AIGLX packages for FC5 (and rawhide)

[Kristian Høgsberg]

Hi,

I've set up a yum repository with AIGLX packages for FC5.  It's on 
download.fedora.redhat.com:

   http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/projects/aiglx

and there's a aiglx.repo file there that can be dropped into 
/etc/yum.repos.d.  With that,

	$ yum --enablerepo=aiglx update

should pull down the AIGLX package set.  The packages are just the 
rawhide RPMs rebuilt for FC5, so they're a little rough around the 
edges.  That said, if the metacity compositor isn't enabled (see below), 
things should be pretty stable.

Here's an overview of the features and tweakable settings in the current 
versions of the repository packages.  Since rawhide has the same 
packages the instructions below can also be used with a recent rawhide 
system:

   - metacity with compositing manager functionality.  Turn it on using 
gconf-editor by enabling /apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager or 
alternatively, use

	$ gconftool-2 -s /apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager --type bool 
true

   - the metacity build in the repo has wobbly windows as an optional 
feature.  Set the environment variable USE_WOBBLY to 1 and restart 
metacity.  For example:

	$ USE_WOBBLY=1 metacity --replace &

   - metacity also has an experimental screen magnifier built in.  Like 
the wobbly windows this is enabled by setting an environment variable - 
USE_MAGNIFIER:

	$ USE_MAGNIFIER=1 metacity --replace &

   - real translucency in gnome-terminal.  Enable this by clicking the 
"Transparent background" radio box in the "Effects" tab of the termnal 
profile editor dialog.  gnome-terminal may have to be restarted for this 
to take effect - pkill gnome-terminal should do the trick.

There are a number of known bugs with these packages, so go easy on 
bugzilla :).  Specifically,

   - The damage events doesn't always kick in, so sometimes window 
contents doesn't update properly.  A workaround for this is to switch 
desktop back and forth.

   - The drop shadows look weird on shaped/argb windows, for example 
xeyes, the notify bubbles and well, even the rounded metacity corners. 
The shadow code is due for an overhaul later, so we're not going to 
patch over this issue in the short term.

   - Perfomance for in-window updates isn't always great.  We're 
currently doing too much work when updating textures from pixmaps.  It's 
still possible to optimize this further with the current setup, and 
longer term the memory architecture in the X server and DRI stack will 
see some changes that will allow us to optimize this further.

Have fun,
Kristian