KDE 4.5.4 update woes... Thread #2

[One_Beerhunter]

Posted yesterday and that thread has been pretty much hijacked...

Anyone else have an ATI 4850HD who is experiencing loss of desktop effects following the update to KDE 4.5.4?
I found this article:
http://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/2010/09/driver-dilemma-in-kde-workspaces-4-5/

Is there any way I can reinstall KDE 4.5.3 to get my desktop effects back?

[T6]

pclinux is a rolling distro, once a package is replaced, it is gone forever unless you have a frozen repo with the specific version you want but since pclinux updates many things at once, you had to reinstall everything, too complicated

the desktop effects you mention, is compiz or kde desktop effects?

kde desktop effects is the smaller and weakest brother of compiz, in my 7 year old ati and my intel 3150 i can't use kde desktop effects but i can use without problems compiz

[One_Beerhunter]

I can use compiz, but not kde desktop effects. I know PCLOS is a rolling release and probably have isos for former revisions,
Just hoped that there might be a workaround for KDE 4.5.4 and my 4850HD. (besides reinstall of an older version) I may just decide to dump the ATI card and get an ASUS Nvidia GTX450. Can anyone verify that KDE 4.5.4 supports KDE desktop effects with the ASUS GTX450 videocard?

[T6]

i don't see why not, haven't seen reports of that nvidia with problems, the driver available on repos supports it

i honestly recommend you to keep your ati card and use compiz, faster results with less cpu and system usage, nicer results with more options

it is possible that kde fixes problem(workaround) or driver fixes problem soon(not impossible)

about installing older version, i think it is a waste of your time, if you install the older iso you won't be able to update any part of it with synaptic, remember that pclinux updates many things and partial updates can break a system

recently Texstar mentioned that install a older iso and then try to update it can cause big errors so i don't recommend you this option as a temporal measure

[One_Beerhunter]

When I mentioned the reinstall of an older version, I meant something like the 2010.10 image instead of the newest 2010.11 image... Not PCLOS 2007, etc. I have always held the opinion that Nvidia generally supports Linux better than ATI. If I were to replace my current ATI card with the Nvidia card, I suspect my current issues would simply go away without having to reinstall or wait for ATI to fix their problem drivers.... That said, unless someone can provide a simple workaround in the next few days, I will likely swap cards and report my results in this thread....

[T6]

2007 is out of the picture since october last year

i was talking about 2010.1

i still recomend you to wait or just use compiz but since you can swap cards, good luck, report back 

[mikkl]

2 things to try, probably needing to do both.  First, disable functionality tests for the desktop effects.  Configure Your Desktop->Desktop Effects->Advanced.  The second is to disable blur effect, also under desktop effects.

With both of these my ATI HD4200 works just fine.  I disabled blur on all my machines a while back as it is extremely buggy and resource intensive, for no added value (IMHO).  With the recent update, disabling functionality checks was necessary.

mikkl

[One_Beerhunter]

Just edited my kwinrc file to disable blur and functionality checks as well as changing opengl= false to opengl=true and was able to access the gui setup for desktop effects. Most all of my effects are now working as they should.

I think this should be considered a bug... if kde developers can write a script to check video card functionality or lack of said, they could add to that script to disable blur function, etc. instead of shutting down all effects... My 2 cents...

Have not yet tried a newer videocard, but will post should I decide to upgrade...

[T6]

the script exist but obviously this one failed on your case 

[mikkl]

Just edited my kwinrc file to disable blur and functionality checks as well as changing opengl= false to opengl=true and was able to access the gui setup for desktop effects. Most all of my effects are now working as they should.

I think this should be considered a bug... if kde developers can write a script to check video card functionality or lack of said, they could add to that script to disable blur function, etc. instead of shutting down all effects... My 2 cents...

Have not yet tried a newer videocard, but will post should I decide to upgrade...

Glad to hear we were able to help you.

According to your link, it reads as though the developer thinks providing blur is a benefit to the community, even though on ATI and Intel graphics it does not work correctly.  If I were the developer, blur would be disabled by default and a large "are you really sure" notice would pop up when you tried to enable this functionality, but that's just me.

mikkl