Fedora Core 6

[insomnia]

I did both an upgrade and a fresh install. No real problems with a fresh install either.
The FreshRPMS and Dries repos are updated as well (already at release time).

While I already installed the testing nvidia-kmod mudule from Livna, I just noticed that freshrpms seems to provide them as well... (no more Livna needed).

...compiz/aixgl is big fun

[Void Main]

I noticed the "freshrpms" apt repo was missing in action from the main site ayo.freshrpms.net site but the FreshRPMS mirrors have it.

EDIT: Looks like the "freshrpms" repo is also now gone on their mirrors. I wonder if they had some sort of bad problem and had to shut down the repos to get it fixed?

[insomnia]

I noticed the "freshrpms" apt repo was missing in action from the main site ayo.freshrpms.net site but the FreshRPMS mirrors have it.

EDIT: Looks like the "freshrpms" repo is also now gone on their mirrors. I wonder if they had some sort of bad problem and had to shut down the repos to get it fixed?

Works fine with yum(I still need to build an new apt package...). I'm guessing they're all getting to much traffic. Core and Updates are down half the time as well.

PS: back to Compiz, I also like the function that shows all windows in an organised way by scaling them (move your mouse button to the upper right corner).

[Void Main]

Yes, me too. In fact I was showing the guys at work here yesterday the new compiz effects not knowing all of the keys or functionality and all of a sudden my screen zoomed to show all the apps and I went "whoah, that was cool". I had no idea how it happened and I tried for 10 minutes to figure out what keys I pushed to make that happen. :) Today I feel like a dummy knowing that all I have to do is move my mouse to the upper right corner. :) That's why I posted the shortcut keys, there were a couple of other cool key combos. I like changing the translucency and font sizes with the mouse wheel. Also dragging the desktops around with the mouse while holding ALT+CTRL is cool.

[Void Main]

Regarding the anaconda installer bug where it installs the 586 kernel* on some 686 systems (like mine):

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/sh ... ?id=211941

[ZiaTioN]

Interesting...

I checked to see if compiz was installed and the system shows it is:

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[root@localhost ~]# rpm -qa | grep compiz
compiz-0.0.13-0.32.20060817git.fc6

But when I try to enable it in Desktop Effects, I get an error that says "Desktop Effects Could Not Be Enabled"? Possibly a video drivers issue?

My video portion of lspci is:

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01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RS300M AGP [Radeon Mobility 9100IGP]

This would suck if I could not get this working because this feature alone was why I decided to stick with Fedora over going to Ubuntu.

[Void Main]

compiz also runs on Ubuntu so there is no need to go to FC6 for that reason alone. Your card has to be 3D GL capable to use compiz. Not all Radeon Mobility cards are. Mine obviously is but there is a guy at work with an older laptop and Mobility card which isn't. Yours looks like a higher end model but I've done some Google searching and haven't come up with any answers one way or the other. I upgraded my main desktop last night with an nVidia 6600 and got it working well only to find it apparently dead after an apparent power outage sometime today (which also caused my firewall to flake out and it looks like the site has not been available all day). I'm bummed, it wasn't that long ago I stuck a new motherboard/processor and graphics card in that machine. I wasn't looking forward to trouble-shooting hardware this weekend.

[ZiaTioN]

As far as I know my card supports 3D GL. I ran the desktop-effects binary from cli and this is the error I get when run:

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[root@localhost eric]# desktop-effects
compiz: No GLXFBConfig for default depth, this isn't going to work.
compiz: Failed to manage screen: 0
compiz: No managable screens found on display :0.0
gnome-window-decorator: Screen 0 on display ":0.0" already has a decoration manager; try using the --replace option to replace the current decoration manager.

[Void Main]

I got that same message on my nVidia setup until I got my driver installed and my xorg.conf right. Unfortunately that machine is currently dead in the water. I found plenty of information out there (Google, fedoraforum, etc) on things to check in your xorg.conf to get it working.

[ZiaTioN]

yeah I found a decent thread on fedorsforums about these issues and it seems using AIGLX (the 'radeon' driver) does sometime work with the ATI cards, bit if not, using the fglrx driver with Xgl will work. I would like to try to use AIGLX first though.

[insomnia]

nVidia didn't work that easy for me either (...as always with Fedora)
They should really fix their kernels and stop blaiming everything else. A missing <linux/config.h> in the fedora kernel (but still available in the ones from kernel.org) is what breaks the installer.

FC6 also doesn't seem to like all nvidia cards. The link posted by Void Main shows the same problems I had:
http://lunapark6.com/?p=2454 (I'm using an nVidia FX 6600 GT as well).
Basically, it didn't fully set up the sections "Module"(only "load glx existed) and "Files" in xorg.conf (X did work though).
After installing the nvidia drivers (the testing ones from Livna, the stable ones don't work with compiz), gnome-display-properties claimed my refresh rate was only 50Hz
I used the nvidia-settings tool for rebuilding my xorg.conf file and correcting the refresh rate.
It added :

Section "Files"
RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia"
ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
FontPath "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
(Load "glx" was already their)

In order to get the borders in compiz to work, I also added
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
in Section "Device".

Right now, everything is working in exception of "gnome-display-properties". It still lists 50Hz while "nvidia-settings" shows 75Hz...

[Void Main]

Hmmm, it appears the the upgrade from FC5 to FC6 via yum is going to be successful this time on the voidmain web server. I'm not exactly sure why things didn't go right the first time but this server is now being upgraded as I type this. Here are the commands:

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# yum clean all
# rpm -Uhv http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/6/i386/os/Fedora/RPMS/fedora-release-6-4.noarch.rpm http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/6/i386/os/Fedora/RPMS/fedora-release-notes-6-3.noarch.rpm
# yum -y update

That's it.

[ZiaTioN]

yeah I found a decent thread on fedorsforums about these issues and it seems using AIGLX (the 'radeon' driver) does sometime work with the ATI cards, bit if not, using the fglrx driver with Xgl will work. I would like to try to use AIGLX first though.

OK, for anyone elses future reference, the above link gives pretty detailed instructions to get compiz working with both AIGLX or XGL on either radeon or nvidia video chipsets. If you run through this tutorial trying to use AIGLX on a radeon chipset and you still have issues enabling dri to do 3D direct rendering try what I had to do to get it working.

Basically I simply had to add:

Option "BusType" "PCI"

to my device section in my xorg.conf file.

After I did this, logged out, and logged back in, I was able to enable desktop effects.

[Void Main]

I had a spare machine to use in place of my blown up main desktop. It's an old dual processor Dell Precision 610 workstation and has an old nVidia based card that is no longer supported by the latest drivers. I was able to get the legacy drivers installed but I don't believe it will be possible to get compiz working with nVidia legacy cards. Here's a thread where I asked for help with this:

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=79189

[Master of Reality]

Also, I should have copy/pasted a few of the compiz control keys in my last message with the review link. This message is more or less for my personal reference:

ctrl + alt + down = unfold
ctrl + alt + right/left = next/back cube face
ctrl + alt + + shift+ right/left = next/back cube face, with current window
ctrl + alt + Button1 (usually left click) = rotate cube
ctrl + alt + d = show desktop
alt + tab = switch window
pause = Scale / Previously exposé
super + mouse scroll = zoom
alt + scroll = transparency

what is this "super" key thing.