A little help with Ubuntu please

I have been playing around with Ubuntu on and off for a bit now and feel like I am just about ready to use it more often than Vista. The only 2 (minor) problems I have with it are that Compiz does not seem to have a Vsync option and I can not get my USB TV adapter to work.

Reading around various forums it would seem I am not the only one with the Vsync problem, yet no conclusion has been made on how to fix it on my 7900GT. What happens is that once Compiz is fully enabled, everything from the 'wobbly' window effect to the '3D cube' desktop have some awful tearing when in motion.

Doing even more reading gives me even worse results on how to go about setting up my TV. I have a em2800 based adapter (empia USB 2800) that shows up on Ubuntu as a video4linux device, but I have no idea how to actually use it. Installing then starting up 'Xine' does nothing.

Any advice would be welcomed on how to go about solving any of these minor hiccups.

Have you tried changing vsync in nvidia's driver settings?

There's a problem with the current version of Compiz and nVidia's drivers. It's easy to fix, but basically you need to go into CompizConfig Settings manager (if you haven't got it, use Synaptic to install the compizconfig-settings-manager package), then General Settings -> Display Settings, and uncheck "detect refresh rate", whack the refresh rate up to 200 (the maximum), and check the VSync option. This will tell Compiz to aim for 200fps.

Next, run nVidia settings (just nvidia-settings in the terminal), and go to OpenGL settings then tick the VSync box. Close the settings app.

Next, you need to get Gnome to load the NV settings on login - in the System menu, go to Preferences -> Sessions, and add "nvidia-settings -l" as a startup entry. Log out, log back in again and go back into the Sessions settings. This time, go to "Current Session", find Compiz and change its order setting to 40. Then find "nvidia-settings -l" and change its order to 30 (not forgetting to apply each time). Finally, go to "Session Options" and hit the big button ("Remember currently running applications").

Log out, log back in again....and Compiz should be running uber-smooth and without tearing.

Basically, this is caused by nVidia's DynamicTwinView default options not reporting the correct refresh rate to X, so Compiz gets it utterly wrong and the end result is that animations look like crap.

Incidentally, you can also set your FSAA settings in the nVidia control panel now, and it'll work with Compiz.

Oh, and I've noticed that it seems to be less of a problem with compiz-core 0.6.2, which is available in the backports repository (edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file as root, and uncomment the backports repo, then "apt-get update" and grab the available updates in Update Manager). Be warned that stuff from backports is nowhere near as well-tested as the software in the normal repos.

Gigamo said:

Have you tried changing vsync in nvidia's driver settings?

Click to expand...

I had, but it did not work the way I would have liked

:LJ: said:

Next, you need to get Gnome to load the NV settings on login - in the System menu, go to Preferences -> Sessions, and add "nvidia-settings -l" as a startup entry. Log out, log back in again and go back into the Sessions settings. This time, go to "Current Session", find Compiz and change its order setting to 40. Then find "nvidia-settings -l" and change its order to 30 (not forgetting to apply each time). Finally, go to "Session Options" and hit the big button ("Remember currently running applications").

Log out, log back in again....and Compiz should be running uber-smooth and without tearing.

Click to expand...

THAT WORKED!

Now that I have that working great, would any of you know how to make each workspace have its own wallpaper? Wallpapoz looks to be what I am looking for, but perhaps a better way exists?