Pepse Posted February 17, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 Well, before I do that I can say that I decided to reboot the computer just in case that would help. No it didn't but when I clicked the "reboot" and just as KDE was fading out I noticed the fishtank. Near as I can figure it is behind the KDE GUI. So, I will attempt your idea later. It's 3 AM CST, and I gotta get some sleep. Later. Pepse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qnr Posted February 17, 2003 Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 yeah, there are some problems with accessing the root window in KDE - I think there is an area in the display section of the KDE control center where you can adjust things - read the man pages, you should be able to put it into a regular window just to test it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted February 17, 2003 Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 Seems to me you already have xfishtank just as I did. If you type in xfishtank and get a flash (attempted to run), then you have it. Try opening a console and type xfishtank --help. If you get help , then yoiu have it. As far as not working, I wonder if that might be because you do not have your video drivers installed and are using the default vga drivers installed by mandrake? On my system, I installed the NVIDIA drivers and many visual apps that didn't work started to work or sped up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepse Posted February 17, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 Well, I went to console and typed "xfishtank --help" and the reply is:" xfishtank: invalid option -- -" . As for video drivers I do have the latest nVidia drivers working (4191); I can do that now, install the vid drivers from "rpm's". So, I know my 3D rendering works. Also, I got "flash" going for the internet. 2 out of 4 items not bad. Anyway I"m getting a little bit smarter. But as for this fishtank your move. Later. Pepse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted February 17, 2003 Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 I think you need to check your config for the NVIDIA driver, run glxgears and other GL diagnostics to find the prob. Do any 3D games work..?..have you tried ? have you tried xfishtank as root? Maybe it's just the permissions on nvidia. from here; http://www.mandrakeusers.org/viewtopic.php?t=2030 For /etc/security/console.perms, you have to comment out 2 lines in order to be able to boot properly with a runlevel 5. Here they are: Code: .... #<dri>=/dev/nvidia* /dev/3dfx* .... #<xconsole> 0600 <dri> 0600 root Then you can Code: chmod 0666 /dev/nvidia* chown root /dev/nvidia* You shouldn't have to do it again after ... MOttS Go to the link to see it correctly...I'm at work..and gotta go :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qnr Posted February 17, 2003 Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 Um, I think you're going in the wrong direction. xfishtank IS working for him, and shows up when he exits KDE. There is a well-known problem accessing the root (desktop/background) window from within KDE if you're not using a KDE application. Lots of these programs, such as xplanet, xmars, and the like have a flag for this, made to work around the problem. If I remember correctly, what you do is open the display section (where you set your wallpaper), there will be a command to say you want to run a program (or application?) then you'd enter the xfishtank command, and give flags to xfishtank to write a graphics file (check man xfishtank) ... this is hard for me to test, since I don't have KDE installed, but I'm 98% certain that this is what you should be doing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted February 17, 2003 Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 If I type in xfishtank -help, I get an invalid option too. If I type in xfishtank --help (2 dashes), it gives me the help. If I type in xfishtank I get a flicker flash. But when I check my desktop, I have the fish.. So you do have xfishtank installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted February 17, 2003 Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 O.K so I was at work...needed to use the restroom :P ...boss was paging me and about 3 other things.....I guess xfishtank isn't exactly a 3D openGL app :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qnr Posted February 17, 2003 Report Share Posted February 17, 2003 lol - well, I only brought it up because there was suddenly all this talk of OpenGL & misinterpretation of "flash" to mean Shockwave Flash, I didn't want someone to suddenly start messing with their kernel settings :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepse Posted February 18, 2003 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 First of all, qnr, just to let you know cannonfodder and bvc are aware of the hassle I had with trying to install my video drivers. That is why there was mention of that situation. I have tried MESA morph and MESA gears, as well as glxgears (in a console) with success. So, my 3D rendering appears to work. As for the xfishtank I have tried the suggestions given here with no success. As for "xfishtank -help or --help " I get the same results: xfishtank: invalid option -- - usage: xfishtank [-c color] background color [-b limit] number of bubbles (default 32) [-f limit] number of fish (default 10) [-i mult] move interval (default 0.2) [-r rate] move frequency (default 0.2) [-m num] median cut to this many colors [-C num] use only this many color cells [-d] clip fish, swim on root window [-p file] fish swim on picture in file] [host:display] There you have it. I have looked into KDE Background and there is nothing to let me add anything other than what is there; one addition over norm is a jpeg I downloaded from the net that is my current wallpaper. Your move. Later. Pepse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qnr Posted February 18, 2003 Report Share Posted February 18, 2003 I have no doubt that they helped with Mesa, I was just pointing out that xfishtank doesn't require it. now, as far as help goes, generally (but absolutely not always) --help is a newer form of the old way programs used to use flags, in this case -h --- so, you can try xfishtank -h or xfishtank --help (xfishtank -help most likely wouldn't work, because that would be kind of like saying xfishtank -h -e -l -p ) what you got, with the invalid option bit is equivalent to what you would normally get with something like xfishtank --usage ok, now about the display... remember though, that I don't have kde installed. If you right click on an open area of the desktop, a context menu should come up. Somewhere in that context menu, there will be an option to let you change the background. Now, the changes allowed to the background are things like "Color" (or gradients between two colors), wallpaper (or multiple wallpapers) and hidden somewhere in the is the ability to run an application on the background (root) window. What you want to do is select that, and then look at some of the ones that are already in the (I think there is one that will display the KDE website, for example) and get a rough idea of what is going on. You want to add your own, telling it to run xfishtank, and you want to use the -d flag [-d] clip fish, swim on root window and the -p file flag [-p file] fish swim on picture in file] Do you get anything when you do a man xfishtank? You should, because there are xfishtank man pages on the web One last thing, do a Google search for the homepage of Xglobe or Xplanet, one of the two had a good description of how to put things on the KDE root window Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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