Posted by: Guru Panguji | October 29, 2006

How To: Enable Compiz effects on Fedora Core 6 with an nVidia Card

I installed Fedora Core 6 in my system on Saturday – ok yeah I know I need to get a better life. But, hey I was just mesmerized by reading the new features in Core 6 – named Zod that I had to try. Well, Zod is NO god!! After 3 reinstallations and reading through millions of articles on What the hell is the problem with Fedora Core 6, I finally managed to get everything up and working!!

Some basic instructions to the newbie planning to install Fedora Core 6.

Solving the i686 architecture with the i586 kernel and kernel-devel problem:
If you are planning to install FC6 on an i686 architecture – make note of this!! Anaconda screws up BIG TIME, and installs the i586 kernel and kernel-devel on ur i686 machine. Normally this is not a problem, however, CPU Frequency controller daemon will not work and it’ll be a pain in various parts of the anatomy if your driver / program requires a kernel-module to be installed along with it. The worst part – your architecture is still maintained as i686!! Just that anaconda installs the i586 kernel!!

Solution:

  1. Install yumex$ su -
    $ yum -y install yumex
  2. Once the installation is over, get into yumex [Applications->System Tools->Yum Extender]
  3. Go to the Install View once it’s done updating everything
  4. Install kernel-xen and kernel-devel-xen packages for the i686 architecture
  5. Once installation is done, reboot into the xen kernel [which itself is not really worth having owing to tons of problems].
  6. Go to yumex again and remove kernel and kernel-devel packages currently for the i586 architecture
  7. Once it is done, Go to the Install View and add kernel and kernel-devel packages, but now for the i686 architecture
  8. Once it is done, reboot into the non-xen kernel and remove kernel-xen and kernel-devel-xen packages
  9. Boom you are done and you can get to installing the packages for nvidia/ati drivers, ntfs support etc. :-)

I read there is a simpler way – aka the more adventurous way of getting ur kernel to the i686 architecture. It’s provided here!! Me, not being so adventurous, especially on breaking Linux 3 times after installation, I stuck to the safer bet :-D !

Solving the Desktop Effects cannot be enabled problem for nVidia cards
Another crazy thing I noticed – after reading so much about Compiz being installed by default with Fedora Core 6 and GNome 2.16 is that – try as I may – it never got enabled!! Aaarrgghhh!! Well, so I went to the Compiz requirements site – and checked that for it to work with nVidia cards, it required driver 1.0-9625 or higher..

Known Working

ATI: Radeon 7000 through X850 (r100 through r400 generations)
Intel: i830 through i945
nVidia: all cards supported by the driver 1.0-9625 or higher

[source: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/RenderingProject/aiglx]

And the latest stable driver in the Livna repo for Fedora Core 6 is 1.0-8776. Umm – what DO you do?

Solution:

  1. Enable livna-testing repo.
  2. Go to the update view in Yum Extender
  3. Select kmod-nvidia and the xorg-x11-drv packages which are 1.0-9626. Update your drivers people!! and Boom!! After a reboot – thou shall be able to enable Desktop Effects. Enjoy rotating the cube and all sortsa window wobbly effects.

Note: The Window Wobbly effects could get to you after some time, if you move around your Windows a lot :-D !!

Note to self: Need to post more links and screenshots of the same. Shall get to that in a day or two!

Posted by gurupanguji!

Posted in Hacks, Linux, Open Source, Popular, fedora

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Responses

  1. itz a fork of compiz – http://www.beryl-project.org/
    They have cooler effects ..

    By: Johnny on October 30, 2006
    at 12:50 am

  2. Man, just installed Beryl on to the system as well and it’s SWEEETUH!!!

    By: Guru Panguji on October 30, 2006
    at 1:57 am

  3. oh thats awesome. I’ll be sure to give it a try when i get some time this week. Thanks for the insight!

    By: Justin on October 30, 2006
    at 2:34 pm

  4. “Kal-El son of Jor-El kneel before Zod!”

    By: Bob Stikigreen on October 31, 2006
    at 5:21 am

  5. Here’s a simpler way.

    Assuming you’ve first added the livna repo, you try to “yum install kmod-nvidia”. This will flag a kernel package for download, but it’s install will fail.

    After it fails run “rpm -Uvh –force kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.i686.rpm” which will force install the i686 kernel package from yum’s cache on top of the i586.

    Once it finishes, reboot, now you’ll be using the i686 kernel. Keep in mind, this method is a little “less safe” since you don’t have a backup kernel if the i686 version doesn’t work for you, although that’s fairly unlikely.

    Once that’s done, try your yum install again and it should work fine.

    By: FlyingAvatar on October 31, 2006
    at 6:24 am

  6. @ Flying Avatar: Yup!! You got that right mate :-) !That is a simpler way!! Was just about to post that method. However, the risk is this!!

    There is this other way – shortest sweetest way so to speak
    WARNING!!! Backup ur GRUB.CONF [/boot/grub/grub.conf] before even trying this script!! Read the section completely before trying it! and Don’t blame me if it doesn’t work! Worked after 3 mistrials for me


    $ su -
    $ rpm -e kernel kernel-devel
    $ rpm -ivh [kernel-i686] [kernel-devel-i686]

    However, the risk with this particular situation is that if the i686 kernel doesnt install properly – considering the fact that you are running the i586 kernel as you do these commands, there is a problem!!

    The grub.conf entry gets removed!!

    So, BACKUP your grub.conf, before you try playing around with the abovementioned shell commands ;-) !

    By: Guru Panguji on October 31, 2006
    at 10:25 am

  7. For SUSE :
    http://en.opensuse.org/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories#Beryl_Packages

    By: Johnny on November 1, 2006
    at 11:56 am

  8. there are also dkms enabled nvidia driver packages from the freshrpms repo: http://zod.freshrpms.net/rpm.html?id=671. these don’t require being kept in sync with your kernel. i also had to add the AddARGBGLXVisuals option to my xorg.conf (to get GL rendering in 32-bit color depth), but after that they work great for me.

    By: visnu on November 2, 2006
    at 2:18 am

  9. Why continuously reboot your system? Use your FC6 install CD/DVD.

    At the boot: prompt, type ‘linux rescue’

    Then type ‘chroot /mnt/sysimage’

    And do all your kernel changes in one shot. When you reboot, you’ll be in the correct kernel.

    By: Brian on November 2, 2006
    at 11:19 pm

  10. @ Brian: Hey that’s a wonderful idea – can ya elaborate on that as in provide specific steps as a comment? It’ll be really useful for the rest of us n00bs :-D !!

    By: Guru Panguji on November 3, 2006
    at 2:24 am

  11. With all due respect to hardcore Linux users(I’m just an enthusiast) this post in itself shows you why most people chose to avoid taking up Linux. Do you recognize the amount of trouble one has to go to get something to work.
    I think this is exactly why most of us normal people(unlike you wise ones) decided to take the easier route out :D

    By: wildgrey on November 3, 2006
    at 7:40 am

  12. These “steps” are for a very complex and new desktop that is still in development.

    The rest of the 600MB Linux OS works beautifully.

    That’s okay though, you go play in the windows sandbox if you like being limited.

    I’d rather have to write shell scripts and deal with “dos” boxes than use an OS that acts like a drunken republican on prom night.

    I haven’t got compiz to work yet on my Acer but you don’t hear me crying about it. I’ve been using Core since 2 and linux since 93. Of course, I started on an Amiga… but that’s another story.

    /bows

    By: Democritus on November 3, 2006
    at 10:52 am

  13. you might want to check up on the progress here http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=129510

    By: scribez on November 3, 2006
    at 11:17 am

  14. @ wildgrey – ah as diplomatic as usual grey!! :-) !

    @ all: Guys, all of us use Operating Systems. All of us are unique. So why should there be a common OS for all of us. Choices differ, just as people!! Same should be the case for OS dontcha think. There are a million things that Linux does better than Windows. There are also a million things that Windows does better than Linux [and just ONE of them is crashing out].

    However, yday Linux locked up for me an well – the OS is completely DEAD as of now – has to do with sumin I did, but then hey – it did crash and there’s no way it’s coming back on its own :-) !!

    So, everybody chill!! Democritus, you didn’t have to jump on the statement that Wildgrey made, which is perfectly reasonable, don’t you think?

    By: Guru Panguji on November 3, 2006
    at 1:06 pm

  15. @grey : dude .. if u want things just to work .. then go and buy a boxed version . .. it has support and it ‘works’ …

    Itz just like a car .. u cud make them street racers or just use them … it depends on you .. how u want it ..

    By: Johnny on November 3, 2006
    at 5:54 pm

  16. :-)

    By: Johnny on November 3, 2006
    at 5:57 pm

  17. @ Johnny: A Boxed version of what??

    And then again – the question here, at least what I thought was ther e was – do we wanna make a street racer – and well blow and engine and then again try the process and refine until we get the street racer – or buy a Ferrari and start racing!!

    It totally depends on the person – a racer would prolly buy the ferrari, whereas the mechanic would wanna build the racer from scratch :-) !

    Anyhoo – most of us here are part racers and part mechanics – no single person is a true master of either!! So, let’s just accept the advantages and disadvantages of both rite? ;-) !

    By: Guru Panguji on November 3, 2006
    at 6:00 pm

  18. @Guru : Boxed version of Linux.

    hmm … yeah … these arguments are not productive …. let the best win …

    By: Johnny on November 3, 2006
    at 6:15 pm

  19. Amen!! :-) !

    By: Guru Panguji on November 3, 2006
    at 6:20 pm

  20. Guru:

    Too true. I went back and read it later and it did seem a trifle harsh. I have Windows Vista Ultimate on the other hard drive and although it looks cool… it’s just a rip off of OSX, and not nearly as good. Most OSX featuers are missing – they just hijacked the graphic design.

    I’ve used it for a few weeks and I’m already prepared to kill it and go windowsless as soon as I pick up Linspire so that I can run a few winblows-based games on the computer that aren’t yet in Linux release.

    Seeing as Microsoft announced a deal with Novel Friday to allow Linux into the inner sanctum, it’s obvious that M$ has thrown in the towel.

    Yay! Wiser heads prevailed.

    By: Democritus on November 5, 2006
    at 1:53 am

  21. Well, I wonder if Linux is also not to be let off here! Ya blamed it on Microsoft – the whole throwing in the towel thing. Come on – how can Novell just sell into Microsoft?

    And another thing – Microsoft has just taken the initiative to collaborate – it wasn’t any of the Linux guys!! So, well I am sure Billy Boy has seen some ulterior motive. He’s smart folks – don’t never underestimate that guy :-) !

    By: Guru Panguji on November 5, 2006
    at 2:53 am

  22. @guru: Your absolutely right! Billy is smart alright! But i heard things are not being run by him anymore although hes only scheduled to be phased out by next year!

    @Democritus : I haven’t had the opportunity to try out Vista. I have to say that all windows versions are useless is you want to do something really hardcore. But, for the some of us who don’t want to be ‘power users’, trying to find out what the kernel does, Windows is the easy way out.

    @Johnny: Well I’m one of them Ferrari dudes! :)

    By: wildgrey on November 5, 2006
    at 11:58 pm

  23. @ wildgrey: Dude, isn’t that _the_ smartest move by that man, when Microsoft is sorta slightly going the wrong way plans are to phase him out. So, as long as he was there M$ was the single sole monopoly. Now that he’s going, tie up with Novell, more open source with .net what not :-D !! I am telling ya, I really am sometimes amazed by that guy :) !

    By: Guru Panguji on November 6, 2006
    at 12:48 pm

  24. Well although i must admit that I am indeed impressed by the smarts of that man. However I can’t help but wonder if his ‘phasing out’ is because of what you mentioned or because of some dissent among the ranks.

    By: wildgrey on November 7, 2006
    at 7:26 am

  25. Well, I am sure there must be dissent amongst the ranks, however the thing is that I am sure, Mr Billy would have had no problems in snubbing that off. But he must have let it play just coz well it was time to get outta there ;-) !

    By: Guru Panguji on November 7, 2006
    at 1:31 pm

  26. I also just installed Beryl on to the system as well and it rocks…

    By: Jay on November 7, 2006
    at 5:01 pm

  27. @ All: I have had a change of mind. Well, some things SUCK in Beryl – for the fact that I have to actually run a sessions addition just coz I want Beryl to start up when my session starts.

    Drawbacks –
    - Videos become choppy coz Beryl is using way too much system resources
    - Sometimes the window decorator vanishes and some of my windows just don’t have any title bars and other decorator touched items – have to reload the decorator to get it back

    Compiz on the other hand – so much simpler and easier – yes with lesser effects, but just enough to make ur comp look cool and not be heavy on the system – videos play properly :-D !!

    By: Guru Panguji on November 8, 2006
    at 1:38 am

  28. Hey, i had compiz with aiglx installed, and with nvidia drivers from livna-testing. But today i updated the driver with yum. and now no compiz :( tryied beryl and my X is restarting :( (
    do you know something about this issue?

    By: manux on November 9, 2006
    at 3:07 am

  29. @ manux: Yo dude, I just updated the drivers. Am about to restart the system shall check on the problem once I log back in :-) !

    By: Guru Panguji on November 9, 2006
    at 3:37 am

  30. @ manux: Dude, it works just fine and dandy for me. The only update package that didn’t get installed was doxygen, as it can’t get it from any of the mirrors that is included by default. I am trying to get some more mirrors addded to the repos default mirrors. :-D !! I think it’s country specific. I mite make a post of it as well.

    Anyhoo, how did u update the driver – with livna-testing enabled or NOT? :-/

    And what is the exact situation/ workflow you are following!! Details dude, details!! Nobody can debug with just the description of what’s going on. ;-) !!

    By: Guru Panguji on November 9, 2006
    at 3:49 am

  31. I have a GeForce4 Ti 4200. And after installing Fedora Core 6 i installed the beta drivers from livna-testing.
    Today a yum update installed the final drivers 9629, and compiz don’t work anymore, glxinfo give me an segmentation fault…i want to downgrade, but now i can’t figure yet how to do that.

    By: manux on November 9, 2006
    at 4:12 am

  32. Well downgrading is simple enough if you have the rpm and all necessary dependencies of the same. You can remove kmod-nvidia and the equivalent xorg11-drv-nvidia packages through yum

    yum remove kmod-nvidia
    Repeat for xorg11-drv-nvidia

    Now, just install the previous drivers. Search for the exact rpms you had before. That should take care of the downgrade!

    However, it’s working fine for me. Do you see the nvidia logo before the login screen?

    I gotta head to some sleep dude!! Post the details as much as you can gather – will check it out tomorrow :) !

    By: Guru Panguji on November 9, 2006
    at 4:21 am

  33. Thanks, i finally downgraded to 9626 and compiz it’s working. Reading throught nvidia forum i found out that there are some problems with my GPU and the last drivers. Until the fix, i’ll use these nvidia drivers.
    now i tried beryl, and window-borders disaper when i activate beryl..

    By: manux on November 9, 2006
    at 4:41 am

  34. [...] How to enable compiz effects(XGL) on FC6 with nvidia card 參考此網頁: http://scribez.wordpress.com/2006/10/29/how-to-enable-compiz-effects-on-fedora-core-6-with-an-nvidia-card/ [...]

    By: Hao’s Blog » Blog Archive » How to enable compiz effects(XGL) on FC6 with nvidia card on November 9, 2006
    at 11:05 am

  35. Reselect and reload the Beryl Window Decorator – Emerald by running beryl-manager! That should solve that problem :-) !

    By: Guru Panguji on November 9, 2006
    at 11:36 am

  36. Though not using FC6, here is a post from net fella on howto enable beryl in 2-3 steps only:

    http://liquidat.wordpress.com/2006/11/24/beryl-part-of-fedora-extras-now/

    By: E@zyVG on November 24, 2006
    at 11:51 am

  37. @ E@zyVG: Thanks for the info man! =)! Really useful!

    By: Guru Panguji on November 24, 2006
    at 12:53 pm

  38. [...] How To: Enable Compiz effects on Fedora Core 6 with an nVidia Card « Scribez Posted in bookmarks | Trackback | del.icio.us [...]

    By: How To: Enable Compiz effects on Fedora Core 6 with an nVidia Card « Scribez : Popular Bookmarks : eConsultant on December 8, 2006
    at 9:07 pm

  39. [...] 6 October 30th, 2006 Some basic instructions to the newbie planning to install Fedora Core 6. read more | digg story Filed under: Tech [...]

    By: Karib Corner-Blog Reports » Blog Archive » How To: Enable Compiz effects on Fedora Core 6 on July 19, 2007
    at 5:24 am

  40. Guru:

    i try to run $ yum -y install yumex command, but i have a problem. i have a message like this:
    Loading “installonlyn” plugin
    Setting up Install Process
    Setting up repositories
    Could not retrieve mirrorlist http://mirrors.fedoraproject.org/mirrorlist?repo=core-6&arch=i386 error was
    [Errno 4] IOError:
    Error: Cannot find a valid baseurl for repo: core

    what i have to do??
    thanx before…

    By: grizilly on October 29, 2007
    at 7:20 pm

  41. [...] read more | digg story [...]

    By: Munich Unix » How To: Enable Compiz effects on Fedora Core 6 on November 5, 2007
    at 7:03 pm


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