give a better message when GPU is blacklisted

brian@triangle:~$ compiz
Checking for Xgl: not present.
Blacklisted PCIID '8086:2a02' found
aborting and using fallback: /usr/bin/metacity

brian@triangle:~$ lspci
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)

If intel hardware isn't officially supported by compiz, what currently manufactured video hardware with free drivers is?

the blacklist was created so that users would not file new bugs about hardware/drivers that are already known to not work correctly.
if you wish to ignore the blacklist, you may do so at your own risk. see http://wiki.compiz-fusion.org/Hardware/Blacklist

That's fine, but the message "desktop effects can not be enabled" does not inform the user that

1) The reasons desktop effects can not be enabled is that their hardware is blacklisted
2) It's possible to override the blacklist

if you wish to change this bug towards fixing that then feel free to change the description & title of the bug or file a new bug.

All they need to know is that they can't use desktop effects. We don't _want_ people to override the blacklist as then they file bug reports about the problems we blacklisted them for. The override is for advanced users who know that they should not file bugs because they're doing something we don't support.

Perhaps #2 is an invitation for trouble, but what about #1? Is it really too much to much to ask than an error message include the cause of the error? Perhaps something like "Desktop effects can not be enabled because they are known to cause problems on your hardware". With a message like this, users would know that the failure is intentional. With the current message, they might think that they or Ubuntu have misconfigured something.

"All they need to know is that they can't use desktop effects. We don't _want_ people to override the blacklist as then they file bug reports about the problems we blacklisted them for."

But you say in comment 15 at bug #197135 that you're blacklisting hardware that isn't even known to have problems!

If a person only knows that something doesn't work they can waste a lot of time trying to find out why.
In such a case they will likely think there is something wrong with their configuation and will investigate until they learn their hardware is blacklisted.
If the error message said that in the first place it would save a lot of time and trouble.
Asking for meaningful error messages is a very valid request.

jdb

thank you for your bug report, the visual effect dialog has been deprecated in favor of using login screen session now though so we are closing this bug but don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future.