dri-modules-`uname -r`
If there are problems after doing this, use the following command to regenerate modules.dep:
sudo /sbin/ldm-manager
4. Install the AIGLX and Beryl packages
First, if you are upgrading from Compiz, execute the following commands to remove it:
sudo apt-get remove compiz compiz-core
In a terminal, execute the following commands:
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-air-core
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/ /usr/lib/xorg-air/modules/
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/ /usr/lib/xorg-air/modules/
sudo apt-get install beryl beryl-core emerald-themes
5. Configure your X server
Open /etc/X11/xorg.conf in your favorite editor, and make sure the following are present and uncommented in the Module section (they should be by default):
Load "dri"
Load "dbe"
Load "glx"
Then, add the following to the Device section:
Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"
Add the following to the ServerLayout section:
Option "AIGLX" "true"
Make sure the DRI section is present and uncommented, as follows:
Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection
Then add the Extensions section as follows:
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection
Save your modified xorg.conf.
5. Configure the GNOME Display Manager to use AIGLX as the default X server instead of the vanilla X.org
Open /etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom in your favourite text editor, and modify your server section to look like this:
[servers]
0=aiglx
Add a new server-aiglx section as follows:
[server-aiglx]
name=aiglx server
command=/usr/bin/Xorg-air :0
flexible=true
6. Restart the GNOME Display Manager
In a terminal, execute the following command (this restarts X, so any applications you have open will be killed):
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart
Then, after GNOME finishes loading, hit Alt-F2 to open the run window, and execute the following command:
beryl-manager
Congratulations, you should now be staring at your new Beryl desktop!
You might want to go to System -> Preferences -> Session, and add beryl-manager to the startup programs so that beryl will start with your GNOME session.
More things you can do:
- Theme it! Run the emerald-theme-manager application to customize your eye candy to your tastes.
- Customize it! Run the beryl-settings application to customize the behaviour of your Beryl install and it’s plugins.
- Discuss it! Visit the Beryl forum or the Ubuntu AIGLX / Compiz support thread (which this tutorial is based on).
Update: This page has been dugg!
Update 2: The compiz-quinn-aiglx packages are now deprecated. The new instructions have been posted. If you’re having trouble getting compiz updated properly, remove the compiz-quinn-aiglx package and follow step 4 of the tutorial again. Additionally, if you still have trouble, disable compiz-tray-icon in the session and make sure /usr/bin/compiz-start is in the session.
Update 3: It appears that gset-compiz is no longer included with the compiz packages and has been removed from the repositories. Use csm instead to modify settings.
Update 4: Instructions were updated with the addition compiz-manager, which is a new notification area application for managing Compiz.
Update 5: Tutorial updated for the installation of Beryl instead of Compiz. Beryl Wiki cited as a source.
Howto Install xorg-aiglx + compiz (packages) [Ubuntu Forums]
Install/Ubuntu/Dapper/AiGLX [Beryl Wiki]
24 Responses to “How to set up AIGLX and Beryl on Ubuntu 6.06 running GNOME”
- 1 Pingback on Aug 21st, 2006 at 10:00 pm
Hello,
I much enjoyed your how to on AIGLX /Compiz. Your directions were very much on point. All went well with my install. I have a Toshiba M65-S821 laptop. The system also used the Shared Memory i915 video chipset. All was kind of sluggest at first. I think this was because the system shipped with 512 megs of ram by default. Once I upgraded to 2 gigs, boy did this thing fly. I much love AIGLX /Compiz.
Thanks again
Ted Summers.
Don’t work for the french guy that I am…
NB : got a i855gm, so if anyone got any idea to solve my problem…
my xorg.conf & gmd.conf-custom should be ok, exactly wrote as HowTo told
me, but xserver doesn’t work…
Mail-me if you can! hulot at hot mail dot f r
Thx.
Hi
I Have a problem with aiglx+compiz, I follwoed your steps and evertying look fine until I Enable the GL-Desktop, the cgwd does not whant to start so i get windows without title bars, can’t rotate the cube and so on.
I tried starting cgwd and get the following:
The program ‘cgwd’ received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was ‘BadMatch (invalid parameter attributes)’.
(Details: serial 654 error_code 8 request_code 153 minor_code
(Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
To debug your program, run it with the –sync command line
option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
Does it work if you use gnome-window-decorator? That’s what I’m currently using (I found cgwd to be quite buggy, and I like the default gnome-window-decorator theme better). Also, as for the BadMatch error, are you using a 64bit version? If so, this thread might be helpful to you.
It is working almost perferct…. (ALMOST)
The problem is that the title bas in the program’s windows disapeared and I can not resize and drag windows any more.
What should I do ?
(Sorry for the bad english. I’m not that fluent)
Just complementing the information I’ve submitted previously…
I’m using gnome in a DELL notebook inspiron 700m with Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper
Run gset-compiz and check to make sure that the “decoration” plugin is enabled. If not, that’s most likely the problem. If so, then Compiz probably crashed. In that case, open a terminal and type
compiz –replace gconf
and post your output.
Hello Corvillus,
I’m afraid I have not gset-compiz installed. When I tried to run it I saw the following prompt :
daniel@daniel:~$ gset-compiz
bash: gset-compiz: comando não encontrado
–> ( bash: gset-compiz: command not found )
I could see decoration Plugin when running gconf-editor and followed the options apps->compiz->plugins-> decoration.
After I have runned compiz –replace gconf, the screen freezed with this output message :
daniel@daniel:~$ compiz –replace gconf
daniel@daniel:~$ libGL warning: 3D driver claims to not support visual 0×4b
compiz.real: GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap is missing
compiz.real: Failed to manage screen: 0
compiz.real: No manageable screens found on display :0.0
I had to restart gdm pressing
As I told you, compiz is running ALMOST perfectly and the only problem I’m having is that the title bars and the windows borders are missing.
I’ve tried to download gset-compiz with apt-get and aptitude. But it was not possible.
Look apt-get’s output :
daniel@daniel:~$ sudo apt-get install gset-compiz
O pacote gset-compiz não está disponível, mas é referenciado por outro pacote.
Isso pode significar que o pacote está faltando, ficou obsoleto ou
está disponível somente a partir de outra fonte
E: O pacote gset-compiz não tem candidato para instalação
It means :
Yet gset-compiz is not avaliable. it is referenced by other package.
It may be bocause the package is missing or is deprecated or it is avaliable thought other source.
E: The package gset-compiz has not candidate for instalation.
What should I do now ?
Regards,
Daniel Freitas
Sorry about that, they just made a bunch of changes to compiz, and gset-compiz is now deprecated. Use csm instead, which should have been installed with the rest of the compiz packages. This tutorial will be updated accordingly.
Is the entire package name csm ?
Here’s the aptitude output :
root@daniel:/home/daniel# aptitude search csm
p csm -
p csmash - CannonSmash, a table tennis simulation gamp csmash-data - data files for the CannonSmash game
p csmash-demosong - Demo song for CannonSmash
There is no csm package in my system.
Yeah, the package is just called csm.
I’ve just downloaded csm and aptitude automatically selected compiz-core and compiz-PlugIns as csm dependencies.
When installing the 3 packages, an error occurred because the system could not write over the installed package compiz-vanilla.
Should I completely remove compiz-vanilla, compiz-vanilla-aiglx and install compiz ?
Yes. The compiz-quinn and compiz-vanilla packages are deprecated, so uninstall them and install compiz.
The only way things worked out on my computer was using
compiz-vanilla compiz-vanilla-gnome compiz-plugins and gnome-compiz-manager.
NOTE: Still with no title bar :((
After changing these packages to compiz, compiz-pligins, compiz-core, csm… my desktop acted very odd and the cube, windows moving and other facilities did not work.
Any suggestions ?
Try disabling the benchmark plugin in csm. Apparently that causes some problems with the cube. More on that here.
Quick question,
Does AIGLX also work with Matrox video cards?
On a footnote, I followed your orginal directions and they worked to perfection. However I, like most found that after updates my AIGLX was broke. I also had a few problems with your new directions, but that was because it would try to install packages that were no longer current or needed. This even after I did a purge. I did find that the directions post at:
http://wiki.compiz.net/index.php/Aiglx/compiz_on_an_Intel_i915_video_card
Worked well for me even though I don’t see much difference when compared to yours.
Thanks again
Well, the directions were completely different a week or so ago, because they were using the compiz-quinn packages, which are now deprecated. Also, I notice that they added a new compiz-manager package in those wiki directions. It looks like I’ll have to update this post to reflect the new changes.
Okay, I have really done it this time! I went and formatted the Hard Drive on my Laptop so that I would no longer dual boot. I wanted a Ubuntu only system with Windows in a VM session.
Just what did I come back to find? The directions for Compiz no longer work! Why you might ask? Because Compiz seens to be no more. Word on the street (aka: web) is that the project has been forked. The projects new name appears to be “Beryl”.
So I say to myself, Okay I’ll just install “Beryl”! Oh …, but not so fast, you see I can’t because there does not seem to be support for intel just yet.
So what am I to do Corvillus? Please help me if you can, I dying over here
From what I saw on the forum, there doesn’t seem to be any official packages for Ubuntu just yet, so it seems to be a try at your own risk thing. I’ll update this post with more information as I get it.
using ubuntu edgy & IBM thinkpad T30 this howto worked for me…but i have to use 16bpp resolution …and flash doesn’t work (firefox crashes all the time)
Are you using the new Flash 9 Linux beta? It fixes a lot of issues which Flash 7 had.
this is the fix for firefox in both 7 and 9 beta in 16bpp resolution
i included this in /usr/bin/firefox (2nd to the last line)
export XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1
Thnxxxxxxxxxx alot !!
I was pissed off coz of having problem starting beryl, it waz givin me errors.
Your guide worked like a charm for me