For reference:
System: Dell Latitude D620 notebook computer, 2 GB RAM, 500 GB hard drive, Intel Mobile 945GM video card (probably the most important detail here).
Software: PCLinuxOS 2010.07 but fully updated.
Problem: After a recent update, I noticed that certain desktop effects were disabled. Starting "Configure Your Desktop", I found I was unable to use OpenGL and had to shift to XRender for about a week while I noodled on this one. OpenGL had been working just fine before the upgrade, so I got to wondering what had changed.
Corrective Action(s):I followed Texstar's advice about reinstalling x11-server-common given here:
http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,92107.msg773903.html#msg773903but this was to no avail. Finally I began wondering if the video card configuration had changed, and I dimly remembered having to set up a custom driver for this a while back to get OpenGL working in the first place.
Sure enough, I went back into the PCLinuxOS Control Center and
replaced the "i810 and later" driver from the Intel portion of the list with the more generic "intel" driver from the Xorg section at the bottom of the list. Now OpenGL and my desktop effects of choice appear to be working.
I have noticed a glitch with certain visualizations in Clementine causing KWin to throw a segmentation fault, though... Perhaps this is not the end of the matter? I have been just restarting KWin when this happens. If I get more time, perhaps I'll compile a list of the visualizations that cause this to happen. (I'd have to go through the nearly 200 visualizations one at a time and I don't have that kinda time right now.)
Hope this helps someone else with this problem, and that together we may move this issue further along the path.
Tags: [PCLOS 2010 KDE4 DESKTOP EFFECTS OPENGL INTEL VIDEO]
Later On,
D