Trouble with X server and desktop effects

[LeadZeppelin]

Ok, I can't enable visual effects. I've been scouring Google for things to try for way too long at this point. I think I've tried it all.

I'm using ubuntu 9.10. I've got an nvidia card. Interestingly, I've had the visual effects working on this computer on two different occasions. Once a couple years ago, then I reformatted and had them working again. Then when I shut my computer off a few months ago, all of my X settings got erased, and from that point on, I was never able to get visual effects enabled again.

When I try to enable visual effects I get the error: "Desktop effects could not be enabled"

I'm running the nvidia 185 driver, although I've tried the 173 driver with the same results.

If I try doing compiz from the command line, I get this:

$ compiz
Checking for Xgl: not present. 
xset q doesn't reveal the location of the log file. Using fallback /var/log/Xorg.0.log 
Detected PCI ID for VGA: 
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: Segmentation fault
not present. 
Trying again with indirect rendering:
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: Segmentation fault
not present. 
aborting and using fallback: /usr/bin/metacity

Checking that file (cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep glx):

(II) "glx" will be loaded. This was enabled by default and also specified in the config file.
(II) LoadModule: "glx"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libglx.so
dlopen: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libglx.so: undefined symbol: _nv000025gl
(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libglx.so
(II) UnloadModule: "glx"
(EE) Failed to load module "glx" (loader failed, 7)

xorg.conf

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 1.0  (buildmeister (at) builder58)  Fri Aug 14 18:33:37 PDT 2009

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 1.0  (buildd (at) crested)  Sun Feb  1 20:25:37 UTC 2009

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load           "glx"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

	# generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "CMO"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 75.0
    VertRefresh     60.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier     "Monitor1"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "TV-0"
    HorizSync       28.0 - 55.0
    VertRefresh     43.0 - 72.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 9500M GS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device1"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 9500M GS"
    BusID          "PCI:1:0:0"
    Screen          1
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "NoLogo" "True"
    Option         "DisableGLXRootClipping" "True"
    Option         "TwinView" "1"
    Option         "TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder" "DFP-1"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP-0: 1280x800 +1680+0, DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    Option         "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen1"
    Device         "Device1"
    Monitor        "Monitor1"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
    Option         "DisableGLXRootClipping" "True"
    Option         "TwinView" "0"
    Option         "metamodes" "TV: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
	# Removed Option "metamodes" "DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
    Option         "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

Any ideas? I've spent so many hours trying to get this to work for some reason... it's so frustrating!

BTW, the message that says you can't post links in your messages until you have 15 posts is extremely misleading (and made me very frustrated). I had a few (at) symbols in my post and didn't realize that was the problem, because I was looking for some kind of URL, since that's what the error message said was the problem. I was about to give up hope on even posting this message! Oh well, I figured it out.

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

There are a few segmentation fault errors. Are you using 64bit or 32bit OS? Post the output of uname -a command.

[LeadZeppelin]

Thanks for the speedy response!

I'm running 64 bit. Here's what you asked for:

$ uname -a
Linux kevin-laptop 2.6.31-21-generic #59-Ubuntu SMP Wed Mar 24 07:28:27 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I actually don't even know what segmentation fault errors are.. I'm about to go out right now, but if someone hasn't responded by tomorrow sometime I'll start doing research on those. That's one thing I haven't googled yet!

Thanks again!

[LeadZeppelin]

Still no luck with this. Anyone have an idea to try? Thank you!

[LeadZeppelin]

Does anyone have any ideas at all that I could try? Or ideas for another place to ask? I don't mind registering for other forums or something. Should I try a compiz specific forum? I don't even really know what's at fault here. I've seen other people with this exact same problem on Google, but I don't ever see any solutions that work for me.

Compiz is one of the main reasons I use Linux. Not being able to use it is so frustrating. But I really don't want to do a full re-install of Linux just because of this one little problem, because everything else is working just fine, and that's way too much work to fix this problem.

Any pointers at all would be soo greatly appreciated!

[bigtomrodney]

If I was to guess from what I read above, it looks like you might have tried one of the older methods of getting desktop effects running. Either that or you were holding a serious amount of legacy configuration.

If you're running 9.10 you don't need xorg.conf at all. If you have specific options such as TwinView you can add those sections but outside of that you shouldn't need anything.

What you should be looking at doing is renaming your xorg.conf, ensuring that you have installed the nVidia driver from the repository and not manually and the restarting your PC. (Of course you could just modprobe for nvidia and restart X if you prefer).

If you've had a lot of messing with your nVidia drivers it can be difficult to get that cleaned out and you may find it easier to just run a fresh install given that it should only take about 15 minutes. Whatever you do, just try and stick to those repo nVidia drivers - the same ones that are available through the 'Hardware Drivers' dialogue.

EDIT - Even if you feel you really need all of that config in xorg.conf you can drop the "composite" and "ARGBXVisuals" options as they are ignored by newer drivers.

[LeadZeppelin]

Thank you for the response bigtomrodney!

You're right about why there's a bunch of stuff in my xorg.conf that probably doesn't need to be. Hours of searching for solutions and trying random stuff I found on Google.

Doing more research on this tonight, I saw someone with my same problem and a user just said that the system was corrupted basically. How could that happen?!

I guess I'll reinstall ubuntu after my finals are done. I need to upgrade to 10.04 anyway, so I guess a reinstall will be about as much hassle as upgrading.

Thanks for the help!