Jayson Falkner's Blog

Blarg #26: Latest Java 6 snapshot fixes xgl/Compiz rendering problems

I just installed xgl/Beryl and am loving it; however, I noticed that Swing apps don't render. Sun has the bug report and the fix, but you have to download the latest Java binaries to get it.

Download Java 6u1 or better:

Now go enjoy that sweet Linux eye candy...Beryl baby, burn.

Comments

• 
  i've been using beryl for a while. for some time i was setting the AWT_TOOLKIT env var. now every time i do anything with swing, i simply switch window managers. it's annoying. i recently rebuilt/patched my copy of jdk6 but there are many situations where i still use java5.

  
  what has me worried is a comment by an x window manager developer.. at this url:

  
  http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6429775

  
  the comment is a little too long to copy here but here's a fragment:

  
  > why do you check for window managers at all? You don't have
  > to, you don't even have to select for SubstructureNotify if no
  > WM is running, there is no reason for a X client to check if a WM
  > is present or not. You simply have to select for StructureNotify.

  
  so apparently there's all this code in the java se codebase that makes java/swing do different things based on what window manager one runs. i'm no expert in this field but i agree wholeheartedly that it sounds like madness to try to handle each wm on a case by case basis, as in "if you're running metacity then do this, for kwin do that, for beryl do this, etc.." there are simply too many window managers to make sure that things render properly on each one. i also question why swing should render differently on different wm's.

  
  i think a more serious look at this codebase is necessary before we can call this issue fixed. otherwise we're sure to get bitten by it again in the future.

  Posted by: eitan on February 11, 2007 at 07:55 AM

• Not only do I agree with the post above, the 6u1 does not resolve the problem for Beryl 0.1.1 on Ubuntu 6.10 running NVidia drivers. I was excited that there was finally a fix for this problem but it appears I will have to continue to wait.

  Posted by: alexwinston on February 11, 2007 at 11:24 AM

• does not work also on my laptop running ubuntu feisty, beryl 0.2beta and with intel card.
  This is the actual bug for beryl: http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6509038

  Posted by: ildella on February 12, 2007 at 08:23 AM

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