X.org composite and nv driver

[Amit Uttamchandani <amit.uttam@gmail.com>]

Hello fellow powerpc users,

What is the state of composite on nvidia-based powerpc macs? I guess its not really dependent on architecture but more on the choice of graphics card on many macs. Specifically, nvidia based macs seem most affected by this. As far as I know, nvidia only provides proprietary drivers for intel users.

Currently, I am running Debian lenny on a G4 mac that has an nvidia geoforce 2MX graphics chip. I am using the 'nv' driver and everything works great so far. However, trying to use composite results in some annoyances.

First, with XFCE 4.4.2 with composite enabled the shadows work fine but transparency in the terminal application is not functional at all (What I get is full transparent terminal with black background on the terminal text, window decorations such as close button is not drawn).

Second, I tried using the awesome window manager with xcompmgr and get same behavior as above (shadows work, transparent terminal does not).

I did some research and here are the notes that I found:

 * 'nv' driver is only for 2D, it does not support 3D acceleration.

 * The only choice for 3D in nvidia+powerpc is the 'noveau' driver. It is still not fully developed but I will try it out if there is no other choice.

What do you guys do for composite?

Sorry for the long post...

Thanks,
Amit