When using the newest ATI drivers (8.8.25) and Xorg 6.8, the compositor creates a number of graphics glitches. The pager does not appear to switch between desktops, however applications from all desktops seem to appear at once, with no ability to switch between programs. the XFCE menu shows only a grey background and does not render contents (as does the quit XFCE prompt). Resizing a window creates artifacts that do not dissapear from the screen, as does any other action. What it appears to me is happening, is that XFWM is not refreshing the screen, anything that is shows up on the screen just stays there, and is never erased. This problem does not occur in Xorg 6.8 with the built in radeon drivers. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Required software versions: XFCE 4.2 ; ATI closed source drivers for Xorg 8.8.25 ; Xorg 6.8.0 r3 2. Load the fglrx kernel module (ATI driver) 3. Configure Xorg to use the fglrx display driver (ATI Driver) 4. Configure Xorg to load the compositor and render extentsions 5. start XFCE 4.2 Actual Results: I experienced the same graphics glitches each time, then would start to occur just as the XFCE splashscreen reported the loading the window manager. Graphics Card; ATI Radeon r350 [9800 Pro] GTK+-2.4.14
I'm also using Gentoo 2004.3 with the gentoo-dev-sources 2.6.10-r5 kernel, forgot to include that in the relevent information.
Xfce has nothing to do with X drivers, being open sourced or closed source.
I know that XFCE has nothing to do with the development of ATI's drivers, but this is a problem that I'm having in XFCE and only in XFCE. I doubt that ATI or Xorg would be interested in a problem that occurs in XFCE, they would say the same thing that you did, its not our problem. So I'm glad to hear that my problem is nobodys responsibility, and certainly not yours, despite the fact it occurs only with the XFWM compositor (I mean who on earth would be concerned with the usablity of their software). I mean nobody uses XFCE, Xorg 6.8, and ATI cards right (heavy sarcasm), but I guess there will be less now. I'm so glad that you devoted so much time to my problem (heavier sarcasm), despite the fact that it has the potential to greatly reduce the usability of XFCE for a large segment of users. Thank you ever so much.
Such sarcasm will drive you nowhere. If the compositor doesn't work with ATI, disable the compositor. The compositing manager is *disabled* by default, if you enable it and get in trouble with a closed source driver, don't complain to me.
Please have a look at the relevant documentation (included in xfwm4 sources): http://cvs.xfce.org/viewcvs.cgi/xfce4/xfwm4/COMPOSITOR?rev=1.3.2.1&view=markup Particularily the "trouble shooting" section.
I did read that, and the fact of the matter is, this bug does not occur with the compositor of, and it does not occur with the xorgs composite manager (I tried to reproduce the bug in other WM/DE's). I understand that the compositor is beta software, and I wasn't posting this bug expecting a quick fix. I simply hoped that this bug would be considered in the development of the next release of XFCE. I really think that XFCE is a great desktop environment, and I would like to be able to use the compositor in some later release. I simply thought that developers would be interested in hearing about bugs that are isolated to their software, particularly when there in beta type software thats still in development. Its always going to be beta software unless bugs are fully considered. The fact of the matter is that a lot of people use ATI drivers, and if those same people would like to use XFCE's compositor to give their cards a workout, then some bugs will need to be fixed. I regret the tone I took earlier, I was simply trying to give back to a desktop environment that has given me so much, and was dissapointed with your response of resolved invalid. The problem is now I fully expect to compile the next version of XFCE and see the same problem occur. I guess when that happens, I'll file another bug report, and see if the problem is given a better viewing then.
np, you may try with the current CVS (at least 1 compositor related bug has been fixed) You can get a tarball here: http://www.xfce.org/~olivier/preview/xfwm4-4.2.CVS050120.tar.gz