Page 1 of 1

suggestion to use Compton as default

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 9:55 am
by mxuserjohn
Hi

Just a suggestion, but perhaps it would be good for you to set Compton compositor as default in KDE edition?
I'm running MX KDE on a Dell laptop with Intel/Nvidia Optimus graphics. Everything works great, except for some screen tearing and flicker.

I switched KDE to run on Compton instead, and it's flawless. Everything works smoothly (transparencies, effects, nvidia optirun...) and NO screen tearing or flicker :-)

I just set Compton to run on startup, with these options: compton --vsync opengl-swc --backend glx
as per instructions on this page: https://www.maketecheasier.com/speed-up ... h-compton/

Just thought it might help others experiencing similar issues :-)

Re: suggestion to use Compton as default

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 10:24 am
by MXtones
I totally agree. I'm running XFCE/i3 and switching compositors has solved similar issues for me - only I'm using compton's unofficial successor "picom", since compton hasn't been maintained for over two years now. Unfortunately picom is not a repo package (yet?!) ;)

https://github.com/yshui/picom

Re: suggestion to use Compton as default

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 11:18 am
by manyroads
I'm not a KDE person/user but I believe it is designed to run using kwin. If there is a DE offered by a distro (like KDE or xfce) it is best to offer the DE using common base tools. xfce4 uses xfwm...

MX offers an easy way for non-technical users to change compositors.

FWIW, if stability is your objective, I recommend using xcompmgr (not those new fangled gizmos...) :eek: :footinmouth:

Re: suggestion to use Compton as default

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 1:14 pm
by mxuserjohn
Hi Manyroads

I am aware of the fact that different desktops have their "recommended" compositors, but my experience with the tearing / flicker is not limited to KDE. It happens on XFCE, GNome and Mate, LXQT etc... too. Unfortunately Gnome has to use its own, but I've switched Mate & XFce to Compton as well, with the same results - it just works.

Obviously anyone can do what I did, and swap compositors, but I've seen enough posts around the internet the past few days to tell me that I'm far from the only one experiencing display issues in Linux, and that Compton seems to fix them.

Again, this is just a suggestion, but it would seem to me that if Compton works better (and it appears that it does) then why not use it as the default and save people the trouble of having to figure out what's going on?

Re: suggestion to use Compton as default

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 2:14 pm
by tony37
I tried compton on KDE, but it's absolutely not the same as Kwin, it looks more crude to me. And it does give me some tearing/flickering when opening windows btw.
If you want to use it, that's completely fine of course but maybe your tearing problems can also be solved in a different way. Is your System Info still the same as here? But since you're using KDE now, best to provide your full Quick System Info again.

Re: suggestion to use Compton as default

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 2:36 pm
by Stevo
I was able to backport picom from upstream Debian only by disabling the docs build, but nobody reads those anyway. :p

Maybe I can send the packages up to the test repo...

Re: suggestion to use Compton as default

Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2020 2:36 pm
by Mauser
MXtones wrote: Tue Oct 13, 2020 10:24 am I totally agree. I'm running XFCE/i3 and switching compositors has solved similar issues for me - only I'm using compton's unofficial successor "picom", since compton hasn't been maintained for over two years now. Unfortunately picom is not a repo package (yet?!) ;)

https://github.com/yshui/picom
On my desktop computer Compton causes screen tearing in Xfce which is why I use Xfwm (Xfce) Compositor. On my laptop computer it likes Compton.

Re: suggestion to use Compton as default

Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2020 4:01 am
by MXtones
Stevo wrote: Tue Oct 13, 2020 2:36 pm Maybe I can send the packages up to the test repo...
That would be great :cool2: (or cool)