Xubuntu Edgy, XGL and Beryl (NVIDIA)

I have an NVIDIA graphics card, so I opted out of using AIGLX for the mom. AIGLX apparently uses an extension called GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, which is only supported in the latest beta NVIDIA binaries.

So for the moment I am going to stick with XGL. My work PC has an ATI graphics card, so perhaps I could try AIGLX there?

Installing and setting up XGL on Xubuntu Edgy is a snap. This was all extracted from here and here

Assuming that you have 3D acceleration enabled, first you need to add the repository containing Beryl and the xserver-xgl package.
(Edited these as the repositories have changed - cheers chestnut!)

deb http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org/ edgy main

You can also obtain the GPG for the packages in the repository, so you don’t get any annoying ‘unauthenticated package warnings’. Plus you have the upside of being sure that they are valid. I don’t really know how it all works, but there you go. (This is one whole command BTW)

wget http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org/root@lupine.me.uk.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

So now go get those packages. The last week or so I’ve really come to see the light of using aptitude. Something for another day.

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install beryl xserver-xgl

To use XGL as the X windows server instead of Xorg there are options that you can take. You can set up XGL to be the default X server for your login manager, replacing Xorg. Or you can set up the XGL server to be run as a desktop session, allowing you to easily change from XGL to Xorg should any problems arise.

If you are using the GDM (GNOME Display Manager), default in Xubuntu, setting this up is achieved by creating a X session .desktop file, which can be selected at the login screen.

gksudo mousepad /usr/share/xsessions/xgl.desktop &

Then just add the following

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=XGL Session
Exec=/usr/bin/startxgl.sh
Icon=
Type=Application

Last thing that is required is to create the script that actually executes the XGL server when an XGL session is started.

gksudo mousepad /usr/bin/startxgl.sh

Then add the following script, which will start XGL, as well as the Beryl manager and then the XFCE session manager.

#!/bin/sh
Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -accel xv:fbo -accel glx:pbuffer &
sleep 4
export DISPLAY=:1
beryl-manager
exec xfce4-session

After saving the file, you should also change the permission bits to allow execution

sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/startxgl.sh

Now just logout and log back in, choosing the XGL session available at the login screen.

If things turn out ok, you should be greeted with the wavy Beryl splash screen.

Then you can get down to the fun of customising! Beryl has a very large number of effects and ways to configure them.

You may find Beryl exceedingly cool, yet in some cases a little overwhelming. Sometimes there is just too much going on.

I’d recommend saving several different profiles in the Beryl Settings Manager. I have one for day to day use; eye candy I can be happy to work with, and one for ‘wowing’ people, with lots of wobble, sticky and water effects.

I love the ’sidekick’ feature when closing windows. Unfortunately that effect doesn’t lend itself to screenshots, but it really looks cool.

This is just too cool … Beryl

I’ve been out of the Ubuntu/GNU/Linux community/forum scene for so long, I have no idea what’s been happening.

So Compiz has been forked into a project called Beryl. AIGLX, Redhat’s offering to accelerate graphics now works straight out of the box on Ubuntu Edgy.

I discovered this while playing with the Edgy LiveCD at work. I read several reviews, and watched more than a few YouTube videos.

The effects are just amazing.

I just had to give it a try.

In a lot of the reviews I read, I thought it was strange how the authors claimed that now GNU/Linux can match Windows (Vista I presume) and Max OSX for eye candy and looks.

Perhaps I just haven’t seen enough of what these other OS’es can do, because …
I’ve been using GNU/Linux for just over a year now, and in my opinion it has always been ahead of Windows/OSX in terms of eye candy. Even before Compiz/Beryl came about.

Just my opinion of course. Anyway …

Following the HOWTO from the Beryl project website, I was able to set things up in less than 15 minutes (I already had XGL).

I had to make some minor adjustments, for using XFCE, but minor being the operative word. Xubuntu uses the GNOME Display Manager (GDM) so setting up a custom XGL session was easy, and setting up Beryl to run over XFWM was not hard either.

I’ll try to go over it later, both for Dapper, and Edgy when I install it soon.

I don’t know where Compiz is at the moment, so I’ll wanna check that out too at some time, but for the moment I am just drooling at my the rain falling on my desktop, or my windows folding when they are shaded.

I also just love how many options there are to configure the behaviour.

This is just too cool!