compiz-(con)fusion

[bag]

OK, so you're gonna love this...!

Got a problem with compiz-(con)fusion. Have just updated to it from Beryl as part of a long list of things that I've tried to do in order to clean up a right old mess I got myself into... Some of it is a hang-up of me using Kororaa to install a working 3D desktop Gentoo installation for me about a year ago. I suspect that it was a bit too bleeding edge for me really - and so it's basic setup wasn't as stable or sensible as I should have had for a newbie...

And so I've had some real issues recently, needing me to do a complete (and very extensive) update world, revdep-rebuild, and some serious jiggery-pokery just to get half of my KDE desktop back to scratch. It didn't fix one of the most amusing aspects though (something that appeared about a month ago) - which was that although I had a KDE desktop, it now had Gnome icons on it. Everything I clicked opened up a nautilus window or a gnome version of the KDE program I was used to... Couldn't understand it - and am too newbie-ish to really know how to dump it... I tried changing stuff in the control centre about icons coming from Crystal SVG or file associations - but nope...! All my requests to use KDE stuff met with no change whatsoever. Ho hum...

Finally fixed it when I installed Compiz-Confusion, or so I thought....

I have now managed to get myself to what seems to be a (semi)stable system and have installed Compiz-fusion. I have no borders - but I'm sure I'll find a solution to that somewhere on these boards. Now that I've recompiled a whole list of stuff, I have a newly installed, basic 3.5.7 desktop with a default 3.5 wallpaper. I finally have KDE icons and file associations - so that it seems to be more or less a bog-standard KDE install...

When I rotate the cube using Ctrl-Alt-Left arrow/Right arrow, it looks just like it should do. However, when I rotate the cube using Ctrl-Alt and mouse movement, I get something really weird from the moment I click the mouse button. The top layer of the desktop goes translucent so that I can see gears rotating. This is what I want - (I'm still playing) and I quite like that. But here's the fun bit...

When it rotates and the top layer goes transparent - I can see my old desktop underneath my new one, complete with Gnome icons, a different set of icons at that, and my old wallpaper too. This second desktop layer goes translucent too - and I can easily see the gears - but I am stunned that I seem to have two completely different desktops - with different wallpapers and different icons - and yet I can only access and click on one, the newest one.

Out of interest - when I went into KDE control centre and chose a different wallpaper, my old one (which was a Kororaa theme) is not there! But the file must be kicking around somewhere if the desktop underneath is still showing it. I've rebooted several times to see if it's a hidden file somewhere or whether it was just in memory - but it's very repeatable...

So now I am confused (being a bear of very little brain)...

Can someone explain what's going on here?

And secondly - I'm really not interested in my old wallpaper, or Gnome icons - so I'd like to switch them off/delete them/unmerge them/blow them up in a big explosion etc... How do I do that?

Whilst it's not getting in the way, it does show quite clearly that I haven't made the transition on from an "old but at the time bleeding edge desktop" to a newer and more stabler one... And that's what I'd really like to get to - a very stable desktop but with the Compiz-fusion fireworks...!

If this little poser rings any bells, I'd be really grateful for some help here. I have absolutely no idea where to start at all...!

Many thanks,

bag.

[charlie]

My biased Slackware solution would be to backup the personal data and delete the hard drive.

A temporary fix would be to press Ctrl+Esc which would bring up the System Guard while in KDE and see if any Gnome or Beryl programs are running and "kill" them.

It seems like some old stuff from your system is auto-starting. I don't know any emerge tricks so for me I would have looked through my startup scripts specifically any X startup scripts.

I wish I could help more.
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Postscript:
Where is this server located on the planet? It looks like I have nothing better to do other than sleep at near 4 o' clock in the morning when in fact it is about 5 in the afternoon here.

[bag]

charlie,

Thanks for the reply. A reinstall isn't my favourite option - I'm still very much of a newbie. Scared of what I might lose if I don't get it right!! But the way things are going, it might get there yet...

Ctrl+Esc doesn't bring anything up for me... at all. What should it bring up for me to play with?

Where am I likely to find the X start-up scripts? I'll have a look through them - no problems, see if I can't spot anything...

Thanks,

bag

[goffrie]

Are you using startx? Your X startup script, then, would be "~/.xinitrc".

If you are using KDM, try making an .xsession and putting in

[bag]

I'm currently using gdm...

I found an init script somewhere in ~/.kde/env that started gtk based stuff - gtk-qt-engine.rc.sh. I don't know what it really does, but I commented out the active line for installing upon startup and it changed nothing...

there's no /.xinitrc script at all.

Any new ideas?

[hirakendu]

wow, that must be a amazing view - two desktop layers. btw, if you can use ksnapshot to print screen and take a sap of that, it would be nice .

i remember that sort of an oddball behavior when i happened to run 'nautilus' (the gnome file manager) and along with it, it used to start a desktop too. bottom line is this - if indeed a gnome-session is also running, you can find it in running processes ('ps -A | grep -i gnome') and if indeed anything such is running, you can kill it.

also see what programs start off by default (see the ~/.kde/Autostart/ folder), and also try to fiddle with session management properties in kde control center. its better to change over to kdm if you are not using gnome, but i have run pure kde with gdm too and no issues (see /etc/conf.d/xdm or /etc/rc.conf for default dm). also review the scripts in /etc/X11/Sessions/.

pretty amusing case to read . of course, remember its a very simple transparent system (linux and gentoo ) and there is no magic going on here (as it some times happens with windows and binary registries ).
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[bag]

hirakendu,

I have now got two shiny snapshots that I can post - but don't know how to. How do I post them up for a viewing? Can I attach them to the post?

I don't have personal webspace, so any ideas? Not sure how I'd do that... Snapshots look good though - show my normal desktop with default wallpaper and then with underlying wallpaper and icons too...

Running your suggested 'ps -A | grep -i gnome' brings up one process - feel silly now 'cos I'm not at home and forgot to write down what it was. Can I safely kill any gnome process running - or do I need to be careful? If I do, what should I be looking for, to make sure that I don't do something stupid? What is the command for killing a process?

Anyway, someone please let me know how I can post up images for people to see and I'll get on it.

Thanks,

bag

[hirakendu]

hmm, frankly even i haven't posted any pics except on my apache server either. my guess would be something like imageshack or flicker, but since i haven't used them, i wouldn't like to advertise for them .

if you are running a kde desktop, wolog you can kill any gnome process. personally i have no gnome processes running on my kde desktop (except a gnome-keyring-daemon, perhaps because i use networkmanager). you can kill using the kill or killall command. just note down the process id number (the number on left of the process name) and use 'kill -9 pid_number'. to use killall (weaker), its 'killall process_name'.
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Helium Sources || Gentoo Minimal Livecd

[wah_wah_69]

To upload pics I'd use http://omploader.org/,easy to use and no registration required.
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Be good and if you can't be good, be careful.

[bag]

hirakendu & wah_wah_69

Desktop snapshots for your amusement are at:

http://omploader.org/vODNt/snapshot-base(small).png

and

http://omploader.org/vODNu/snapshot-rotate(small).png

Don't know what's going on with the coding - but the full weblink needs the brackets and png...

hirakendu - Now that I'm back at home, I can see that the only gnome process running is:

[hirakendu]

haha, pretty funny .

yes, you can kill that gnome-vfs process (afaik, its like the kde automount counterpart for gnome, used for the file manager nautilus and desktop). if you can, you may also post the full output of 'ps -A' if that doesn't work out, so we can get more info .
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