XGL and Beryl for Gnome users

For those who are bored by gdm/kdm/xdm/*dm, here a little how-to with a startx-like method.

emerge layman

In /etc/layman/layman.cfg

Change:

storage  : /usr/portage/local/layman to storage  : /usr/local/layman
nocheck  : no                        to nocheck  : yes

Get the overlay list and the xeffects overlay sources :

layman -L
layman -a xeffects

Add the overlay dir in /etc/make.conf :

.
.
.
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/layman/xeffects"

Maybe mesa need to be merge with hard-masked sources before merging xgl:

/etc/portage/packages.unmask :

>=media-libs/mesa-6.5.2

emerge mesa xgl

Then, create a new script to start xgl, called startxgl :

cp /usr/bin/startx /usr/bin/startxgl

Open it, and modify the init line to launch xgl with ati drivers options :

xinit $clientargs -- /usr/bin/Xgl -br -ac -accel xv:pbuffer -accel glx:pbuffer -
fp /usr/share/fonts/misc $serverargs -deferglyphs 16 &

So, you get the following code :

/usr/bin/startxgl :

#!/bin/sh

# $Xorg: startx.cpp,v 1.3 2000/08/17 19:54:29 cpqbld Exp $
#
# This is just a sample implementation of a slightly less primitive
# interface than xinit. It looks for user .xinitrc and .xserverrc
# files, then system xinitrc and xserverrc files, else lets xinit choose
# its default. The system xinitrc should probably do things like check
# for .Xresources files and merge them in, startup up a window manager,
# and pop a clock and serveral xterms.
#
# Site administrators are STRONGLY urged to write nicer versions.
#
# $XFree86: xc/programs/xinit/startx.cpp,v 3.16tsi Exp $
userclientrc=$HOME/.xinitrc
sysclientrc=/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc


userserverrc=$HOME/.xserverrc
sysserverrc=/etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc
defaultclientargs=""
defaultserverargs="-nolisten tcp -br"
clientargs=""
serverargs=""

if [ -f $userclientrc ]; then
    defaultclientargs=$userclientrc
elif [ -f $sysclientrc ]; then
    defaultclientargs=$sysclientrc






fi
if [ -f $userserverrc ]; then
    defaultserverargs=$userserverrc
elif [ -f $sysserverrc ]; then
    defaultserverargs=$sysserverrc
fi

whoseargs="client"
while [ x"$1" != x ]; do
    case "$1" in
      /''*|\.*) if [ "$whoseargs" = "client" ]; then
                  if [ "x$clientargs" = x ]; then
                      clientargs="$1"
                  else
                      clientargs="$clientargs $1"
                  fi
              else
                  if [ "x$serverargs" = x ]; then
                      serverargs="$1"
                  else
                      serverargs="$serverargs $1"
                  fi
              fi ;;
      --) whoseargs="server" ;;
      *) if [ "$whoseargs" = "client" ]; then
                  if [ "x$clientargs" = x ]; then
                      clientargs="$defaultclientargs $1"
                  else
                      clientargs="$clientargs $1"
                  fi
              else
                  case "$1" in
                      :[0-9]*) display="$1"; serverargs="$serverargs $1";;
                      *) serverargs="$serverargs $1" ;;
                  esac
              fi ;;
    esac
    shift
done

if [ x"$clientargs" = x ]; then
 clientargs="$defaultclientargs"
fi
if [ x"$serverargs" = x ]; then
 serverargs="$defaultserverargs"
fi

if [ x"$XAUTHORITY" = x ]; then
    XAUTHORITY=$HOME/.Xauthority
    export XAUTHORITY
fi

removelist=


# set up default Xauth info for this machine
case `uname` in
Linux*)
 if [ -z "`hostname --version 2>&1 | grep GNU`" ]; then
  hostname=`hostname -f`
 else
  hostname=`hostname`
 fi
 ;;
*)
 hostname=`hostname`
 ;;
esac

authdisplay=${display:-:0}
mcookie=`/usr/bin/mcookie`
dummy=0

# create a file with auth information for the server. ':0' is a dummy.
xserverauthfile=$HOME/.serverauth.$$
xauth -q -f $xserverauthfile << EOF
add :$dummy . $mcookie
EOF
serverargs=${serverargs}" -auth "${xserverauthfile}

# now add the same credentials to the client authority file
# if '$displayname' already exists do not overwrite it as another
# server man need it. Add them to the '$xserverauthfile' instead.
for displayname in $authdisplay $hostname$authdisplay; do
     authcookie=`xauth list "$displayname" \
       | sed -n "s/.*$displayname[[:space:]*].*[[:space:]*]//p"` 2>/dev/null;
    if [ "z${authcookie}" = "z" ] ; then
        xauth -q << EOF
add $displayname . $mcookie
EOF
 removelist="$displayname $removelist"
    else
        dummy=$(($dummy+1));
        xauth -q -f $xserverauthfile << EOF
add :$dummy . $authcookie
EOF
    fi
done



cleanup() {
    [ -n "$PID" ] && kill $PID > /dev/null 2>&1

if [ x"$removelist" != x ]; then
    xauth remove $removelist
fi
if [ x"$xserverauthfile" != x ]; then
    rm -f $xserverauthfile
fi





if command -v deallocvt > /dev/null 2>&1; then
    deallocvt
fi
}


trap cleanup 0

xinit $clientargs -- /usr/bin/Xgl -br -ac -accel xv:pbuffer -accel glx:pbuffer -
fp /usr/share/fonts/misc $serverargs -deferglyphs 16 &
#xinit $clientargs -- /opt/Xgl/bin/Xgl :1 $serverargs  -ac -accel glx:pbuffer -a
ccel xv:pbuffer -fp /usr/share/fonts/misc &


PID=$!

wait $PID

unset PID

I have issues with window-decoration when using Compiz, so I choose Beryl, and It does not seems to be a bad choice.

Merge it :

emerge beryl

And create a script to launch Beryl as window-manager when running the previous script :

cd 
mkdir .config/autostart
cd .config/autostart
touch beryl-manager.desktop

beryl-manager.desktop :

[Desktop Entry]
Name=No name
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Exec=beryl-manager
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true

Now, running Beryl is done with the startxgl command.

keyboard layout.

http://wiki.gentoo-xeffects.org/Overlay#Update_the_XEffects_overlay_for_the_new_layout_this