Desktop Effects Could Not Be Enabled

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DasFox
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Joined: 04/18/2010

When I right click the desktop; Change Desktop Background - Visual Effects and click Normal I get a popup; Desktop Effects Could Not Be Enabled...

Well this is a first for me in a Linux distro, not being able to run Compiz...

I have a ATI HD3200 chip on a laptop and I thought with the X radeon driver it's going to allow running compiz effects?

THANKS

robsanchezjr (not verified)
robsanchezjr

Had the same problem with my NVidia 6150SE, but found out that my vid card doesn't support 3D acceleration in Trisquel (http://ur1.ca/44sjl) . Suggest you get your card's complete info by using hardinfo(http://ur1.ca/44sjt) and search it in h-node.com.

DasFox
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Joined: 04/18/2010

Well it works on my card in Ubuntu so not sure it's because of the ATI drivers or the Radeon one in X worked, I'll check out Ubuntu later to see which it was...

One thing, since I can't seem to use Compiz, when I minimize a window, the window is blank and all you can see is a small black border and I remember seeing this effect once before and I was able to get rid of it, but can't remember...

Anyone know how I can get rid of this effect, so you just see the whole window minimize?

THANKS

tonicucoz
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Joined: 11/09/2009

> Well it works on my card in Ubuntu so
> not sure it's because of the ATI drivers or the Radeon one
> in X worked, I'll check out Ubuntu later to see which it
> was...
>
>

3d acceleration is not currently supported for ATI video cards using the linux-libre kernel. It is a problem of some blob that have been removed from the linux kernel (ubuntu uses the standard non-free linux kernel)

3d acceleration only works with most of Intel video cards and with some Nvidia cards using Trisquel 4.5 and the Nouveau driver together with the libgl1-mesa-dri-experimental package.

I hope in the future the 3d acceleration will be available also for ATI cards and linux-libre

Michał Masłowski

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I am a translator!

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Joined: 05/15/2010

> 3d acceleration is not currently supported for ATI video cards using
> the linux-libre kernel. It is a problem of some blob that have been
> removed from the linux kernel (ubuntu uses the standard non-free linux
> kernel)

More specifically, the blobs are several binary files of microcode used
by several parts of the GPU. Many open source supports don't consider
source availability for such things to be important, since it runs on
other processors than the CPU running the operating system (although the
GPU has access to the same memory and probably can make similar security
problems).

My card needed some such microcode included with Linux (sourceless on
free MIT license) and some not included with Linux (also sourceless, but
on a license disallowing modification or reverse engineering). KMS
didn't work without the microcode, replacing the card with a Nvidia one
and using Linux-libre with Nouveau fixed this problem.

> I hope in the future the 3d acceleration will be available also for
> ATI cards and linux-libre

ATI won't fix it, since they don't want people to use their code to
learn how the device works and to break its Digital Restrictions
Management (not used with GNU/Linux). There is also no such legal
motivation for reverse engineering this microcode as was for Nvidia
cards, so I don't expect it to be near future.

DasFox
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Joined: 04/18/2010

I was hoping with the Radeon KMS it might work...

AndrewT

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Joined: 12/28/2009

I also have an ATI graphics card, and, like you, have never had 3D acceleration. It seems ATI was too greedy to release a fully free driver without DRM-laden binary blobs. :(

DasFox
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Joined: 04/18/2010

Sorry I'm lost here, what does DRM have to do with a video driver?

Michał Masłowski was also talking about security problems, what sort of problems are these?

THANKS

AndrewT

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Joined: 12/28/2009

The binary blob that was removed (and incidentally, breaks the whole driver) has a DRM technology related to HDMI video. I don't know much more than that.

Magic Banana

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Joined: 07/24/2010

I fear some confusion between DRM ( https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Direct_Rendering_Manager ) and DRM ( https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Digital_rights_management )! :-)

As Michał Masłowski stated earlier the problem lies in the microcode (named firmware too) which is not Free software (hence not in linux-libre). It might indeed contain bugs that could be exploited and compromise the security of your system. It might include a malware made in AMD too...

Mampir
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Joined: 12/16/2009

Actually, there is no confusion – the issue is related to Digital
Restriction Management. See:

https://trisquel.info/en/forum/3d-and-free-software-trisquel

DasFox
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Joined: 04/18/2010

ahh Mampir I thought we were talking about Direct Rendering Manager...

Thanks...

slackadmin
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Joined: 04/27/2011

Hi DasFox,

I suggest you to launch gnome-appearance-properties from shell, then on the Appearance Preference window try to enable Visual Effects and see the error showed in the shell ...