Compiz causes OpenGL fullscreen games to eventually go windowed.

[Marcos]

I was playing the Postal 2 Demo, ET:Quake War demo and other different games, but compiz eventually would make those games go windowed and i had to go into a terminal and kill the games in order to restore mouse control. This situation does NOT happen when compiz is not running.

I am running Ubuntu 7.10 (up to date aswel)

[Tim Kersten (timkersten)]

I've had the same issue. In order to play games I must always switch to metacity first.

[Iulian Udrea (iulian)]

Thank you for your bug report. Can you please add your ~/.xsession-errors ; /var/log/Xorg.0.log and the output of lspci -vvnn as separate attachments to your bug report?

Thanks!

[openaddict (support-openaddict)]

I'm having the same problem. Any game running in full screen does it. Ubuntu 7.10.

.xsession-errors:
(process:2772): Gtk-WARNING **: This process is currently running setuid or setgid.
This is not a supported use of GTK+. You must create a helper
program instead. For further details, see:

    http://www.gtk.org/setuid.html

Refusing to initialize GTK+.

(process:2776): Gtk-WARNING **: This process is currently running setuid or setgid.
This is not a supported use of GTK+. You must create a helper
program instead. For further details, see:

    http://www.gtk.org/setuid.html

Refusing to initialize GTK+.
/etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
SESSION_MANAGER=local/dualbeast:/tmp/.ICE-unix/2769
Checking for Xgl: not present.
Detected PCI ID for VGA: 02:00.0 0300: 10de:0140 (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: Initializing gnome-mount extension
Initializing nautilus-open-terminal extension
present.
Checking for non power of two support: present.
Checking for Composite extension: present.
Comparing resolution (1280x1024) to maximum 3D texture size (4096): Passed.
Checking for nVidia: present.
Checking for FBConfig: present.
Checking for Xgl: not present.
Starting gtk-window-decorator

** (nautilus:2828): WARNING **: Can not calculate _NET_NUMBER_OF_DESKTOPS

** (nautilus:2828): WARNING **: Can not calculate _NET_NUMBER_OF_DESKTOPS

** (nautilus:2828): WARNING **: Can not get _NET_WORKAREA

** (nautilus:2828): WARNING **: Can not determine workarea, guessing at layout

lspci -vvnn:

00:00.0 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation C51 Host Bridge [10de:02f5] (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology Unknown device [1458:5000]
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0
        Capabilities: <access denied>

00:00.1 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 0 [10de:02fa] (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-M55plus-S3G [1458:5000]
        Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR+ <PERR-

00:00.2 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 1 [10de:02fe] (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-M55plus-S3G [1458:5000]
        Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-

00:00.3 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 5 [10de:02f8] (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-M55plus-S3G [1458:5000]
        Control: I/O- Mem- BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz+ UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-

00:00.4 RAM memory [0500]: nVidia Corporation C51 Memory Controller 4 [10de:02f9] (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Giga-byte Technology GA-M55plus-S3G [1458...

[Iulian Udrea (iulian)]

Thanks for the information. To be confirmed by someone else having this issue.

[ynamestnikov (ynamestnikov)]

Hello!

I have the same problem, when running TES3: Morrowind, Bloodmon, Warhammer 40k: Dark Crusade in full screen mode. I think it affects other games too. Is there any solution?

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the development release - Hardy Heron. It would help us greatly if you could test with it so we can work on getting it fixed in the next release of Ubuntu. You can find out more about the development release at http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/ . Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

[Tim Kersten (timkersten)]

This problem still exists on hardy alpha 6. Although, when games go
out of full screen, the mouse pointer still works so it's possible to
continue without having to reboot the machine.

On Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 8:27 PM, Pedro Villavicencio <email address hidden> wrote:
> Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make
> Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be
> reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the
> development release - Hardy Heron. It would help us greatly if you could
> test with it so we can work on getting it fixed in the next release of
> Ubuntu. You can find out more about the development release at
> http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/ . Thanks again and we appreciate your
> help.
>
> ** Changed in: compiz (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
>
>
> --
> Compiz causes OpenGL fullscreen games to eventually go windowed.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/157759
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

I think the new snapshot of compiz we do will fix this but marked as Confirmed for now.

[Tim Kersten (timkersten)]

Any iidea on if/when this snapshot will out? i.e. we're in beta freeze now, so I'm guessing this won't be fixed for beta, but it would be cool to get some testing done so that there's a chance of fixing it before release :-)

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

Right, this will have to wait until after beta.

[Ala (ala-luszczak)]

I have the same problem while playing Frets on Fire and Wolfstein: Enemy Territory on Ubuntu 7.10 and GeForce 8600GT.

[Ralf Nieuwenhuijsen (ralf-nieuwenhuijsen)]

Also hit by this problem.

Are there any other workarounds besides jumping back to metacity?

[Nicolas Wu (nicolas.wu)]

Seems like disabling the screensaver works, see bug #216154.

[Corsaire (stranche)]

I made an interesting experiment :
Ubuntu 8.04 with NVidia proprietary drivers, Compiz on the "Normal" effects
My screen is a 20' LCD 16:10 with 1680*1050 native resolution

When I run Quake4 in fullscreen at native resolution, It switches back in a like-windowed mode after some flickering, Compiz doesn't let the app take the screen for itself
running windowed in an inferior resolution (1400*900) the game runs smooth with no problem
running fullscreen in an inferior resolution (1400*900) the game runs smooth with no problem

it seems that if OpenGL app is set to fullscreen and have the exact same resolution as the desktop, Compiz doesn't act nicely.
it wants to put some windows decorations around the app and drag it in the viewable part of the display even if it is made to not appear since it's the window content that is to be completely viewable, not the window itself.

In a matter of facts, this doesn't happen when fullscreening a video playing in MPlayer.

hope this can help.

[Lari Kukkonen (bluekkis)]

I got the same thing with ET: Quake Wars on Xubuntu 8.04. It seems to be related on other windows stealing focus from fullscreen app. In my case this was fixed by disabling popup notifications from sonata.

[Nicolas Wu (nicolas.wu)]

I can confirm what Corsaire is saying: running fullscreen GL applications (in my case at 1280*1024 resolution) makes compiz take control, decorate the window and shrink it, whereas running at a lower resolution (1024*768) than the desktop allows the app to run full screen without issue.

[Nicolas Wu (nicolas.wu)]

Disabling "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows" in "General Options --> Genaral" sorts this out for me.

[Thinboy00 (thinboy00)]

VLC has major problems... not sure if this is related but its video doesn't work at all (sound is fine), and keyboard shortcuts are disabled (yes, I tried Alt+SysRq+R), forcing a reboot.

[Dara Adib (daradib)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug will be marked as a duplicate of bug 216322. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.

[Adam Reeve (adreeve)]

I don't think this is a duplicate. I'm having this issue myself and have to disable compiz to play games. Bug 216322 says that games switch immediately to windowed mode and that the resolution of the game has to be equal to the resolution of the desktop. I'm having this issue with games at a lower resolution than the desktop and they don't become windowed until after playing for about 10 minutes.

[fricot (fricot)]

 Nicolas Wu wrote on 2008-04-29: (permalink)

Disabling "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows" in "General Options --> Genaral" sorts this out for me.

True. It worked for me on Darwinia, Uplink, Counter Strike: Source (Wine), Tremulous, after restarting the window manager via compiz icon.

Thanks Nicolas

[Dara Adib (daradib)]

Reverting duplicate status in response to Adam Reeve's comment. Sorry about that.

[Id2ndR (id2ndr)]

Disabling "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows" in "General Options --> Genaral" sorts this out for me.
=> Works for me too.

Nevertheless I didn't get the trouble when running Wine apps under compiz (Half-Life 2 DeathMatch and others) : it happens only with native games (World of Padman etc).

[Crosshair (will-e-carlson)]

I have the same problem. After much tinkering, I found out that running a inferior resolution than that of the desktop, I can run full screen until the screen-saver tries to come on, then the game goes windowed. Running at full resolution, the game goes to windowed mode immediately. I think these two bugs might be related to the previously mentioned bug #216322. I am running intrepid 8.10 i386 fully updated 2.6.27-7 kernel.

[Adam Reeve (adreeve)]

I don't think this is a Compiz issue, but rather a gnome-screensaver issue. I just experienced this when playing Urban Terror using Awesome window manager with gnome-screensaver.

[Mr. Blonde (mr.blonde)]

Same here and it definately isn't related to gnome-screensaver. The screensaver issue is another well-known problem, just deactivate it.
Disabling "Unredirect Fullscreen Windows" makes the game run really slow for me, so I just start it with a script to deactivate compiz while the game is running. You can deactivate/reactivate the screensaver the same way.

metacity --replace &
~/GAME_FOLDER/xxx.i386
compiz --replace
exit 0

[Artūras Šlajus (x11-arturaz)]

Same here, affetced playing SDL games (vacuum magic) and opengl ones (spring)

[danieltdp (danieltdp)]

I get this problem running dosbox gams, frets on fire and urban terror. Plain ubuntu 8.10, fresh install no add-on besides nvidia driver.

[Brian Shaw (perturbedpenguin)]

This is very odd but my 'unredirect fullscreen windows' was unmarked so I checked it and having it checked fixed all my Compiz/gaming woes!! Thanks! lol