compiz does not show window boards or the cube

[Scott Henson]

Binary package hint: compiz

After rebooting with the latest 0.3.6 compiz packages on Feisty, none of my windows have the standard boarders with the close button and what not. I can't maximize or minimize windows. I also can't resize gnome-terminal. Resizing Epiphany causes a cpu usage spike. I'll attach a screen shot after I submitted the bug report.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug. Do you use desktop-effects? Do you have "decoration" listed to /apps/compiz/general/allscreens/options/active_plugins, you can read the list with gconf-editor

[Scott Henson (scotth)]

Nope, not there. I haven't touched that setting personally. I've only turned desktop effects on in the gnome control center.

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort (pochu)]

Same problem here.

I have desktop-effects, and when I run it on a terminal, and active the Desktop effects, I lose the window borders.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Is the upper panel blocking you from seeing the boarders? Can you move the window and see the boarders?

[Scott Henson (scotth)]

Yes I'm sure. gnome-terminal exhibits the same problem and its not maximized.

[gandalfn (gandalfn)]

Try to launch gtk-window-decorator like this:
gtk-window-decorator --replace --sync

it's seem a sync problem between gtk-window-decorator and compiz which block or crash gtk-window-decorator:
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/compiz/2006-December/001075.html

I have same issue but when i launch gtk-window-decorator with --sync option to debug it, the problem disappears.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

That upload fixes the problem:

 desktop-effects (0.7.0-0ubuntu1) feisty; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version:
     - works with compiz 0.3.6 (Ubuntu: #80778)
   * debian/control:
     - Build-Depends on libxcomposite-dev
   * debian/patches/01_config_change_for_ubuntu.patch:
     - move changes for Ubuntu to a patch

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort (pochu)]

Doesn't work for me :(

I've tried it just after the update, should I reboot try it? (i will try next time I reboot to see if that's the problem).

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort (pochu)]

Confirmed: doesn't work (at least for me). :-(

[Gianfranco Liporace (dr.kabuto)]

Adding "decoration" to the plugins list in gconf worked for me.

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort (pochu)]

>Adding "decoration" to the plugins list in gconf worked for me.

I've done that and now I have borders :) However, I can't move the windows. Any idea? Or should I report a new bug?

[Gianfranco Liporace (dr.kabuto)]

I think that you have to check what plugins are present in your configuration.
Launch gconf-editor and look for the key: /apps/compiz/general/allscreens/options/active_plugins

and look if the following plugins are listed:

gconf, decoration, wobbly, fade, minimize, cube, rotate, zoom, move, resize, scale, switcher, screenshot

Surely you miss the 'move' plugin.

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort (pochu)]

Don't know why, but I just had gconf and wobbly (and decoration added by myself).

Updating the gconf, I'll say if that fixes it when I test it ;)

Thanks
Pochu

[Emilio Pozuelo Monfort (pochu)]

Fixed. If removed the compiz folder from ~/.gconf/apps/ and now I can see the boards.

However, I can't see the cube, though I have it activated in the desktop-effects window, and it's in the gconf. And if I open a terminal, I can see the terminal, but, though I can write, I can see neither what I'm writing, nor the Edit/View/Help... menu.
And in the gconf, if I open a key, for example the active-plugins in compiz, I can't move up/down, select a valor (cube...). I think this and the terminal problem are connected... but don't know how to solve them.

Any ideas?

Regards
Pochu

[Sebastian Breier (tomcat42)]

I got the problem as well, but only sometimes, no idea when...

[Ralf Nieuwenhuijsen (ralf-nieuwenhuijsen)]

Its still valid with a clean install of Feisty and sudo apt-get install desktop-effects

Turn it on: no window borders

Lets have a look in gconf-editor
  - decorator plugin is found in allscreens/options/active_plugins

Running gtk-window-decorator --replace --sync does not help either.

It just doesn't work.

[Sebastian Breier (tomcat42)]

I installed herd-4 yesterday; I only had the problem when activating desktop-effects for the first time (pressing the button). After logging in again, it usually works quite well, even with window borders.

[Ralf Nieuwenhuijsen (ralf-nieuwenhuijsen)]

Logging-out and back-in doesn't help.
Restarting doesn't help.

Since it doesn't occur with everyone (like Sebastian) I suspect it has to do with the order and speed of programs initiating.

Perhaps Compiz has to be fully loaded before gtk-window-decorator is loaded. Perhaps it justs crashes in the proccess..

Just to compare. I installed beryl now, and that does work. So it's not a xserver setting or whatever that is throwing it off.

[Ralf Nieuwenhuijsen (ralf-nieuwenhuijsen)]

With the latest updates it started to work. I'm not sure which update it was (Xorg 7.2 or something else), but now I can get it back to work.

I had to add 'decoration' back to the plugin list in gconf, it seemed the failed attempts in the past had removed it.

I also had to kill (restart) my gnome-panel before my menu started to work again.
And the cube required my to change some gconf settings as well before it worked. I hadn't touched any of them yet. But my gconf-settings, since they are user-based do not get updated by apt/synaptic/update-manager right?

So it might be that the cube thingie would work with a fresh install. It didn't with a herd4 install though.

[Sebastian Breier (tomcat42)]

I'll reinstall with herd-5 today or tomorrow (depending on when they manage to release it) and we'll see. :-)

[michelem (michele-marcucci)]

Here is the same, gconf says the active plugin are fine but none of them works and no windows decoration.
I upgraded today but I still have the problem, tell me if you need same info

[Alan O'Leary (a1o1)]

Just a comment to say same problem here .. no border decoration .. gconf looks fine (has decoration)

[Alan O'Leary (a1o1)]

Hello,
      Got this to work after having the problem !!!

Change default depth (was 16) to 24 in the xorg.conf file... full reboot .. hey presto ... working fine now

Can anyone else see if this fixes their problem too ??

-A

[RoboPhred (robophred)]

Have the same issue. Terminal and the window that pops up with the volume hotkeys are completely blank, and the window boarders/titles are not showing up (I assume that is the 'decoration' being referred to). I have a Herd4 install that recently went through some major upgraded (to Herd5 I assume). Using TwinView with the nvidia binary drivers.

[Jeremy LaCroix (jlacroix82-deactivatedaccount)]

Same problem here, tried all of the tips posted here so far.

[Sebastian Breier (tomcat42)]

Doesn't work with herd-5. Haven't tried workarounds, it should work out of the box anyway.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

This sounds like a common problem with the xorg.conf setup for the nvidia driver. Are you guys using the nvidia driver?

[Suzan (suzan72)]

I am using the nvidia-glx driver from the feisty repos.

Compiz seems to working very, very bad.

decorator-plugin was in the list, but window borders work only partially. Sometimes they are all gone, sometimes I just see a part of them (left and right).

Sometimes I can't see windows. They are in the panel, but I am not able to open it.

The cube doesn't work with the default settings. You have to change two gconf-settings:

/apps/compiz/general/screen0/options/hsize: 4
/apps/compiz/general/screen0/options/number_of_desktops: 1

I believe in the default settings, it's vice versa.

Compiz seems to work very sluggish at the moment, at least for nvidia-users. If compiz works that bad for a lot of users, I think it's better not to include it. I only hear from Intel-users, that compiz works flawlessly.

BTW: Beryl from the beryl feisty-repos works absolutely great and flawlessly.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

For the decorators try putting this in your Screen section in xorg.conf:
    Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "true"

For the missing windows this happens when you run out of texture memory (driver bug) or when you start compiz with a minimized window (compiz bug).

The cube thing is a separate bug, already filed.

As for the speed, compiz screams on my GeForce Go 7400.

With all that in mind, I believe this is a configuration error and not a bug.

[Suzan (suzan72)]

I have this line
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "true"
already in my xorg.conf. But it doesn't help.

For the texture memory... how can it be, that this happens _never_ with Beryl, only with Feisty's Compiz??? With Beryl I have much more Plugins, a big skydome-image and so on. I've never had a missing window. It only happens with Compiz.

[Ralf Nieuwenhuijsen (ralf-nieuwenhuijsen)]

Beryl is lotsa faster here too. Less quircks too.

But the thing is, Compiz tries to keep maintainable code.
Beryl is a fork of Compiz with all kinds of make-it-work-now type of hacks.

So, in the long run, Compiz will be the better one. Beryl works better now and will for some time. I think the Ubuntu dev's like Compiz better because of its gnome-integration. Beryl pretty much makes lots of the normal prefence system's obsolete, such as key-bindings.

I do hope the projects merge one day. Perhaps into two seperate branches: one that is the long term development branch, and one containing most of the 'hacks' that work around the real bugs that will take longer to fix, or need to be fixed in the drivers instead of in the window manager. (Since a lot of the bugs _are_ either driver bugs or badly written software that doesn't follow standard protocols). Secondly, it will take quite some time before XGL will play nice with all the opengl apps and games out there. Unfortunately, some vendors are refusing to release AIGLX compatible drivers (such as Ati).

[Sylvain Pasche (sylvain-pasche)]

I had the same issue with a "nVidia Corporation NV43 [GeForce 6600] (rev a2)" card (from lspci).

Adding Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "true" in xorg.conf solved the problem for me.

[soom (u0115000)]

I have had this issue once. Following all the instructions above just don't work. Then, I solve this simply by add "compiz --replace" into startup applications.

Here's my stupid case. I forgot to start compiz as session start.

Distro: Xubuntu feisty.
1. I manually start compiz by "compiz --replace"
2. Found that my Terminal appears as nothing but white screen
3. Restart xserver( Ctrl-Alt-Backspace)
4. Missing window border
5. Panic for several days searching solutions
6. Manually start compiz again by "compiz --replace"
7. everything come back.

I should start compiz thru "Desktop-effects"

[ubukool (kpagpa)]

I've just upgraded to Feisty beta and I'm having the same problem. I've checked the plugin list in gconf and decorator is there, but I haven't got any windows decoration when I switch on the GL desktop. I've tried both "gtk-window-decorator --replace --sync" which worked in Edgy and "compiz --replace" but it's not working.

Onre thing that did work was unstalling all of the compiz packages and then reinstalling them, but it's a pain to have to keep doing that every time you boot up!

Any ideas how to fix it? Is this still a known problem in Feisty beta for other users?

[AnRkey (anrkey)]

For some reason some settings where removed from my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file by the upgrade process. Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "true" was missing and some other bits.

This thread will help you fix it again.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2302675

Please post back if this fixes it.

Later,

An R key

[ubukool (kpagpa)]

Hi An R key,

Thanks for your reply. I tried that, but it didn't work, unfortunately.

Any other suggestions? I'm wondering whether Gandalfn can fix it for the formal release of Feisty.

Thanks for your help.

[AnRkey (anrkey)]

Nope, don't have anything more that I can add.

Maybe try reinstalling Beryl.

I don't think that this problem is going to be sorted for the new release as it's marked as a low priority which means that the dev's time will be needed elsewhere. This is still a test release of compiz so we should be patient.

If you find an answer then post it here.

An R key

[vimpagliazzo (vito333)]

Regarding the no window decoration problem, for me adding
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
to the Monitor section of my xorg.conf file solved the problem. I am using Kubuntu Feisty Fawn (7.04) with a nvidia card. Hope that helps.

[Ralf Nieuwenhuijsen (ralf-nieuwenhuijsen)]

Those who install NVidia's driver using the restricted drivers manager don't need to touch their xorg.conf
Those who install it by hand, or tweak their own xorg.conf will need to to add that option to their xorg.conf

In other words: what card are you using, how did you install its driver, and did you manually alter xorg.conf?

It should "just work"

[Greg Grossmeier (greg.grossmeier)]

On Hardy Alpha 1 with compiz 1:0.6.99+git20071205-0ubuntu4 installed I still experience this problem. With normal effects everything is (mostly) fine. With Extra effects the borders/titlebar are gone.

It is a new install, no additional drivers. Intel X3100 chipset. This chipset was blacklisted in Gutsy due to playing videos while using compiz would crash.