Xgl on SUSE 10.1 for Gnome and KDE with NVidia Graphics Cards

Novell Cool Solutions: Feature
By Scott M. Morris

ATTENTION: I had to take this article down because it is known to break some systems. Although it was tested with SUSE Linux 10.1 RC3, other systems have not been tested. I want to make this article available for those who find it useful. However, if you know of a platform that is not compatible with this article (i.e., using this article breaks the system), please let me know. I will include here a list of platforms with known incompatibility issues.

Applies to:

• SUSE Linux 10.1
• Gnome and/or KDE
• NVidia Graphics Acceleration

Perhaps the most interesting eye-candy introduced to a mainstream Linux distribution is that of the Xgl 3D desktop environment. Naturally, when seen, it fosters the thought, "How can I do that on my own desktop?" I'll be honest with you, it's not quite as point-and-click as some of the other desktop niceties that we've discussed in the past, such as gdesklets or the gkrellm monitors. That in mind, if you're interested in getting Xgl installed and running on your desktop, you've found the right place. We'll take it a bit at a time and make sure we get you set up. First of all, I need to make sure that you are using this tutorial for a machine running either SUSE Linux 10.1 or SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, and that you have an NVidia video card. With that, let's get going.

Installing the NVidia Kernel Module

Rather than allowing yourself to become anxious because we're going to be messing with the kernel, just kind of take a deep breath and realize that every step I outline here will be very simple. Just read the given instruction and follow it the best that you can. We'll get it working: don't worry, be happy.

The next thing you need to do is install the make, gcc, and kernel-source packages are installed on your system.

Alrighty then. To do this, pop open YAST and type in your root password. Select SOFTWARE from the options on the left. Click SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT on the right side:

The famous YAST installation window appears. In the SEARCH box, type in make and click the SEARCH button. Your results appear at the right. Make sure the checkbox next to the make package is checked:

Back in the SEARCH box do a search for gcc. Make sure the checkbox next to the gcc package is checked:

Head back to the SEARCH box one more time and do a search for kernel-source. Check the box next to the kernel-source package:

Next, click the ACCEPT button in the lower-right corner of that window.

YAST will prompt you for the CDs it needs to install these packages, which you gladly provide.

When finished, YAST will save all the configurations and ask if you want to install or remove more packages. Click NO. With that, the window closes.

Now, we need to go get the NVidia drivers from the NVidia website. Head on over to http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp. To get the proper drivers for my card, I clicked on GRAPHICS DRIVER in the first column, GEFORCE AND TNT2 in the second column, and Linux IA32 in the 3rd column. You'll have to decide which options to select based on the card that you have. If you don't know, the options that I have selected seem to be what most people are using, so you can try doing what I did, here.

When you've made your selections, click GO. A new page appears. In the middle of the page, it says STEP 2, and has a link to download a driver. At the time of writing this tutorial, this driver is NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8756-pkg1.run. Download that file to your desktop or your home directory. Remember where you download it, you'll need to easily get to it later.

At this point, you may want to print this tutorial, because we need to log out of your X session (i.e., log out of Gnome, KDE, or whatever).

After you've logged out, you'll need to switch to one of the virtual terminals. You can easily do this by pressing CTRL + ALT + F1 all at the same time.

You'll then see a textual screen appear asking you to log in. You will just type in 'root' and press ENTER. Then, you'll type in your root password and press ENTER.

You should now be at command line:

linux-lab login: root
Password:
Have a lot of fun...
linux-lab:~ $ 

At this prompt, we'll shut down the whole X server with this short command:

linux-lab:~ $ init 3

After you hit ENTER, you'll see a bunch of output as the screen scrolls up.

After a few seconds, you will see a line very similar to the following, after which there will be no more output:

Master Resource Control: runlevel 3 has been

reached

When you see that line, just hit ENTER to get back your prompt:

Master Resource Control: runlevel 3 has been

reached

linux-lab:~ $ 

Next, we need to change directories to where we downloaded the NVidia drivers. Keep in mind that you are now root, so you cannot just do a simple "cd ~" and expect to get to your user's home directory. You have to specify the absolute location where the driver file is located:

linux-lab:~ # cd /home/scott
linux-lab:/home/scott #

Now, go ahead and install the driver. We'll do this with another simple command:

linux-lab:~ $  sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-8756-pkg1.run -q

A screen will appear that looks something like this:

Notice that DO NOT ACCEPT is highlighted. Press the left arrow to highlight ACCEPT, and then press ENTER.

You'll see another screen appear that looks like this:

When you see this, you don't even need to read it. Just press ENTER.

After a few moments, the NVidia driver program then begins installing the drivers for your system:

Another few moments, and it announces success:

Just hit the ENTER key and you're dumped back to the command line from whence you came.

Last thing we need to do here: use sax2 to set up the X config file so that X is aware of the changes we just made. This is a fairly painless procedure. Run this short command:

linux-lab:~ $  sax2 -r -m 0=nvidia

Note: That is the number zero not the letter "O".

After a few seconds, you'll see a graphical environment load. It has a window in it called AUTOMATIC GRAPHICS SYSTEM SETUP. Just click the OK button in this window.

Alrighty, we're all done installing the NVidia kernel module. No sweat so far.

We can now start X back up with this command:

linux-lab:~ $  init 5

Your login screen appears (or it may log you in automatically). Go ahead and log in if you're not already.

Install xgl and compiz

Now that we have the NVidia driver installed, we can proceed to install xgl and compiz, the programs that make all the coolness possible.

To do this, we'll open up YAST, providing our root password. When it comes up, click on SOFTWARE on the left, and SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT on the right:

Search for xgl. When it appears in the results on the right side, check the box next to it:

Then, we'll search for compiz. When it appears in the results on the right side, check the box next to it:

Now, to finalize the deal, click on ACCEPT in the lower-right corner of the window.

Just like before, YAST asks you for the proper CDs. When it's done, it asks if you want to install other packages. Click NO.

Edit Config Files

Now, we have to edit some configuration files.

First off, open up a terminal window.

Switch to superuser (type 'su' and press ENTER):

linux-lab:~ $  su
Password:
linux-lab:/home/scott $

Now, we're going to open /etc/X11/xorg.conf. I'm going to use gedit, but you could just as easily use kate, vim, emacs, or whatever text editor you want:

linux-lab:~ $  gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Look through the file for the "Device" section. It will look something like this:

Section "Device"
  BoardName    "GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X"
  BusID        "PCI:1@0:0:0"
  Driver       "nvidia"
  Identifier   "Device[0]"
  VendorName   "NVidia"
EndSection

We need to add one line to this section. That line will say: Option "NoFlip" "True", as in the following example:

Section "Device"
  BoardName    "GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X"
  BusID        "PCI:1@0:0:0"
  Driver       "nvidia"
  Identifier   "Device[0]"
  VendorName   "NVidia"
  Option       "NoFlip" "True"
EndSection

Note: Some people report that adding this line is not necessary. However, my sources at Novell recommend doing it, so I'm suggesting it here.

Don't close the file, yet. We need to add one more thing to it. Go down to the very bottom of the file and add this section:

Section "Extensions"
  Option       "Composite" "off"
EndSection

Now, you can save and close the file. Do not close the terminal window, however.

We have one more file to edit, /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager. Again, feel free to open this file with whatever text editor you wish. Open the file as root:

linux-lab:~ $  gedit /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager

Find the line that says DISPLAYMANAGER_XSERVER="Xorg". Instead of Xorg, we're going to tell it to use Xgl. So, change it to read thus:

DISPLAYMANAGER_XSERVER="Xgl"

Now, find the line that says DISPLAYMANAGER_XGL_OPTS="-accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:pbuffer". We're going to change the pbuffer there at the very end to say fbo. So, it will look like this:

DISPLAYMANAGER_XGL_OPTS="-accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:fbo"

Save and close the file, but not the terminal window. As superuser still, run SUSEconfig:

linux-lab:~ $  SUSEconfig

You'll see a bunch of output scrolling up the screen.

When that is finished, we have to remove a symbolic link and then create a new one. This is accomplished by running the following two commands:

linux-lab:~ $  rm /var/X11R6/bin/X
linux-lab:~ $  ln -s /usr/X11R6/bin/Xgl /var/X11R6/bin/X
linux-lab:~ $  

You can now close the terminal window.

We have done a lot of work to get this far, but none of it has been very difficult. We are now done installing Xgl and compiz and configuring the system. Now, we need to configure your desktop environment to run Xgl and compiz when it starts up. The following sections correspond to some of the major desktop environments and window managers. Skip straight to the one that interests you and proceed.

Configuring Gnome to Run Xgl

First, go ahead and log into Gnome.

Open up a terminal window and run the gnome-session-properties command:

linux-lab:~ $  gnome-session-properties

You'll see the SESSIONS window come up. Click on the STARTUP PROGRAMS tab:

Click on the ADD button. Type compiz --replace gconf into the box and click OK:

Again, click ADD. Type gnome-window-decorator into the box and click OK:

You should now see the two new additions in the SESSIONS window:

You can now close the SESSIONS window.

Once you're back in the terminal window, run the gconf-editor command:

linux-lab:~ $  gconf-editor

The CONFIGURATION EDITOR window appears:

In the left pane of this window, double-click to open each of the following items in this order: apps => compiz => general => allscreens => options. Then, in the right pane, double-click the ACTIVE_PLUGINS item to open it. We just want to make sure that the plugins are all set to load. You should see a list similar to this:

If you do not, you can add them all manually.

Now that we are sure all of the plugins are set to load, you should be able to log out of Gnome and then log back in. Once you do, you should be able to access the features of Xgl. To test this, open a window and move it around the screen. If it "wobbles", you are good to go.

When I have set this up, at this stage, I have to do a hard restart in X to get all of the settings to take properly. I have heard that this is not necessary. However, if you do not see Xgl working right here, you may need to do this, as well. To hard restart X, you just log out of Gnome. When you are logged out, press CTRL + ALT + BACKSPACE. X will shut down and restart. You can then log back in and everything should be full of coolness. Also, rebooting the computer may help things get freshly loaded and start up properly.

Congratulations. Your Gnome desktop environment should now be sporting all the great features of Xgl. To find out more about what Xgl can do, skip down to the XGL SHORTCUTS section, below.

Configuring KDE to run Xgl

First, make sure you are logged into KDE just like normal. We are going to create a quick config file so that KDE knows to load up compiz when X starts up. Open up your favorite editor. Copy and paste the following into a new text document:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=compiz --replace decoration wobbly fade minimize cube rotate zoom scale move resize place switcher & gnome-window-decorator &
GenericName[en_US]=
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-KDE-autostart-after=kdesktop

Now, we just need to save it. You will need to save it in your /home/user/.kde/Autostart folder, where 'user' is your username. Name the file compiz.desktop. Once this is done, log out of KDE and log back in. You should have functioning Xgl on your shiny new K Desktop Environment.

Xgl Shortcuts

Some of the features of Xgl are executed when you perform certain functions. Mostly, this is some kind of key combination on your keyboard in addition to some button press and/or movement of your mouse. Below, I have provided a table with the different Xgl options and how to execute each one.

Reader Comments

• Worked first time Athlon 64 3500+, ATI RS482 xpress 200 chipset 512 MB RAM with latest ATI proprietary 8.26.18 driver.
• Very clear instructions even for a newbie like me - works very well - thanx
• That is unreal! I had a few hiccups, but all went well after a reboot! The tutorial was very easy to read, and worked like a champ!
• Good article, except I have to start the system from runlevel 3 (boot parameter "3") with "startx" command - then it works fine... except "Xlib: extension "XFree86-DRI" missing on display ":0.0"." message when running "glxgears"... But otherwise everything looks nice and rather stable.
• As a novice to Linux I found this a most valuable reference document. Thanks!!
• It was working only once. Since the last reboot, I am unable to use XGL anymore. Suse 10.1 + Geforce 5500FX
• The instructions in this article were very useful. I am now running Xgl for Gnome and KDE with an Nvidia Graphics card. Verified system is a Gigabyte K8 Triton (GA-K8NF-9) mother board, AMD Athlon 64 3000+ CPU, Nvidia GeForce 6200 128 MB DDR, and 1 Gig Ram (Suse 10.1 release)
• Xgl FTW! thank you , for the help . followed instructions and got it working ; SLED 10 on a 1.73 pentium m with an Nvidia 6800 geforce go .
• Excelent !!! Installed on x86_64 (amd 3800+) 6800GT OC, all is ok, thanks a lot !!!
• This is one of the best Linux howtos I've seen in years.
• Nvidia has a SUSE repository. All you got to do is add Protocol: FTP Address: download.nvidia.com Directory: novell run uname -r first to see if your kernel is default/smp/or bigsmp. install the kernel module accordingly, with xorg.11 nvidia.
• great job , nice tutorial , thanks Scott M. Morris
• THE only DEFINITIVE solution to the XGL nightmare. Well Done and thanks for taking the time to write it. Working 100% (although the Desktop Effects dialogue doesnt agree :P) Athlon64 3000+ GeForce 7600GS (AGP) Thanks again.
• Very useful. Got XGL working fine on 10.2 on an HP Pavillion DV9000ea. Keep up the good work!
• you rock dude!!!!!!! This is the best explanation i've ever seen!!!!!!!
• Simply great! It magically works. Thanks! (Pentium 4 3.0 - GeForce xfx 5500) Aguante Argentina!
• Very good description! One more glX shortcut to notice: Windows Key + Ctrl makes a ripple like cursor ping. Even continously if you move the mouse while pressing these keys :) Unfortunately some windows don't display properly, for example FontForge os oddly semitransparent all the time, the game Frozen Bubble draws itself outside it's frame on the desktop middle, and also semitransparent., I guess it wanted to go fullscreen, but failed. Question: can I set up another user on my computer to use normal Xorg instead glX, so that I can use FontForge?
• Great walk-through. Would be better if it included a blurb or link to another page which describes what to do after a kernel update breaks nVidia drivers (like it always does).
• Excellent walkthrough, one of the first articles using XGL that had a working end result!
• If it worked it would be brilliant, but unfortunately, having followed everything to the letter, it broke my KDE... ingo@german-connection.org
• Following the instructions to the letter worked like a charm. Great article. Suse install + 1 days and I am practically gobsmacked by the ease with which I have gotten the window control I have missed in Windows for so long.
• 20Jan07 Best info Ive pulled off the net. Worked first time. Thanks.
• Should be updated to OpenSuse v10.2....
• This guide is excellent. The only reason I downloaded SUSE was because I've heard that you could configure Xgl easily :). Worked the first time. Saludos al otro argentino que pispiaba por ahí :p
• Awesome! Worked great. Also installed the rpm package 51201-opensuse-xgl-settings-0.9-1.noarch.rpm51201-opensuse-xgl-settings-0.9-1.noarch.rpm to get a config gui using the opensuse-xgl-settings command.
• FInally I have Xgl working! But I have done it on Suse 10.0; just downloaded some rpm reported on http://en.opensuse.org/Using_Xgl_on_SUSE_Linux
• Really great job But still have some "bad effect" on SuSe 10.1 RC2 and Kde Specially when i scroll down - up in firefox i have some "remanence" with the text (i mean some time i cant read the text because there is an pixel on it) Anyway thanks some much ! PS : I'm running an nvidia geforce 6600 GT with the latest driver from nvidia website PS² : Sorry for my poor english :)
• Excellent step by step guide. With the final 10.1 release will it be possible to use YaST to install the nvidia driver for using xgl and thus avoid the need (presumably?) to re-install nvidia after any kernel update?
• Looks like "compiz -replace" should actually be "compiz --replace gconf" when modifying gnome-session-properties.
• Waiting for the 10.1 final and will do it.
• Great step-by-step, but mine still does not work on a nvidia GeForce2 MX 400. I do not have the option of COMPIZ in APPS in gconf-editor. Would love to know how and were to fix this little issue.
• Although I didn't have the compiz option under apps, this did let me simply enter a longer line in the gnome-session-properties to get everything working. Thanks!
• very good
• On my LCD screen the text is now much better readable (like Windows cleartype). The effects are amazing. However glxgears is much slower, from 7000 fps to 1500 fps!. Thanks for the article.
• It is working fine with a Nvidia Quadro NVS 285 card, but only in KDE. Thanks!
• incredible tips! My compliments!
• Excellent write up. I have GeForce2 MX 400 and had no window manager, and no eye candy. This was easily fixed by going to Control Center and then double clicking on Desktop Effects Settings. This gave me a warning about 3D Desktop being misconfigured. There is a button you can click to fix it ; it logs you out, and when you log in again everything is fixed, including the eye candy.
• worked like a charm!!
• All how-to guides should be like this. After walking through these instructions, I was able to get Xgl working with KDE the first time through. One note is that I did find the power managment was causing Xgl to crash pretty often. With power management turned off, it works like a champ on my AMD 2600/1GB RAM/NVidia GF4 MX.
• Most helpful and detailed Howto ever. Worked first go.
• Afaik the best site about "how to use graka nvidia" for a beginner and SuSE ! Thx a lot, just follow the instructions and voila ... ! ASUS P4, ICH4, CPU Intel 2400 Mhz, 768MB, NVIDIA FX 5200 128MB, EIZO FlexScan F77S, OpenSuSE 10.1
• Works well on 10.1RC3 x86_64 (Athlon 3500+), nvidia driver 87.56, GeForce 6800GT, although, as with my Windows setup, I would like to disable a few of the window transitions and other fancy menu effects.
• It just worked like a charm ;)
• Does anyone know how to enable this on an ATI card ?. I've got a HP nx6125 64bit machine, and cant get it to work.
• Just done it with my new shinny 10.1, and it is just amasing. THANK
• This is a bit outdated, as now 10.1 has the "Desktop Effects Settings" control panel to simplify it for most users.
• Wonderful! (and distracting to productivity!) :-)
• Only wish there was a snapshot showing a dekstop in all of its glory runing with Xgl
• very very good! Worked first time for me! Very well written and great for people who do not know linux all that well! GREAT JOB!!
• Breaks GUI for me. Use at your own risk. Not to mention, these changes should really take place in runlevel 3, not runlevel 5.
• WOW!! I have this working on a PCI Gforce FX 5500 and an AGP Gforce FX 5500 using xinerama across 3 17" CRT monitors at 3840x1024. All the Xgl features are working perfectly, I am so happy I could cry. The set up in this document worked for me, all I did diferently was set up xinerama before installing xgl and compiz. Thank you very much!
• Just great!
• This is what cool tools and an open community is about. Thanks.
• Verified on Dell D800 w/NVidia 5200 Go and on noname with NVidia 6600. Both SUSE 10.1 (final)
• Cool this just worked excellent ! It works for ATI X850 (AGP) with 8.24.8-x86_6 (made rpm and installed). Cant belive I got some 3D to work on ATI under Linux... may be they will get there after all ;)
• On nVidia after some time of use NO window titlebars, no effects. SuSE 10.1 + GeForce FX 5900XT.
• Veeeery nice! All my ^$%dows using friends will envy me :). Thank you very much, SuSE&Novell
• Easy to follow instructions. Worked first time. With KDE make sure you enable hidden files so that you can find the .kde/Autostart folder.
• thank u
• Works great! Even on my Integrated Intel Graphics for my Laptop! Bet Vista's 3D wont work at all ;)
• I bought an AGP4x Nvidia XFX GeForce MX 4000 video card. Installed it. Just followed the instructions literally and I got it working without pain. Thanks for this wonderful article. - Nandhu. My Specs: Intel P III 1000MHz CPU. 20GB HDD, XFX GeForce Nvidia AGP4x MX 4000 128M GPU, Intel 815 chipset board.
• Extremely cool!
• Nah, tried it on my PC and failed at the fact that there is no option of "compiz" under the "apps" section in gconf-editor. Waste of time this
• This guide broke my test installation. (now it doesn't work in runlevel 5). Troubleshooting pages are useless; DO NOT try this on your main SUSE install, set up a test partition before you take the plunge. Chances are these instructions will render your system useless.
• I am totally amazed! I cannot believe what I seeing! So I did a second hard drive. The guide is so close to perfect that most anyone can do it. Thank you Mr. Morris and thank you SuSE.
• There are just a few small notes that I will add to Scott Morris' article.
  1. To alter the session properties in Gnome, use the Sessions setting in Control Center rather than the gnome-settings-properties command in a terminal.
  2. When you save the compiz.destop file to your /home/( user – your user name) /.kde/Autostart folder, make sure that you save it with a text editor that does not add any character encoding. I suggest pico run from a terminal. I tried it the first time with Kword and even though I saved it as a text file, there was some ANSI encoding and it blew my KDE setup away by violating some security setting.
  3. If you have a nVidia 7800GS card , in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file, add the line: Option “NvAGP” “1” either in the Device section of the Screen section. It tells the system to process AGP via the 7800GS card rather than the AGP slot.
  4. To make sure that I had the latest Xgl software and settings, I picked up the most current compiz, xgl and xgl-hardware-list. See: http://software.opensuse.org/download/Compiz-Quinn/SUSE_Linux_10.1/ for comiz and xgl. You will need to get the latest xgl-hardware-list also. These files will change over time in terms of features and location. So if you have trouble finding the latest version just use the one that comes with Suse.
• perfect worked for me
• I've tried about 4 guides to get 3d graphics working in Suse10.1 but no luck until I found this one - 3d and Xgl is now working perfectly and looks so sweet I could almost cry! Thanks very much to the author, you're a great help to us Suse n00bs :)
• Works Perfect!!! Developed internally or NOT this is a GREAT addition to the desktop! Thanks for doing this Novell!
• Very good
• Excellently explained, thank you
• Finally some clear instructions on installing the NVIDIA driver - that's all I was looking for. Wish everyone would write them like this. Thank you!
• Excellent!!! Linux never to be so fun
• Thanks Scott Made it as for a newbie
• i have a compal hel80, gf go7600, core duo 512 ram, it works at first exceptionally very accurate docs thank you
• Instructions that are provided on this page are extremely clear and concise! I'm impressed! I spent the better part of a day pouring over and through various web sights on this subject and there wasn't much offered in the way this one presents Xgl setup in such a "straight-forward" way! The only question I have now (albeit small) is how do you get the Xgl on SuSe to automatically turn itself on upon login? I've checked my Xgl applet and it says all is on. But, I find myself having to perform "compiz" as a run command in order for it to "unlock" the windows from the upper left of my desktop screen? Anyone know why this is and how to overcome it?
  cipherlox@REMOVE THIS gmail.com
• worked great for me with suse 10.2

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