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ccowart
n00b
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 48
Location: Berkeley, CA
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 Posted: Sat May 07, 2005 7:37 am Post subject: Fluxbox transparency [solved] |
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I recently changed my use flags, upgraded gcc, and recompiled a lot of packages.
Now transparency is broken in fluxbox. Regardless of the alpha setting I use, the title bars and menus are completely solid. Has anyone had this problem? Suggestions on what I need to change?
| Code: | [22:57 chris@howie ~]$ emerge --info
Portage 2.0.51.19 (default-linux/x86/2005.0, gcc-3.4.3, glibc-2.3.5-r0, 2.6.11.7 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.11.7 i686 Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1200MHz
Gentoo Base System version 1.6.11
Python: dev-lang/python-2.3.5 [2.3.5 (#1, May 1 2005, 15:56:48)]
dev-lang/python: 2.3.5
sys-apps/sandbox: [Not Present]
sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.59-r6
sys-devel/automake: 1.9.5, 1.5, 1.8.5-r3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.6.3, 1.4_p6
sys-devel/binutils: 2.15.92.0.2-r7
sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.16
virtual/os-headers: 2.6.8.1-r2
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CFLAGS="-march=pentium-m -O2 -pipe"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/2/share/config /usr/kde/3.4/env /usr/kde/3.4/share/config /usr/kde/3.4/shutdown /usr/kde/3/share/config /usr/lib/X11/xkb /usr/share/config /var/qmail/control"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/env.d"
CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium-m -O2 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoaddcvs autoconfig ccache distlocks sandbox sfperms strict"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo"
LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="x86 X a52 aac acpi aim alsa apm audiofile avi berkdb bitmap-fonts bonobo cdparanoia cdr crypt cups curl divx4linux dvd emboss encode fam ffmpeg flac foomaticdb fortran gdbm gif gpm gtk2 gtkhtml guile ieee1394 imagemagick imlib java javascript joystick jpeg libg++ libwww mad maildir mikmod mmx motif mp3 mpeg msn ncurses nls offensive ogg oggvorbis opengl oscar oss pam pcmcia pcre pdflib perl png pnp python qt quicktime readline sdl sndfile speex spell sse ssl svg svga sysfs sysvipc tcpd tiff truetype truetype-fonts trusted type1-fonts usb vcd vorbis wifi win32codecs xml xml2 xmms xv xvid yahoo zlib userland_GNU kernel_linux elibc_glibc"
Unset: ASFLAGS, CBUILD, CTARGET, LC_ALL, LDFLAGS, LINGUAS |
Ideas?
Last edited by ccowart on Sun May 08, 2005 11:12 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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wnelson
Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 03 Oct 2004
Posts: 83
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| Posted: Sat May 07, 2005 8:14 am Post subject: |
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Are you setting the alpha settings via the configuration menu? If not see if you have not accidently set your permissions to the init file to root.
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ccowart
n00b
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 48
Location: Berkeley, CA
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| Posted: Sat May 07, 2005 8:18 am Post subject: |
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| wnelson wrote: | | Are you setting the alpha settings via the configuration menu? If not see if you have not accidently set your permissions to the init file to root. |
init file is owned by me, 644. I am setting via the configuration menu - it changes its value but has no effect. |
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vrln
Guru
Joined: 11 Sep 2004
Posts: 534
Location: Finland
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| Posted: Sat May 07, 2005 9:48 am Post subject: |
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If you mean fake transparency (not with composite), you'll need to use a certain program to set the background - there are many that work, for example Esetroot.
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ccowart
n00b
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 48
Location: Berkeley, CA
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| Posted: Sat May 07, 2005 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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| It was working before I rebuilt a lot of packages. I'm using fbsetbg, called from one of my startup scripts. I haven't changed any fluxbox/startup settings. |
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Ey
l33t
Joined: 07 Apr 2005
Posts: 863
Location: Paris
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2005 7:02 pm Post subject: |
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| vrln wrote: | | If you mean fake transparency (not with composite), you'll need to use a certain program to set the background - there are many that work, for example Esetroot. |
If you mean real transparency (composite) you need to start xcompmgr for the transparency to work. (you can add it to your .fluxbox/startup - by adding "xcompmgr &" before the "exec /usr/bin/fluxbox") |
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ccowart
n00b
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 48
Location: Berkeley, CA
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2005 9:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Ey wrote: | | If you mean real transparency (composite) you need to start xcompmgr for the transparency to work. (you can add it to your .fluxbox/startup - by adding "xcompmgr &" before the "exec /usr/bin/fluxbox") |
I've never had that package installed. When I use the menu, I set alpha to, say, 104 - but there is no effect. Before, it just worked; I didn't have to do anything. I haven't changed anything in my startup scripts. Are there any use flags that affect whether fluxbox can deal with transparent menus?
For what it's worth, aterm has been and still is transparent. Thus, I don't think it's an issue with the root image. |
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Ey
l33t
Joined: 07 Apr 2005
Posts: 863
Location: Paris
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2005 9:07 pm Post subject: |
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| ccowart wrote: | | Ey wrote: | If you mean real transparency (composite) you need to start xcompmgr for the transparency to work. (you can add it to your
.fluxbox/startup - by adding "xcompmgr &" before the "exec /usr/bin/fluxbox") |
I've never had that package installed. When I use the menu, I set alpha to, say, 104 - but there is no effect. Before, it just worked; I didn't have to do anything. I haven't changed anything in my startup scripts. Are there any use flags that affect whether fluxbox can deal with transparent menus?
For what it's worth, aterm has been and still is transparent. Thus, I don't think it's an issue with the root image. |
If you have the latest versions of xorg and fluxbox, your system may supports composite and fluxbox will use composite by default. But fluxbox stil needs xcompmgr for the transparency to work (it doesn't seem to be the case in xfce4).
You can easily check if composite is supported on your system in fluxbox menu>Configure>Transparency you should have a force Pseudo-Transparency option. If it doesn't appear your didn't configure your system to use composite or it doesn't support it.
If it does appear, you should install xcompmgr to see how great real transparency is. (But I had to change some code in fluxbox to disable transparency for some apps - it's not that great when you're watching mplayer in full screen and you still see what's underneath it...) |
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ccowart
n00b
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 48
Location: Berkeley, CA
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2005 9:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Ey wrote: | If you have the latest versions of xorg and fluxbox, your system may supports composite and fluxbox will use composite by default. But fluxbox stil needs xcompmgr for the transparency to work (it doesn't seem to be the case in xfce4).
You can easily check if composite is supported on your system in fluxbox menu>Configure>Transparency you should have a force Pseudo-Transparency option. If it doesn't appear your didn't configure your system to use composite or it doesn't support it.
If it does appear than you should install xcompmgr to see how great real transparency is. (But I had to change some code in fluxbox to disable transparency for some apps - it's not that great when you're watching mplayer in full screen and you still see what's underneath it...) |
Thanks for the info. I do not have the force transparency option in the fluxbox menu. I have "focused window alpha, unfocused window alpha, and menu alpha." Do I need to recompile fluxbox with a specific use flag? Or do I need to edit the menu file to give me access to that option? What does your menu file look like as far as the psuedo-transparency option is concerned? |
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Ey
l33t
Joined: 07 Apr 2005
Posts: 863
Location: Paris
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2005 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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| ccowart wrote: | | Ey wrote: | If you have the latest versions of xorg and fluxbox, your system may supports composite and fluxbox will use composite by default. But fluxbox stil needs xcompmgr for the transparency to work (it doesn't seem to be the case in xfce4).
You can easily check if composite is supported on your system in fluxbox menu>Configure>Transparency you should have a force Pseudo-Transparency option. If it doesn't appear your didn't configure your system to use composite or it doesn't support it.
If it does appear than you should install xcompmgr to see how great real transparency is. (But I had to change some code in fluxbox to disable transparency for some apps - it's not that great when you're watching mplayer in full screen and you still see what's underneath it...) |
Thanks for the info. I do not have the force transparency option in the fluxbox menu. I have "focused window alpha, unfocused window alpha, and menu alpha." Do I need to recompile fluxbox with a specific use flag? Or do I need to edit the menu file to give me access to that option? What does your menu file look like as far as the psuedo-transparency option is concerned? |
No this option comes with the Composite extension. You can activate it by adding the following lines in your xorg.conf
| Code: |
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "true"
EndSection
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and you might have to add
| Code: |
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
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in your device section to still be abble to use opengl. (Composite uses opengl and there might be some glitshes when both are used at the same time - your X server can eventually crash, it's still under devellopment).
I just tested to start my X without Composite and ...
EDIT: it's working... I just didn't see it at first since the applications are opaque.
EDIT2: the force pseudo Transparency only appears when composite is enabled. Since it doesn't appear for you you don't have Composite and fluxbox uses pseudo transparency. |
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ccowart
n00b
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 48
Location: Berkeley, CA
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2005 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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First and foremost - Wow. That's really cool!
I don't think it's working as it should. There are way too many artifacts on the screen. Menus don't disappear. Things stick around after switching desktops. My wm applications in the slit never entirely disappear.
My root image no longer appears. It seems to be replaced by all of these artifacts. It starts off as a blank gray screen. The back of my aterm (which was transparent and showing a darkened version of the root image) is now just black.
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true" is apparently invalid. X complains when I use that option.
Once again, this is really cool. If it were to work correctly, I would totally be interested in keeping it. It's not what I had in mind though. Before, just the fluxbox menus were transparent. It definitely wasn't done with the composite extension. They showed a translucent version of the root image.
Thoughts on getting composite to work correctly? or enabling whatever transparency (just for menus) that I was using before?
Thanks! |
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ccowart
n00b
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 48
Location: Berkeley, CA
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2005 10:26 pm Post subject: |
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My mistake. I had AllowGLXWithComposite in the wrong section.
That definitely fixed things as far as artifacts within applications. My root image is still gray to start off or whatever applications where on my previous desktop. The problems I mentioned before still apply.
EDIT: Here's a screenshot, words can't do it justice. https://hal.rescomp.berkeley.edu/~ccowart/screenshot.png
The firefox browser is from a different workspace.
And if I kill xcompmgr, my root image appears intact - all artifacts disappear. I wasn't using composite before and I had menu transparency... |
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Ey
l33t
Joined: 07 Apr 2005
Posts: 863
Location: Paris
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2005 10:55 pm Post subject: |
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| ccowart wrote: | My mistake. I had AllowGLXWithComposite in the wrong section.
That definitely fixed things as far as artifacts within applications. My root image is still gray to start off or whatever applications where on my previous desktop. The problems I mentioned before still apply.
EDIT: Here's a screenshot, words can't do it justice. https://hal.rescomp.berkeley.edu/~ccowart/screenshot.png
The firefox browser is from a different workspace.
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 it works much better for me...
But your visual problems don't come from fluxbox... as I said, Composite is still under development and there might be problems with your video card or other stuff that I don't have...
| Quote: | | And if I kill xcompmgr, my root image appears intact - all artifacts disappear. |
Yes that's perfectly normal. xcompmgr is rendering your screen when it's running.
| Quote: | | I wasn't using composite before and I had menu transparency... |
As I said, I turned off the Composite extension on my computer and the pseudo transparency seems to work perfectly fine. Are you sure you're using the correct tool to set your background ? Only a few work with the pseudo transparency stuff, fbsetbg tells you if the one you are using is correct when running :
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ccowart
n00b
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 48
Location: Berkeley, CA
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| Posted: Sun May 08, 2005 11:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Code: | fbsetbg -i
display doesn't set the wallpaper properly. Transparency for fluxbox and apps like aterm and xchat won't work right with it. Consider installing feh, wmsetbg (from windowmaker) or Esetroot (from Eterm) and I'll use them instead.
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Looks like that's the problem. I think I had one or more of those installed before, but it must have been unmerged when I cleaned up dependencies. I remerged feh and everything works great.
Thanks for the help. I really appreciate it. |
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