Compositor for X based window managers

Rocky Linux Tech Help
1

Hey Folks,

Looking for some advice for compositors for X based window managers. Openbox for example.

Is there anything in the standard package managers? Epel etc.

I cannot seem to find either Picom or Compton.

Also do I even need one to mitigate any possible issues?
Im not looking for any bells and whistles like transparency.
Just something to use to mitigate any screen tearing and things like that?
Anything that makes things feel smoother is worth considering but visual niceties not really important here.
Would it just be. bloat? I dont really suffer from any screen tearing or anything like that. do monitors / Nvidia video drivers fix issues like this these days anyhow?

Thanks in advance

2

A lot of effort has gone into Wayland as the compositor, is there some reason you want to use X?

3

Yes… Wayland breaks a lot of things for me.
I also use openbox as window manager which works with X and no desktop environment.
The easiest simplest, hassle free way for me to get a working desktop that doesn’t randomly break is to use X.
I always install from minimal as I like to have control, it is also is part of my repeatable, automated deployment plan, for multiple types of machines’s… servers, workstations etc
I’ll use X until it’s abandoned I imagine, as it just works.
x2go plus xrdp for Remote Desktop sessions too… plus lots of other things.
Its been solid for me for years, if it ain’t broke dont fix it.
Yes I understand its old… but hey, it never reminds me of that when im using it!
Also a lot of the linux community do not agree wayland is the way forward.
I’m personally waiting it out and probably will do until 2032, by then who knows if I’ll be even on RHEL clones, probably not

4

Anyhow,
Original question
Is there a standalone X compositor in the normal or epel package managers for Rocky 9.4?
Examples would be Compton or picom

5

  1. These standalone compositors are are really buggy/experimental and not well maintained. I cannot recommend them. You also won’t find compton or picom in Rocky or epel.

  2. You say you don’t see any tearing. A good test is to shake a terminal window horizontaly as fast as you can. (I’m assuming your window manager will move the window as a whole not only a frame around it.) If this doesn’t give you visible tearing, then you don’t have a problem to solve.

  3. Nvidia’s proprietary driver actually has some sort of built-in compositor, but it’s normally not used by default. To activate it you need something like this:

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Videocard0"
        Driver      "nvidia"
        Option      "metamodes" "nvidia-auto-select +0+0 {ForceCompositionPipeline=On}"
        Option      "UseNvKmsCompositionPipeline" "false"
EndSection

The last line is optional. You’re either getting better results with or without it.

See also Reddit - Dive into anything for what this really does.

1 Like
6

Thanks a lot for this!!
Really helpful information!
Will give all a go, and great I dont have to try and install these experimental packages, “compton/picom”

I havnt yet installed the Nvidia proprieties just relying on whatever open box / x came with, I assume nouveau, but Nvidia proprietary is on the list of testing for other performance based stuff!

7

Just confirming success so far.

I installed the proprietary Nvidia drivers… Via adding the repo to my dns config, I followed a few commands from another thread on here which goes over dependencies and disabling Nouveau.
Which worked great.

I discovered once drivers are installed you also get a neat GUI app from nvidia “NVIDIA X Server Settings”
This allows you to set all sorts of stuff, but essentially has functionality to write out a Xorg.conf… and also test all settings via GUI and hit apply,
I applied Force full composition pipeline, for both monitors in the GUI, applied the settings. Then got the guy to write me a /etc/X11/xorg.conf,
I saved it into my docs folder and “sudo cp” it to the /etc/X11 folder

This fixes any screen tearing!
I did mention earlier I didnt seem to have any.
However when trying the above methods to rapidly shake windows left to right, I noticed a bit! TBH I could have lived with it.

However I then started looking through and playing some image sequences back…
I found a pretty contrasty looking one which had very obvious screen tearing.
After installing proprietary drivers and enabling the full pipeline compositor there was zero tearing.

It would be amazing to be aware of any downsides to this performance wise?
However Im not a gamer and my primary gpu is always for displaying 3d apps and videos in the best quality possible, so performance well used anyhow! As long as it’s not seriously excessive I suppose!

It’s as smooth as my M1 Mac running OSX now!! And they are smooth!

1 Like
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