Stumble It!

There are the following modes to run LG3D:

• Developer mode (lg3d-dev). This mode runs LG3D in a window on your desktop.
• Application Mode (lg3d-app). This mode runs LG3D  in a window on your desktop but allows native X11 applications to run in the same window alongside LG3D applications.

Linux-Tip.net tested the Looking Glass installation in /usr/share/ and configured it to run it in a desktop session (gdm desktop). In this mode GNOME does not run and LG3D runs as the sole window manager.

The software is still in the development process. If you look to the scripts itself, Mandriva Linux is not yet supported, but I’ve found some work arounds to get it running with Nvidia graphics cards. Not everything is working yet and compared to other Linux 3D desktop solutions like Beryl, LG3D is is slower and not so stable. Nevertheless, it was a nice experience to get it running and to see a different nice looking 3D desktop on a Mandriva box. To setup, install and run LG3D please go through the following steps :

 

Step 1: Download and install the Mega-Bundle

The LG3D Mega-bundle Installer installs LG3D and all the necessary components including JRE and Java 3D. Download it here:

https://lg3d-core.dev.java.net/files/documents/1834/46210/lg3d--1-0-0-linux-i686-0612190943.bin

Store it in your home directory (/home/users Downloads). The LG3D developer recommend to install it into /usr/share directory. Let’s do this after getting root permissions:

su
cd /usr/share
/home/user/Downloads/ lg3d--1-0-0-linux-i686-0612190943.bin

It will take some time to unpack and install everything. You'll later find all necessary files in the following directory:

/usr/share/lg3d

Remark!

If you do not have the latest Nvida driver running, please install it first. See here to get a detailed description. You should also modify the xorg.conf file like explained.

Step 2: Install GDM packages

We'll later add LG3D as another desktop session type. Therefore we need to install the gdm packages first. Let's use the urpmi command in this case. Users who are not familiar with the Mandriva command-line package management tool should read this article first:

Just use the following command in your favourite console. The tool will automatically take care for dependencies and will install all necessary packages:

su

urpmi gdm 

Step 3: Hacking the scripts

Like mentioned before, it is not yet easy to use the existing scripts with Mandriva Linux. Some work has to be done to integrate this distribution in the LG3D Project. Unfortunately we have to hack some files to get a proper result.

 
Let's  start with the following file:

/usr/share/lg3d/usr/share/lg3d/bin/add-lg-to-gdm

 
We're sure to run the postinstall scripts as root, so we can easily comment the following lines out.

Line: 22

#if [ $USER != root ]; then

# echo "You must run this script with root permissions."

# echo "Operation failed. LG will not be added as a gdm session."

# exit 1

#fi

The gdm files are locate in the following directory, so we have to add this:

Line: 70

 # Before giving up try the Mandriva location

 if [ -e /etc/X11/gdm ]; then

 dtopSessionDir=/etc/X11/gdm

Additionally we have to hack the following file:

/usr/share/lg3d/usr/share/lg3d/bin/lg3d-app

Change line 60 and the following like this:

 
#if [ -e /usr/share/fonts/X11 ]; then

if [ -e /usr/share/fonts ]; then

 # Debian Etch and Ubuntu Edgy

 # Note: fix for 705: this we need to check for

 # this directory first because upgrading from

 # Dapper to Edgy leaves a stale Dapper font

 # directory (/usr/share/X11/fonts) around.

 #FP=/usr/share/fonts/X11

 #COARG="-co /usr/share/X11/rgb"

 FP=/usr/share/fonts

 COARG="-co /usr/share/X11"

Step 4: Run Looking Glass
 

After changing the scripts like explained in step 3 and running the “postinstall” script successfully, I still had problems to run the scripts installed in the directory /usr/share/lg3d/bin without errors. The scripts complained about fonts, xhosts, etc. For that reason, I decided not to invest more time in this but to look to the scripts in the following directory directly:

/usr/share/lg3d/usr/share/lg3d/bin

 
I was able to start “Looking Glass” using the following command:

 
/usr/share/lg3d/usr/share/lg3d/bin/lg3d-session

 
To save time, let's create a script called “start-lg3d” and add the following two lines:

#!/bin/sh

/usr/share/lg3d/usr/share/lg3d/bin/lg3d-session &

 
The only error message I received was the following:

Composite XOrg support not enabled

Please see https://lg3d-core.dev.java.net/nvidia-driver-install-tips.html#ALLOWGLXW

ITHCOMPOSITE"

I ignored it, but the option “AllowGLXWithComposite” was enabled in the xorg.conf file.

While testing LG3D in a 64bit environment I discovered a problem with the nvidia graphics card drivers. During the start procedure, the script was not able to find the following files:

libglx.so

nvidia_drv.so

You can easily find this out, if you look to the Xorg log file here:

/var/log/Xorg.0.log

It seems that LG3d was not able the find this drivers in the /usr/lib64 directory, but also not to use the 64bit files after changing the path.

I copied the necessary 32bit files from a machines with identical hardware in the following directories and solved the problem:

/usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libglx.so

/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/nvidia_drv.so

Conclusion

Looking Glass is not yet ready to run on Mandriva without errors, but it is nice to see a step forward in this project. Nevertheless, it is a nice experience to see the the 3D desktop running in a Mandriva environment. Many thanks to the LG3D development and their helpers.  

More Screenshots: