no desktop effects with Mint 6

[Begabe]

I have an older computer with an intel 82845 graphics chipset. I was able to enable desktop effects with Mint 5 and Ubuntu Hardy, but when I intalled Mint 6 (clean install), I am unable to enable desktop effects of any kind. "Desktop effects could not be enabled", so the only option I have is None under Compiz.

[Husse]

I have seen an increasing number of problems with Brookdale chips, seems they don't like newer kernels
there is a bug concerning 82845 and Compiz
This could be a bit risky, but try to add SKIP_CHECKS=yes to /home/yourusername/.config/compiz/compizconfig/config
If you can't log in after that change session to failsafe gnome and remove the line

[Begabe]

Thanks Husse. Your suggestion did not work, but it is no big deal. I can do without my rotating desktop and wobbly windows I am a relatively newbie (using ubuntu hardy for about 9 months and decided to try mint. I like hardy, but I like mint better). I was just curious why the effects were working under hardy and mint 5, but not 6. You are probably right about newer kernals wandering away from older chipsets. Maybe someday I will upgrade my integrated graphics adaptor to a stand alone adapter. I have a newer computer with Mint 6 & windows on it and the effects work fine. Thanks for your time and if something else comes to mind that may help, hit me again.

[qbicdesign]

i have same problem with nvidia GeForce FX5600XT - same error message.
I read some suggestions to reinstall nvidia drivers then reinstall compiz-config-manager (or however its called) - but i think thats left me in more of a mess than before
I have a dual monitor configuration normally, but even without the secondary monitor activated i can't get compiz to work.
Any ideas? I know that compiz and dual monitors is ok in Ubuntu 8.10 as a colleague is using that at work.

any ideas?

[qbicdesign]

I rolled back to an earlier xorg.conf - now i just get the message "The composite extension is not available".
It should also be noted that this error message prompt has an "OK" button which doesn't work.
this basically was a default install of mint 6, so whatever compiz stuff was installed in default install, thats what i have.
anything i can tweak to get this 3D working?

[qbicdesign]

checked also ubuntu forums - same problem there so i guess its inherent problem in Ubuntu 8.10...

[Husse]

I found that there is a bug in the Intel driver for 830MG and 845G video cards which makes it impossible to use Compiz
Found that in the release notes for Intrepid

[belovedmonster]

I guess no one read the Ubuntu release notes for 8.10? There was a big disclaimer that many graphics cards didn't support compiz anymore because the drivers weren't compatible with the version of X.org used in that release. I was hoping the problem might be fixed now so I can upgrade to Mint 6 but it seems from this thread I'll have to stick with version 5 for the time being.

[Husse]

@ belovedmonster
I read the notes, but missed that this was for some Intel cards too - I only noticed older nvidia cards (MX440 or some such)

[rdonnelly]

I was able to run effects until I did a reinstall, then I had the same problem. If the gnome desktop provides effects, it will not allow compiz to work. Here is the answer for checking your problems.

http://forlong.blogage.de/entries/pages/Compiz-Check

or in a termial:
wget http://blogage.de/files/9124/download -O compiz-check
then:
chmod +x compiz-check
finally:
./compiz-check

Running these commands will tell you the problems. Here is the output:

$ ./compiz-check

Gathering information about your system...

Distribution: Linux Mint
Desktop environment: GNOME
Graphics chip: nVidia Corporation NV34 [GeForce FX 5500] (rev a1)
Driver in use: nvidia
Rendering method: Nvidia

Checking if it's possible to run Compiz on your system...

Checking for texture_from_pixmap... [ OK ]
Checking for non power of two support... [ OK ]
Checking for composite extension... [ OK ]
Checking for FBConfig... [ OK ]
Checking for hardware/setup problems... [FAIL]

There has been (at least) one error detected with your setup:
Error: Another compositing manager in use.

Would you like to know more? (Y/n) y

The default window manager of GNOME has its own compositing manager to
provide basic desktop effects.
If this one is in use, Compiz will not be able to run.

Do you want to disable GNOME's compositing manager? (Y/n) y