Gutsy compiz won't enable on intel 965 laptop after 2007-09-18 updates

From the current changelog:

compiz (1:0.5.2+git20070918-0ubuntu1) gutsy; urgency=low

<snip>
  * debian/compiz.wrapper:
    - do not start compiz on i965 as video does not work
      there under compiz (LP: #111257)

 -- Michael Vogt <email address hidden> Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:25:18 +0100

It appears bug 111257 is related to this. It may be the case that video playback fails on your chipset and so compiz was disabled.

The gstreamer-settings "no Xv" workaround has been fixing that issue. I hope compiz wasn't deliberately held back because of that. Thanks for the info though.

I've got the same problem - I filed bug #140836 (which I guess is a duplicate) about this before coming across yours (don't know why it didn't show up when I searched). I hope that they fix this bug - even if it causes problems with video compiz should not be disabled completely as this is a major regression - perhaps a better option if it is causing problems would be to turn it off by default but allow those of us who are not using video playback at the moment to enable it.

This blacklisting will certainly effect an untold number of systems. Not to mention all of the new Dell's with 965 chipsets. Ouch, could be a deal breaker for many people.

I wonder if this bug should be elevated to release-critical - it certainly blocks compositing-by-default, which bug #116808 establishes as a criterion.

Even if compiz could not be enabled by default on i965, I should get an option to still turn it on.
It has been working fine on my system for a couple of weeks.

Yes, please. Turn Compiz off by default for 965 chipsets, but give users who know what they're doing the option to use it.

With compiz from git sources this video problem has been resolved. About two weeks ago I was using Gentoo with the xeffects overlay and was able to have both compiz-fusion and video working at the same time. I don't know exactly what they patched to make this work, but it may be a place to look to fix the issue.

If the bug fix is in git already, we may just have to wait a few days for the fix to come - the compiz packages seem to updated from git about once a week.

redwoolf
Are you using an Intel 965 system? I'm curious because I believe there is a fix out for other Intel chipsets but not the 965 specifically.

Yes, it's a dell 1420n. I had both video and compiz fusion working two
weeks ago with the xeffects overlay from compiz-fusion.

This is not blocking composite-by-default, making this happen allows composite-by-default since it won't crash when you use bad cards and/or drivers now that we blacklist them. In a couple days you should be able to call 'SKIP_CHECKS=1 compiz --replace &' to override the check but we are not responsible for any problems you might have when you do this because there is a reason we blacklisted it.

Workaround is posted in the duplicate:
>I have open file /usr/bin/compiz with a text editor and comment the following line:
>T="$T 8086:2982 8086:2992 8086:29a2 8086:2a02 8086:29a12" # intel 965 (xv video problem)
Does not fix video problems but if you don't need that this enables you to turn on compiz.

So is this a problem in the intel video drivers then, of which the compiz behavior is just a symptom?

Compiz will not allow itself to start on the 965 because of a bug in the intel drivers that causes compiz+video to not work at all.

Please put the following line:
SKIP_CHECKS=yes
in the file
~/.config/compiz/compiz-manager
to overwrite this check.

Yes but it is maybe a compiz problem because it doesn't work with i810 driver too ...

On a thinkpad R61 (with a Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100) that compiz worked out of the box on (Gutsy tribe 5) the 9/19/07 update caused this error (blacklisting).

Running
 SKIP_CHECKS=1 compiz --replace &

or the above permanent edit got compiz running again.

I do see odd glitches in some video programs (celestia comes to mind) when compiz is running that I don't see otherwise, but it's not a showstopper for me. Is there a bug to post on concerning the video problems that I could bugtest to help to clear up the underlying problem and get the blacklisting removed?

Thanks!

I think the problem could be that compiz doesn't free up resources for
the video card to process a video stream.

Fabien Lusseau wrote:
> Yes but it is maybe a compiz problem because it doesn't work with i810
> driver too ...
>
>

No. 965 simply doesn't support Xv with composite unless you're using the EXA acceleration implementation, which we're not. Since there's no acceptable workaround, compiz will be disabled by default on 965 hardware.

Need a fix for this.

There's no fix possible in the gutsy time-scale.

Where does the fix need to be made? Intel drivers or Compiz? Or is it a lost cause?

It's work that still needs to be done in the driver for the i965.

Supporting Xv under composite with XAA is effectively impossible due to the architecture of the Intel driver - they will only support it under EXA. The impression I get is that there are no plans to change this. EXA needs some work to handle performance regressions, which is mostly (I believe) generic X server code rather than anything intel specific.

I've discovered another workaround, but it too requires a tradeoff. If you install the xserver-xgl package, video playback seems to work fine, and it also enables the water effects compiz plugin. However, I hear xgl is slower on intel than aixgl, and it will crash if you attempt to run any other direct rendering 3d program. So I guess we have to choose - 3d graphics or regular video.

until this update compiz worked very fine for me, now in Gnome-Compiz-Preference there is no Grafic card reconised, even unter Device-Manager it sees my 945GM. Help!

In my Dell Inspiron 640m (intel 945) compiz work fine ... but on my other computer (intel G965) compiz doesn't work ... strange ...

Xv with compiz work also on my dell inspiron 640m without any problems !!!!

945 has a hardware video overlay. 965 doesn't.

Yes, I have find it in blacklisted hardware ... but the problem is that I use the zoom plugin of compiz for video projected openoffice presentations ...

2d acceleration doesn't work !, it is not a problem for me, but if compiz doesn't work it can be.

I think it will be a good thing if in Apparence->Desktop effect A warning advertise you that you will have problems with videos, but you can activate it too ...

An other fix can be Xv is disabled for all video programs when compiz is activated on each hardware by editing automatically xorg.conf if possible, or only totem or explication on the warning in apparence-Desktop effect to know the manipulations.

I think it is too violent to do it ...

And of course disabling compiz at default for theses hardware.

But it is a good idea to blacklist hardware that doesn't work correctly.

My gfx-card is "Mobile Intel(R) 965 Express Chipset Family: GMA X3100". I had compiz running with some very minor glitches (reflection plugin didnt work for instance). The cube worked though, as did all the window switcher animations and so on. After this latest synaptic upgrade I cannot use desktop effects at all (same error as other people; check "extra" and get msg saying "cannot enabled").

Also, the workaround doesn't really work for me. I tried both commenting out the intel 965 ID directly in /usr/bin/compiz and then I tried the config file. Both yield the same result (a sigsegv/core dump; see below). This did not happen before for me, as I said... cube was running very smooth.

mnemo@gutsyT5:~/src/gdb/gdb$ compiz --replace &
[4] 28375
mnemo@gutsyT5:~/src/gdb/gdb$ Checking for Xgl: not present.
Blacklisted PCIID '8086:2a02' found
SKIP_CHECKS is yes, so continuing despite problems.
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: not present.
Trying again with indirect rendering:
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: present.
Checking for non power of two support: present.
Checking for Composite extension: present.
Comparing resolution (1280x800) to maximum 3D texture size (2048): Passed.
Checking for nVidia: not present.
Checking for FBConfig: present.
Checking for Xgl: not present.
Starting gtk-window-decorator
/usr/bin/compiz.real (blur) - Warn: No stencil buffer. Region based blur disabled
/usr/bin/compiz.real (video) - Warn: No 8 bit GLX pixmap format, disabling YV12 image format
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

Changing state for Dell Project. Apparently it will have to be either video or compiz, can't have both for this particular Intel video card.

How about disabling compiz, instead of a major piece of my hardware? No Compiz? I'll live, but now I can't play any 3d games. That is what a GPU is for, right?

I'd really like to play X-moto and other 3D games on my Ubuntu based Dell 1420n. That I shouldn't be able to use Compiz OR 3D games, just because video flickers a little bit while compiz is on, seems rediculous. Is it like Compiz trumps my GPU so my GPU is being punished? I'll take my GPU over Compiz, thanks.

It's not just video or compiz... it's video or compiz/all-my-3D-gaming. Gutsy will be incompatible with my Dell 1420n laptop if this goes down.

3-D effects seem to work fine. It's the 3-D desktop stuff (i.e. rotating cube desktop effect) that won't run.

Xmoto isn't even moving for me.. I'm guessing it's cause the driver is blacklisted.

oh, I see it's only blacklisted in the compiz.sh .. but xmoto is still sucking. It seems my gutsy has reverted to vesa since the upgrade.

Just so there is no confusion; the current driver can spin the desktop cube flawlessly. The glitchy stuff is for instance the reflection plugin (and of course the video problems).

I'm trying to run openGL apps on my inspiron 1420N and it seems that hardware acceleration doesn't work. Here are a few tests:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
guignome@dell:~/test-intel$ more /etc/X11/xorg.conf | grep intel
        Driver "intel"

guignome@dell:~/test-intel$ more /etc/X11/xorg.conf | grep Load
        Load "bitmap"
        Load "ddc"
        Load "dri"
        Load "extmod"
        Load "freetype"
        Load "glx"
        Load "int10"
        Load "vbe"
guignome@dell:~/test-intel$ glxgears
5651 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1130.039 FPS
5909 frames in 5.0 seconds = 1181.773 FPS
guignome@dell:~/test-intel$ glxinfo | grep -i direct
direct rendering: Yes
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I also tried to run ogre3d graphic engine. All the ogre demos display a black screen when dri is enabled. If I disable dri, they display correctly but I have about 2FPS.
glxgears returns the same FPS wether or not dri is enabled.

Tested on feisty fawn that was preinstalled by dell, and on the livecd of Gutsy beta1.

Hope that helps :-)

That sounds like a problem more with the underlying drivers which may be either a new bug or related to Bug #147908 .

The bug task for the somerville project has been removed by an automated script. This bug has been cloned on that project and is available here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1305761