[SGVLUG] Xgl/3Ddesktop with dual monitors

[Claude Felizardo]

On 10/12/06, Matthew Gallizzi <matthew.gallizzi at gmail.com> wrote:
> For whatever it's worth, I've tried to get XGL working. I actually borked my
> system and needed to reinstall. I've come to the conclusion that I don't
> care for it because it does nothing for me. I believe in productivity. I use
> fluxbox because it's quick, simple, and I've trained myself to learn all
> shortcuts and create new shortcuts for xterm, firefox, vmware... etc. XGL is
> (I think) eye candy and helps me little in terms of productivity. I'd prefer
> quickness with fluxbox over XGL (my boxes aren't all that hardware wise).
>
> KISS.
>
> My two cents for XGL :)
>
> P.S. By KISS, I'm not calling you all stupid. *chuckle* - just my philosophy
> :)
>
>
> On 10/12/06, Michael Proctor-Smith <mproctor13 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 10/12/06, Claude Felizardo < cafelizardo at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Has anyone gotten the Xgl/3D desktop to work with xinerama to support
> > > dual monitors?  I've been having a blast playing with the eye-candy
> > > that came with mandriva 2007.  The rotating cube for managing virtual
> > > desktops instead of alt+tab'ing is pretty darn cool as are the other
> > > effects but I can't get it to work when I enable xinerama and/or
> > > multi-monitors.
> > >
> > As I can't remeber if Xgl/3D is the one that requires open drivers.
> > But the answer is that as far as I know only the binary NVIDIA drivers
> > provide 3d accelerated xinerama support. That is probably your problem
> > if you don't that NVIDIA hardware, and drivers. The problem if you
> > want to know is that xinerama works by rendering the entire display on
> > every screen and then only showing the proper part on the proper
> > screen.
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Matthew Gallizzi


Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear.  If I comment out the following entries
in my /etc/X11/xorg.conf files then I can get the 3d stuff working:

Section "ServerLayout"
...
#   Screen "screen2" RightOf "screen1"
#  Option "Xinerama"

EndSection

I have 3d working on my Toshiba laptop using the "Intel 85x" drivers,
on the kids computer at home which I think is an ATI Radeon something
and on my two headed desktop here at work which is also a Radeon using
the fglrx drivers (contains both open and closed source parts).

As soon as I uncomment any of the above two lines, then when I restart
X, the 3d stuff is disabled.  When I try to run the drak3d tool that
comes with mandriva, it says my system does not support 3d desktop
effects and the option to run compiz is disabled.  If I comment out
both lines and restart, then i can reconfig until i break something.

As for how useful, i'd say on a laptop with limited screen space,
being able to manage virtual desktops is much easier.  On a two headed
desktop, it's strictly eye candy since there's usually enough room to
have your editors, debugger, applications, web docs, etc. on the
screen at once.  Just need to the learn the shortcuts...

claude