First version of 4.0 release notes for KWin. Comments, additions,
corrections are welcome. CCMAIL: kwin@kde.org svn path=/trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/; revision=758686
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Luboš Luňák
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149
NOTES_4_0
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NOTES_4_0
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@ -3,9 +3,147 @@ This document is for creating the 4.0 release notes. There are 3 parts:
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- comments and todo's about what should be added to them
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- comments about what should be in the accompanying kwin 4.0 video
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TODO - check all XXX notes
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4.0 release notes
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=================
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= Introduction =
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KWin, the standard KDE window manager, in KDE4.0 ships with the first version
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of built-in support for compositing, making it also a compositing manager.
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This allows KWin to provide advanced graphical effects, like for example with Compiz,
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while also providing all the features from previous KDE releases (such as very good
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intergration with the rest of KDE, advanced configurability, well-tested window manager, etc.).
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Unlike Compiz, KWin still functions even when no system support for compositing is
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available, with only compositing features not being available in such case.
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Previous KWin versions in later KDE3.x releases included a standalone compositing
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manager called kompmgr, based on the xcompmgr compositing manager. Kompmgr was only
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loosely tied with KWin, used only XRender for rendering and provided only basic
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features like transparency, shadows and fade in/out animations. Compositing manager
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in KWin in KDE4.0 is integrated with the rest of KWin, can use either OpenGL or XRender
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for rendering and has a framework for compositing effects, all these allowing KWin
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to provide a much wider range of features.
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Note, however, that compositing support in KWin in KDE4.0 is still considered experimental,
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for several reasons. System support for compositing is often being problematic (various bugs
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in X, drivers or other parts of the system), manual configuration of X may be required
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for proper results (see below), some applications may not be prepared and work well
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with compositing, the performance may not be adequate, and other problems.
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Also, while KWin's compositing support is considered usable and reasonably stable, it
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is relatively new code and has been tested only on a limited range of hardware.
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Therefore, compositing support in KWin is disabled by default, and needs to be explicitly
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enabled. If there will be any problems, you can disable it again (see below for troubleshooting)
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and report a bug with all relevant information about the problem.
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= Setting up =
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Compositing support is enabled in KWin's configuration. Press Alt+F3 and select 'Configure Window
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Behavior'. In the configuration module, select page 'Desktop Effects' and enable checkbox
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'Enable desktop effects'. After accepting the changes, a dialog with a timeout will appear,
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asking to confirm enabling of compositing support. If you do not confirm within the timeout,
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compositing support will be disabled again, therefore, if enabling compositing triggers
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any problems, it should be sufficient to wait several seconds before the changes are reverted.
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Note that after enabling or disabling compositing it is recommended to restart your KDE
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session in order to ensure that all applications detect the change.
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If you cannot enable desktop effects, it may be because either your KDE is not built
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with necessary support, or more probably because your system is not capable of providing
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compositing support. See file
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XXX http://websvn.kde.org/*checkout*/trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/kwin/COMPOSITE_HOWTO
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for some instructions on setting up your system. Note that there may be other factors
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affecting whether you do or do not have compositing support.
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= Usage =
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A quick overview of features provided by compositing manager in KWin:
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- Ctrl+F9 (and Ctrl+F10 for windows from all desktops) shows an overview of all windows
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and allows activating one of them. The feature can be also activated by moving the mouse
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into the top-left screen corner. A window can be activated by clicking it or by using arrows
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and Enter key. You can also type text to filter the list of windows.
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- Ctrl+F8 shotcut activates a desktop grid - all your virtual desktops will be arranged
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on the screen (as an enlarged pager) - you can select and activate desktops using
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a number, a function key, by clicking on it or by using arrows and Enter key,
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you can move windows by dragging them or by right-clicking on them.
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- The DesktopGrid effect also provides animations when switching between virtual desktops (can
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be turned off).
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- The window switcher (Alt+Tab by default) provides live thumbnails of windows.
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- Windows blocked by modal dialogs are dimmed.
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- Screen can be zoomed in and out using Win+<equals>, Win+<minus> and reset using Win+0 (
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it is currently not possible to use mouse wheel, but this feature is planned). Note that
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because of input transformation not being yet available in X the zoomed screen has to move
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around to keep the mouse pointer at the same place like it would be when not zoomed.
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- Screen can be shown with inverted colors by pressing Ctrl+Win+I (accessibility feature,
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Invert effect is not enabled by default).
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- There are fade animations during login and logout.
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- Windows fade in and out.
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- Minimize animation to/from taskbar.
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- Windows have shadows.
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There are more features that are not enabled by default and need to be explicitly enabled
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in the configuration.
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XXX link to 4.0 kwin video
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= Troubleshooting =
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As already said, compositing support in KWin is considered usable and reasonably stable,
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but due to several reasons it may not work properly for you.
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If there are any problems with compositing support, the simplest option is to disable
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it again. KWin will normally continue functioning, only not providing compositing features.
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If you cannot normally turn off compositing support (for example because the screen
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is corrupted), you can turn it off using one of these ways:
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- run command 'kwriteconfig --file kwinrc --group Compositing --key Enabled false' from
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the command line
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- set environment variable 'KWIN_COMPOSE' to 'N' (append 'export KWIN_COMPOSE=N' at the end
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of your ~/.profile), this affects compositing only temporarily
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You will probably need to switch to text mode or start failsafe session from KDM to be
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able to perform this.
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See file
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XXX http://websvn.kde.org/*checkout*/trunk/KDE/kdebase/workspace/kwin/COMPOSITE_HOWTO
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for some issues with various graphics cards.
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See other sections below for further possible problems.
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= XRender mode =
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It is possible to use XRender for compositing instead of the default OpenGL.
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XRender mode in general has less features, however at the moment it is also considered
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unstable - it has not received as much testing as OpenGL mode, some features may be incomplete
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and it is recommended to use the OpenGL mode if possible. Also note that current XRender
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implementations (in X/drivers) often perform rather poorly.
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= Developers =
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KWin provides support for writing compositing effects that may be loaded into KWin as
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plugins. These effects communicate with KWin core using C++ API specially designed for this
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purpose, making effects not directly dependent on KWin core and changes in it.
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At the time of the KDE4.0 release, since compositing support is still under heavy development,
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this API is considered unstable and subject to change. If you write your own effect plugin,
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you may need to recompile it after KWin update. KWin will however detect incompatible
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versions and will not load such plugins (automatic, you do not need to provide any code for it).
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As the compositing support will become more stabilized, this API will be kept backwards and
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binary compatible, just like with other KDE libraries.
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At the time of the KDE4.0 release, API for compositing effects is unfortunately only sparsely
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documented. Developers interested in writing compositing effects for KWin are suggested
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to use source code of effects shipped with KWin (the Howto effect as the starting point)
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XXX link to kwin sources?
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and/or ask on the KWin mailing list XXX link.
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= Various =
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- Performance/smoothness with nVidia cards: Smoothness of KWin rendering
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can be improved by setting env.variable KWIN_NVIDIA_HACK to 1 (e.g. append
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@ -16,21 +154,10 @@ This document is for creating the 4.0 release notes. There are 3 parts:
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if the negative impact becomes insignificant. See section "OPENGL YIELD BEHAVIOR"
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in README.txt for nVidia cards.
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- XRender mode: It is possible to use XRender for compositing instead of the default OpenGL.
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XRender mode in general has less features, however at the moment it is also considered
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unstable - it has not received as much testing as OpenGL mode, some features may be incomplete
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and it is recommended to use the OpenGL mode if possible. Also note that current XRender
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implementations often perform rather poorly.
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Comments
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========
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- mention how to turn it on
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- refer to COMPOSITE_HOWTO?
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- mention API is unstable, work in progress and whatnot
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- hmm, better mention compositing as a whole is still somewhat experimental :)
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Video
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=====
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