Hi

I'm running Fedora Core 6 i386 on this (moderately) old Dell 1.8Ghz somebody let me install linux on, and am just wondering what the minimum sort of fps rate you need in order to get the spinny cube with Beryl Desktop Effects working smoothly.

The card is an
" Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Intergrated Graphics Device " , using the standard mesa GL drivers.

Glxgears and some of the GL screensavers work well, and I am currently around 655fps. But is this sufficient fps to get that spinny cube /etc.?

Thanks

NB. Which should I use: XGL, AIGLX, Compiz, or Beryl? I am a little confused about what the differences between them are... I'd also like to be able to have the effects on XFCE, if this should make any difference to the choice

I'll attempt to clear some of the confusion. If you have any kind of 3d accelleration, and it seems that you do, you can have the 'spinny cube'. I have a similar intel chip in my laptop and I get about 753 fps and I have all the eye candy and then some. 655 fps should be just fine.

For clarification (this may be too simplistic, others feel free to clarify and expand):
XGL: an x-server that uses hardware accelleration to render OpenGL on the desktop
AIGLX: an xorg module that uses hardware accelleration to render OpenGL on the desktop
These two are the 'guts' of the spinny cube, wobbly windows et al. You only need one, and FC6 has AIGLX installed and running by default. From what I've read, AIGLX works best with the intel graphics chips.

Compiz and Beryl are OpenGL based window managers. They actually do all the fun effects. Compiz is included in fc6, just click on "Desktop Effects" in the system-->preferences menu. You can have wobbly windows and the cube. Use the gconf editor to further fine tune things.

Beryl is now in the fedora extras. I tried it in a brief flirtation with Ubuntu Edgy. It has a graphical configurator, and it allows you to change the window decorations, and it has many more effects.

You will also be able to have the effects in XFCE as well.

Thanks, that was great (beryl is now working on xfce).

Does anyone know which option to use to stop the xfce-bar being highlighted every time the mouse moves over it? It's getting on my nerves...