PI 1.6.1, Message "X11 compositing manager"

[Christoph Puetz]

Hi all,

I updated PI to 1.6.1.
I use Suse Linux 11.3 64 bit with KDE 4.4.3.
After start I get the message:

** No running X11 compositing manager has been detected. Some core GUI functionality will be reduced or unavailable.

How to avoid / fix this ?

Thanks in advance,

Christoph

[Carlos Milovic]

Using a mainstream linux distro like fedora or ubuntu? Just kidding. Juan keeps his system up to date in a maniacal way and I found that Fedora introduces some changes before other distros, like the problem we had with libc a few months ago (I had to wait until the new ubuntu release to get that library updated, no manual option). So, the first thing to try would be to update your OS. If it doesn't work, wait for Juan to find the specific/right answer.

[Christoph Puetz]

Hi, thanks for your answer. Suse isn't a mainstream distro (just kidding!!!)  ?
First - on the same machine, this does not happen with PI 1.6.0.

The message seems to be harmless, because all PI processes and forms worked fine.

But I found the reason by experimenting:
On KDE 4.4.3 you have to enable desktop effects. After that, the message disappears. 
Forms now look a bit transparent, but this is no problem for me.

My graphics card and drivers come from ATI, which are known to be a little bit strange 

Hope this will be helpful for other users.

Cheers !
Christoph

[Carlos Milovic]

Yea, I use ATI here on both computers too. New ubuntu and fedora distros came with their own new drives for them, and work quite well. At least, now I have the effects and other advanced settings, which were disabled previously.

Funny thing...

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Christoph,

There's nothing wrong with that message. It just tells you that your X11 compositing extensions are either nonexistent (which is extremely rare with a modern X11 installation) or not running. Compositing extensions allow for advanced desktop graphic effects such as window transparency, shadows, animation effects, etc. These features are common on all modern desktops and should be enabled if you want to work on a contemporary environment. PixInsight for Linux will work perfectly without compositing, but you'll miss some very nice and cool (and useful) GUI features, such as transparencies and animations

As you've discovered, it is very easy to enable compositing with KDE. Note that unlike other desktop managers, KDE allows you to enable compositing even if you don't have OpenGL hardware acceleration (using Xrender software extensions), although software-based compositing is slow, but works perfectly.

Both you and Carlos are very fortunate to have an ATI graphics card. The open-source driver for ATI is very stable and efficient, much better than the proprietary drivers indeed.

We do have a serious problem with nVidia these days on Linux, and nVidia has not caused it at all, IMHO. For some absolutely wrong (IMO) reason, most Linux distributions are including the open-source Nouveau driver for nVidia, which is incompatible with the vendor's proprietary driver. That would be nice if Nouveau were stable, but it is not. It causes a lot of problems with some cards, as Quadro cards for example (X11 hangs miserably), and lacks a minimally stable 3D acceleration, so Nouveau = no OpenGL and X11 crashing periodically. This is a very serious problem, and what is really bad is the fact that removing Nouveau to install the proprietary (and absolutely stable) driver is a real nightmare, really a very difficult task.

Replacing a stable proprietary driver with an unstable open-source driver without a two-click alternative can be nice for those that don't depend on their machines for their day-to-day work, but for those users that actually work professionally on Linux it has been definitely a wrong decision. This is the kind of things that really damage the way Linux is seen in general, it's too bad.

[Christoph Puetz]

Thanks Juan !