Cannot choose Beryl as the windows manager

[Dotan Cohen]

On 06/05/07, Sam Varshavchik <mrsam at courier-mta.com> wrote:
> Dotan Cohen writes:
>
> > On 06/05/07, Sam Varshavchik <mrsam at courier-mta.com> wrote:
> >> > Thanks. So, I need to replace:
> >> > 1) Vesa/Radeon in xorg.cong to fglrx. This is simply done with VI.
> >>
> >> Maybe, maybe not.  I doubt that it's as easy as flipping a switch.  First,
> >> you need to install ATI's non-free kernel driver.  It's not a part of Fedora
> >> because it is not free software.  And it won't magically appear out of
> >> nowhere.  You have to install it, and it likely needs to be compiled for the
> >> kernel version you're running.  Anytime you update the kernel in the future,
> >> you will need to recompile it again.
> >
> > Because of this and other reasons (VMWare, for one), I think that I'll
> > simply stop updating the kernel. Seriously.
>
> Yes, if you do not have anything directly connected to the Internet, you
> generally don't have to worry about it.  But if you do have a permanent
> connection, then you certainly better keep an eye on kernel updates that
> include fixes for remotely-exploitable vulnerabilities (as there have been);
> then make a judgement call whether eye candy is more important to you than
> not getting hacked.  In all cases, even if you do not have permanent
> Internet connectivity, you still need to evaluate all kernel updates for
> vulnerabilities in potential indirect internal attack vectors, in your
> environment, and make the same judgement call.

In the case of VMWare, it's a lot more than eye candy. Unless you know
of a Linux replacement for Solidworks.

> Maybe it's just me, but I always found it easier just to buy and support
> hardware that's fully supported by free software.  I don't need these
> headaches.  I always thought that this is what Linux was all about, and if
> someone wants to use non-free, closed source, binary blobs, there are other
> operating systems that work better, and give you as many of them as you
> could possibly want.

I'm not being sarcastic. If you know of a 256 MB graphics card (again,
for SW) that I can put in this Dell Inspiron E1505 that is fully
supported by open source software, I'll buy it right now. Up to 1000
NIS, that's ~$250US right now. That's a lot of money that I'm willing
to put where my mouth is.

> >> I do not know if there's a prepackaged ati driver that you can install from
> >> some third-party yum repository.  I can't find it in Livna, the usual place
> >> for these kinds of things.  I have not looked at ATI's non-free driver, but
> >> it's fairly likely that its installation instructions is non-trivial.
> >> Welcome to the world of non-free, proprietary software.
> >
> > http://rpm.livna.org/livna-switcher.html
>
> Did you actually try this?  Looks to me like this information is out of
> date, at least I can't find these packages in the FC 6 Livna repo.

I did, in January. Like yourself, I'm finding it out of date right now.

> >> > 2) Xorg with XGL. This is done by installing XGL via yum.
> >>
> >> No, it's done by installing Xorg, which includes XGL.
> >
> > So I probably have it, then. The why isn't there much be that name:
> > [dotancohen at localhost ~]$ locate xgl
> > /usr/bin/beryl-xgl
> > /usr/share/apps/kdesktop/programs/xglobe.desktop
> > /usr/share/man/man1/beryl-xgl.1.gz
> > [dotancohen at localhost ~]$
>
> The reason there's nothing by that name is the same reason you won't find a
> distinct package called "smtp", even though whatever mail software you're
> using must certainly implement it.

Hmm... good point. Thanks.

So, I understand that I cannot run Beryl nor GoogleEarth (nor VMWare
Server, for that matter) with the current state of Fedora.

Dotan Cohen

http://technology-sleuth.com/long_answer/why_are_internet_greeting_cards_dangerous.html
http://what-is-what.com/what_is/linux.html