just Xgl

After discovering tha Ubuntu added xserver-xgl and compiz packages to their repositories it was just a question of time.. Today I installed both packages on my hp nx7000 (1.5Ghz Pentium-M, Radeon 9200 graphics card) and tried Xgl as embedded Xserver. It was as simple as:

$ sudo Xgl :2 &
$ DISPLAY=:2 gnome-window-decorator
$ DISPLAY=:2 compiz –replace gconf decoration wobbly fade minimize cube rotate zoom scale move resize place menu switcher
$ DISPLAY=:2 gnome-panel

Now try to move some windows around. Or notice the transparent effects on window decorations, press F11 for expose-like effects.. or simply switch workplaces.. woah.

The speed is overall quite impressive, it’s way better than exa-accelerated xrender on my computer. I found out on the net that currently the r200 radeon driver does not support all acceleration option which are used by Xgl and falls back to slow software rendering most of the time, but still it is highly useable.

I’ve seen that there’s a kde subfolder in compiz’s repository, maybe I can use this stuff as day-to-day xserver/window manager sooner than I thought..

UPDATE: It seems that there’s a compiz-kde package in ubuntu. It provides you with a kde-window-decorator which should be enough to switch my KDE desktop to Xgl.. but it just doesn’ work (TM). Hopefully this will be resolved soon..

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