Bug 222785

Summary:	KDE should rely on Xorg telling wether DRI is possible
Product:	[Plasma] kwin	Reporter:	Frank Niethardt <frank>
Component:	general	Assignee:	Unassigned bugs mailing-list <unassigned-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Severity:	normal	CC:	wstephenson
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	NetBSD pkgsrc
OS:	NetBSD
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Frank Niethardt 2010-01-14 23:46:55 UTC

Version:            (using KDE 4.3.4)
Compiler:          gcc (GCC) 4.1.3 20080704 prerelease (NetBSD nb2 20081120) 
OS:                NetBSD
Installed from:    NetBSD pkgsrc

I did a fresh install of NetBSD and have the problem with my graphics card, that I can't use DRI, yet. When I run Xorg without configuration, it will load the drm module and try DRI, exiting with an error and leaving a black unusable screen behind. All I can do is reboot the machine to get a normal screen back. 
(Bug xsrc/42262)

Ok, now I tell Xorg to just not use DRI and can use Xorg "normal". Now I can start kdm and log in to KDE.

Now KDE tries to detect DRI themself and leave a black, unusable screen behind. The great thing is, that I can start Xorg, run an xterm and disable "Desktop Effects" in systemsettings. Then I can login to KDE and use it (besides some other graphical problems, that not happen with e.g. Xfce, but that will be another bug).

I can think of 2 solutions:
- rely on Xorg telling there is no DRI
- activate Desktop Effects after user say he wants that (maybe with an additional "Yes, it succeeded" button)

Comment 1 Martin Flöser 2010-04-08 20:17:40 UTC

with 4.4 the behaviour was slightly changed and kwin will only crash once when OpenGL is not available, for successife starts it will not be tried.

The problem is, that we have to initialize OpenGL to test if OpenGL is available. It is definately not an option to ask the user for enabling effects, as it just works in 99.9 % of the cases and distros would change that anyway.

I would kindly ask you to try if the way of 4.4 is good enough for you. In general I think it's not KDE's fault if it fails due to broken dependencies and we should be able to rely on the presence of DRI.

Comment 2 Frank Niethardt 2010-04-08 20:56:22 UTC

(In reply to comment #1)
> I would kindly ask you to try if the way of 4.4 is good enough for you. In
> general I think it's not KDE's fault if it fails due to broken dependencies and
> we should be able to rely on the presence of DRI.

I'm wondering why KDE has to test for DRI again, as I told Xorg not to use DRI? I mean I can understand, that you want to use OpenGL if it is available, but if Xorg tells (can it?) that there is no DRI available, so KDE shoul just accept it and not try to know it better...

Because, and there you are right, DRI will be there in most cases. And when it is not there, then there will be a reason, that KDE won't fix, IMHO.

Anyway, as I don't use NetBSD on this machine anymore, it is not important for me. Maybe for others...

Comment 3 Martin Flöser 2010-12-18 13:52:54 UTC

An easy workaround would have been to disable compositing in the xorg.conf. This is honoured.