First a bit on hardware:
- Dell Inspiron 5100
- Radeon 7500 Mobility with 32 MB Video RAM
- Using Xorg "radeon" driver with 3d dri enabled
Download the following RPMs from Suse factory i586:
Download the following RPM from Suse factory noarch:
Install the RPMs. I had a dependency issue when I tried this:
- error: Failed dependencies: libpng12.so.0(PNG12_0) is needed by compiz-cvs_060621-2.i586
- I used --nodeps and it installed with no apparent side ill effects. There is a libpng12.so.0 in /usr/lib provided from libpng-1.2.8-17 so I am not sure why I got the error.
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Activate the desktop effects from the Gnome Control centre:
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It didn't work for me first time because it said 3D acceleration enabled although it was. I saw this:
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When I checked the status with glxinfo I got this so I know it's working:
- name of display: :0.0
- display: :0 screen: 0
- direct rendering: Yes
After a bit of research I found the XGL control applet sometimes does not identify that 3d acceleration is enabled and that if you hold shift and double click on “3D Acceleration: Disabled” then you can force it to on:
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You can now click on “Enable Desktop Effects” and you now have XGL!
The only problems I have are:
- I occasionally get lines or corrupted pixels on screen. A quick spin of the cube (CTRL+ALT+ARROW) sorts these out quickly.
- Windows have pink lines around them after restoring from hibernation. I have to restart the X server to sort these out.
- The display does not handle full screen dvd video very well. Either use a hardware player (!) or turn of desktop effects to be able to play video at any decent speed.