Thanks, breals.  This totally worked.

So I got Beryl working and all, but now I’ve got a new thing going on.  When I reboot, my Xserver doesn’t start properly.  If I re-install the NVidia driver (Step 6) and restart gdm, everything works fine.  Until I reboot.  So I guess I can’t reboot anymore.

OK, much pain, many tries, and much frustration later, I have Beryl working and kicking ass!

I was trying to fix the `direct rendering: no` problem from earlier.  I think this is what fixed the problem:

1. Download the NVidia drivers from NVidia.
2. Modify the XGL startup file (`sudo gedit /usr/local/bin/startxgl.sh`):

   #!/bin/sh
   /usr/bin/Xgl :0 -fullscreen -ac -accel xv:fbo -accel glx:pbuffer &
   sleep 4  
   export DISPLAY=:0
   cookie="$(xauth -i nextract - :0 | cut -d ' ' -f 9)"
   xauth -i add :1 . "$cookie"
   exec /etc/X11/Xsession gnome-session

3. Modify the xorg.conf file (`sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf`):
1. Find `Section “Device”
2. Add `Option “AddARGBGLXVisuals” “True”`
3. Should read like

   Section "Device"
   Identifier   "NVidia GeForce 7600"
   Driver       "nvidia"
   Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
   EndSection

4. Drop down to the terminal: [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [F1]
5. Stop the Xserver: `sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop`
6. Run the NVidia drivers: `sudo /home//Desktop/NVidia+[Tab]`
7. Go through the installation
8. Restart the Xserver: `sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart`
9. If it doesn’t automatically take you to the GNOME login, hit [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [F7]
10. Be sure to choose `Options (or F10) | Select Session | Xgl` before logging in.
11. You should be able to open a terminal window and run `glxinfo | grep direct` and it should return `direct rendering: yes`.
12. For fun, run `glxgears` and you should see smooth gear movement.
13. Now you can run `beryl-manager` (or `Applications | System Tools | Beryl Manager`)
14. Everything works!

After all that, I broke my working Beryl installation. `glxinfo | grep direct` kept telling me `direct rendering: no` and I was on a stupid mission to fix it.

I have Beryl running on my Ubuntu installation now. It’s kinda’ freakin’ awesome. I guess Windows Vista is similar, with Aero, but whatever. This is free, fast, and it rocks.

Read on for what I had to do to get Beryl working.
continue reading "Beryl running on Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy)"