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Missing window decorations with desktop-effects

After installing Fedora Core 6 on my laptop with nVidia video card on board, I was really keen to check out these new desktop effects supported by Compiz. After getting latest nvidia drivers, enabling effects is a matter of few clicks, but… in my case, it didn’t work quite well. As long as I was able to see all effects itself, all windows had their decorations (borders and title bars) stripped off. It looked like this:

Window decorations stripped off with desktop-effects enabled

It not hard to explain that missing borders are making whole desktop quite a lot unusable, unless you prefer to use keyboard to move, maximize, minimize and close windows. I don’t.

I was looking for solution for a quite of while, but finally found it. Please note, I can’t guarantee this solution to work for everyone, particularly for those using other than nVidia video cards, but I think it’s worth to try, anyway.

First step is to include some specific settings in /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. Below is my whole xorg.conf file, which made Compiz work properly. Most important bits are marked with red color.

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "single head configuration"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
	InputDevice    "Synaptics" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
	ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia"
	ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Synaptics"
	Driver      "synaptics"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto-dev"
	Option	    "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
	Option	    "LeftEdge" "120"
	Option	    "RightEdge" "830"
	Option	    "TopEdge" "120"
	Option	    "BottomEdge" "650"
	Option	    "FingerLow" "14"
	Option	    "FingerHigh" "30"
	Option	    "MaxTapTime" "180"
	Option	    "MaxTapMove" "110"
	Option	    "VertScrollDelta" "20"
	Option	    "HorizScrollDelta" "20"
	Option	    "MinSpeed" "0.10"
	Option	    "MaxSpeed" "0.75"
	Option	    "AccelFactor" "0.2"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
	Option	    "XkbModel" "pc105"
	Option	    "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Videocard0"
	Driver      "nvidia"
	Option	    "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Videocard0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	Option	    "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True"
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

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

After applying changes in xorg.conf file, X server has to be restarted – by pressing ctrl-alt-backspace, or in cleaner way – by logging current user out from desktop. After restarting X, but before enabling effects, there is just one thing left to do:

[evad@dell620 ~]$ gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/compiz

This command resets all Compiz settings to its default values. That should be all, you can now enable desktop-effects, *with* window decorations. :)

This solution worked for me, and I hope it would be helpful for others, stranded with that issue. Please leave your feedback below, if you have additional comments or suggestions.

Related:

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 at 12:31 and is filed under Linux. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

13 Responses to “Missing window decorations with desktop-effects”

  1. Ivan Says:
    December 10, 2006 at 18:10

    Thanks so much for this! I also have an nVidia card (with the nVidia accelerated driver) and was disappointed to have the window decorations disappear when enabling the effects. This fixed it, though, so I’m a happy camper :)

  2. Worked4Me Says:
    December 15, 2006 at 7:44

    These directions worked for me after and update from fedora core 5 to fedora core 6. I didn’t have to include the extensions section however.

  3. Raim Says:
    December 24, 2006 at 12:16

    Hi not sure if i have the same hardware for as your dell but my D620 doesnt work seem to like the Nvidia drivers, second question, i have installed the ipw deamon from freshrpms but altough it loads the daemon how can i start the wi-fi itself ? doesnt seem to open/start for me..

    thanks for you help in advance.

  4. Dawid Lorenz Says:
    December 26, 2006 at 23:40

    Raim: I don’t know what do you mean by ‘doesnt work seem to like the Nvidia drivers’. Answering second question: did you try to add new device/connection through System -> Administration -> Networking?

  5. Michael Says:
    January 8, 2007 at 13:57

    This information has saved me, because it’s been REALLY irritating to finally have a working 3D desktop, and no titlebars to move applications into the positions you want them to or even resize them easily. I can confirm that the information has worked for my NVidia card, as another poster confirmed. Using Mandriva 2007 Free system.

  6. Erik Forkalsrud Says:
    January 29, 2007 at 9:43

    I ran into the same problem, and after some trial and error, it looks like it was beryl (compiz fork) that had removed the decoration plugin in the compiz settings. I fixed it using gconf-editor, adding “decoration” to the list in the key /apps/compiz/general/allscreens/options/active_plugins (it should be the second item in the list, between “dbus” and “wobbly”)

  7. Chad Alan Says:
    May 6, 2007 at 12:05

    YES! Thank you! This info worked for me on Ubunty 7(Feisty Fawn) with Nvidia GeForce 6200TC [Excuse me while I add google search keywords. :D] I’ve been looking for a few days and finally found this fix.

  8. Ryan Vickers Says:
    May 18, 2007 at 4:28

    That’s exactly my problem (the screenshot at the top of the page exactly!). What’s even more perfect, it was working fine, but then I heard about this beryl thing, and thought I’d try it out. It stripped off all the window decorations (as shown) and they didn’t come back after removing it (and although it was very good effects, I like the Compiz way better!) So my point, this is my exact problem to a tee! I liked the idea about the “/apps/compiz/general/allscreens/options/active_plugins” key thing, but I looked, and to my despair, the “decorations” item was placed as you said, so I conclude that’s not the problem.

    Please help! This is so annoying! Just so you know, I’m using Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) with a GeForce 7600GT. And if it matters, I’m using the 64bit ubuntu, just so you know.

  9. Ryan Vickers Says:
    May 21, 2007 at 1:29

    Just like to post an update. This worked for me:

    add this line: Option “AddARGBGLXVisuals” “True”
    in the “screen” catagory in your (/etc/X11) xorg.conf file

    It worked! Ha Ha HA! I’m happy now.

  10. soren121 Says:
    May 25, 2007 at 22:07

    Yay! I’ve been searching all over the ‘net for a fix, and finally found it! When I had first encountered the problem, I thought I was just an idiot. Thanks!

  11. SuSE User Says:
    August 6, 2007 at 0:56

    I had this same problem on my openSuSE 10.2 I would like to add for SuSE users:
    If you use SaX2 to configure your x-server while using nvidia drivers(without AIGLX/XGL on beryl) you will have to execute the following commands:

    nvidia-xconfig –composite
    nvidia-xconfig –allow-glx-with-composite
    nvidia-xconfig –render-accel
    nvidia-xconfig –add-argb-glx-visuals

    And thats it.

    By the way, “The –allow-glx-with-composite option enables GLX even when the Composite X extension is loaded. ENABLE AT YOUR OWN RISK. OpenGL applications will not display correctly in many circumstances with this setting enabled. This option is intended for use on X.Org X servers older than X11R6.9.0. On X11R6.9.0 or newer X servers, the NVIDIA OpenGL implementation interacts properly by default with the Composite X extension and this option should not be needed. However, on X11R6.9.0 or newer X servers, support for GLX with Composite can be disabled by setting this option to False.”

    I got the information off of the openSuSE site but it should work for other distros too.

    I use openSuSE(64-bit, favorite), Linux Mint(Ubuntu Based, 32-bit) and PCLinuxOS(also, 32-bit)

  12. Mark - Ubuntu User Says:
    September 14, 2008 at 21:00

    Thanks Dawid! Almost 2 years later your post is still relevant and saving people a tremendous amount of time! All I had to do was add the ‘Device’ and ‘Screen’ options.

  13. Fauttlack Says:
    October 29, 2008 at 18:41

    Hi! Sometimes I can’t help but make a move with my spicy gas I have a nice joke for you) What is the biggest ant? An elephant.