Howto install Compiz and Xgl on Fedora Core 5

Introduction:
Xgl is an Xserver that uses OpenGL for its drawing operations. Together with compiz, an opengl compositing and window manager, it allows for some cool desktop effects. Xgl relies on an extension to mesa, GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, that is present only in CVS mesa.

Demonstration Videos:
A torrent with a collection of videos is available from: http://bdiddy.rty.ca/xgl-vids.torrent (164.8 MiB)
Here a nice video recorded by David Reveman (included in the above torrent): http://www.freedesktop.org/~davidr/xgl-demo1.xvid.avi

Hardware Prerequisites
See HARDWARE Video Card Support Under XGL on the gentoo documentation wiki.

Sofware Prerequisites

Installed 3D driver:
Follow the intructions provided in the Fedora FAQ.
Below links are for FC5.

• How do I enable 3D support for my ATI Radeon card in Fedora Core 5? (Updated 2 May 2006)
• How do I enable 3D support for my nVidia graphics card in Fedora Core 5? (Updated 2 May 2006)

Package list to install:

• compiz OR compiz-quinn
• xorg-x11-server-Xgl
• fedora-xgl-settings
• gset-compiz
• xgl-hardware-list
• glitz
• libsvg-cairo
• libsvg

Import RPMS GPG key:

rpm --import http://users.telenet.be/quenta/RPM-GPG-KEY-AL-CAPCOM

Install the xgl repository:

rpm -ivh http://users.telenet.be/quenta/xgl-repository-1.0-1.noarch.rpm

Install the packages:

yum install compiz xorg-x11-server-Xgl

Configure the system:

Check your system capability:

gnome-xgl-info

This command must return, it's like that:

G nVidia Corporation
1 kmod-nvidia is not installed for the kernel release 1.2111_FC5
1 -accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv

Explanation the return of gnome-xgl-info:

First line is:
CardStatus [CardName]
where CardStatus is: G(ood), B(ad), S(low), or U(nknown)

Second line is:
3DStatus [Missing or installed Packages]
where 3DStatus is 0 or 1

Third line is:
XglStatus [RecommendedOptions]
where XglStatus is 0 or 1 and RecommendedOptions is set if the hardware is detected as compatible.

Enable Xgl:

gnome-xgl-switch --enable-xgl --auto

When the script ask you for applying the modifications, say (y)es.

If xgl doesn't start, see troubleshooting links below:
On the opensuse website: http://en.opensuse.org/Xgl_Troubleshooting
On the gentoo wiki: http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_XGL/Troubleshooting

Configure Compiz:

gset-compiz

gset-compiz is a very good tool to configure compiz, it was wrot by gerd kohlberger.
This software can also manage the configuration of the Quinn Storm compiz version.