Plasma alternative

[Duncan]

James Tyrer posted on Sun, 18 Oct 2009 08:11:53 -0700 as excerpted:

>> But stable... yes.  OTOH, that might be because I'm not running OpenGL,
>> and Composite, while slow on my old Radeon 9200 at the size of desktop
>> I'm running, /is/ quite stable.
> 
> You should be able to run OpenGL on the Radeon 9200.  That is the newest
> card that does 3D acceleration with the Xorg/XF86 drivers.  However, you
> do need to select EXA for fast response.  Unfortunately, that will cause
> problems with some KDE-3 applications.

OpenGL does indeed work on the Radeon 9200, *BUT* that little clause "at 
the size of desktop I'm running" unfortunately also applies as well.

My desktop is two (24" LCD) 1920x1200 monitors, stacked for 1920x2400.  
Pretty roomy... tho what I /really/ wanted was dual 30" 2560x1600... but 
couldn't afford the $1000 plus /each/ they were going to cost, so I 
settled.

The problem with OpenGL is that on the Radeon 9200, or any Radeon r2xx 
chip for that matter, OpenGL is limited to 2048x2048.  One would /think/ 
that it might be possible to doe the same pixels (4.2 MegaPixels) in at 
least double 4x3 resolution 1600x2400 (3.9 MPx, 1920x2400 would be 4.6+ 
MPx so over the 4.2 of 2048x2048), which is what I was running 
previously, but that didn't work either, it's 2048 in either direction.

Obviously 2400 > 2048, so OpenGL only works in the top 2048 px, not the 
bottom 352 px.  While that works for something like glxgears or something 
run full-screen on the top monitor, kwin (and whatever else handles kde4 
OpenGL effects) won't run in OpenGL mode with detection on, and while I 
can force it to, it doesn't work right, and is very crashy besides.

So basically, I have a choice between running lower than native 
resolution to get it under 2048 total vertical px and getting OpenGL, 
running native resolution but with an overlap of some 352 px to be 
displayed on both monitors again getting it under 2048 total vertical 
pixels, or running at full resolution, but giving up OpenGL effects until 
I upgrade cards.  I chose the latter.

As for the 9200 being the newest card with 3D/OpenGL using the native/
freedomware xorg (and Linux kernel drm) drivers, that's no longer the 
case.  They've stabilized OpenGL support up thru the Radeon r5xx chip 
series now -- that's thru the Radeon x1950 cards (apparently minus the 
x1200 and x1250, which are rs600 chip cards, along with the x2100).  The 
r600 and r700 (and the newest r800) based cards, basically anything 
hdxxxx plus the three x-prefix exceptions mentioned above, has OpenGL 
support to some degree in the latest native freedomware xorg ati/radeon 
driver I think, but it's still under heavy development, with git tree 
recommended in that case, and isn't stable.

Which is why I'm looking at upgrading to an x1950 ATM.  The cards are 
still quite expensive especially in their AGP form (exceptionally 
expensive for their age, $150 street), but they handle at LEAST
3072x3072 px (the figure I saw, but I'm not sure where the next cutoff 
is) OpenGL and maybe higher. (I'd love to get something capable of 3200 
vertical, so I could at some point upgrade to those nice 30" 2560x1600 
monitors, but I expect that'd take an hd* r600+, likely and r700+ or r800
+, and of course those don't have stable native xorg/kernel freedomware 
drivers yet.)

>> Of course I won't touch proprietary drivers and would tend to blame
>> them for instability ... .
> 
> I am using the Xorg "radeon" driver but that isn't the stability problem
> that I am having.
> 
> The main current issue is that Plasma still forgets configurations.  My
> specific problem is that the Trash widget forgets its size and location
> on start up.  I have two FolderView widgets on my DeskTop.  The one for
> the DeskTop was having problems last week but now seems to work OK.
> However, the other one must be moved and resized every time that I start
> my KDE-4 session.

Maybe that's why I'm not experiencing issues.  I've never liked having a 
"trash bin" aka "recycle bin" to have to empty.  If I delete a file, I 
want the space recovered then and there; I don't want the file going into 
some semi-deleted purgatory somewhere.  (Yes, I know that a file still 
exists on the disk, just the name is removed, and that even a shred may 
leave artifacts on journaling or log based filesystems, due to the way 
they work.  That's not the issue.  I just want it deleted so the 
filesystem isn't worrying about it, which is what a real delete does that 
a "fake delete" aka "trash", does.)  If I'm not sure I want the file 
deleted, I don't normally remove it.  I'll rename it, usually adding the 
date and .remove as extensions, or some such, and next time I see it, 
I'll check the date and see if I think it has been long enough to safely 
remove yet.  If I do delete it, I want it deleted, again, not in some 
trash-based-purgatory somewhere.

So I have no trash shortcut on my desktop, and have kde set to use 0 size 
for it.  Additionally, I have it set to show the delete option (and hide 
the move to trash where possible), and reset the delete key as the delete 
function shortcut.  I *DO* leave the confirmation on, for both trash, so 
if I somehow accidentally invoke it I get a chance to cancel and to do a 
proper delete, and for delete, in case I /do/ accidentally invoke it, but 
that's all the protection I need, and all I want.  Any more gets in the 
way.

So obviously I'm not going to have problems with the desktop trash 
shortcut.  I think I last tried a folderview desktop plasmoid back on 
4.3.0, and yes, it did still have issues then, but I decided folderview 
wasn't quite what I wanted anyway, so I don't have any of those on the 
desktop either.  Instead, I use a small fly-out panel in the bottom left 
corner with a few button-type plasmoids on it, including kickoff which I 
don't use much, a "classic" menu with bookmarks and systemsettings, the 
device-notifier, and a quick-access plasmoid (from kde-look), which is 
sort of like a folderview in the panel (flyout menu), except that subdirs 
act as submenus instead of opening the system file-manager.  That quick-
access launcher points to a directory with a bunch of symlinks to all the 
various frequently accessed dirs on the system, so often I don't have to 
actually open the filemanager for file access, at all.  That does what I 
need for directory access, so no folderview necessary.

FWIW, the three plasmoids I do have on the desktop are comic-strip, yawp 
(yet another weather plasmoid), and a big analog clock (which with the 
professional plasma theme from kde-look, has a nice surreal effect, 
almost like a Dali painting... my time referral is generally to the 
digital readout time sensor on one of my yasp-scripted plasmoids I have 
on the big system monitor panel stretching across the top of the top 
monitor.  I'm going to try to get a good screenshot taken and linked 
somewhere, but haven't yet.)  I've not noticed them moving around any.

But obviously some plasmoids still have issues, as someone else was 
complaining a week or so ago, about losing their plasmoid config, as well.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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