Composite extension not working with dual screens using Xinerama

Forgot to mention that it's xinerama that I'm using

I have the same problem. I am using Nvidia drivers version 173.14.12 with a GeForce Go 6150.

Effects work fine when using TwinView though.

This is a driver bug/limitation. Marking as invalid in Compiz and adding a (mostly useless) task against the nvidia driver, since compiz can't possibly work without driver support for Composite.

Still the same in Intrepid, just tested it for kicks.

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This bug remains.. Anytime Xinerama is enabled the composite extension shows its going to be enabled in the log, but does not. There is also now a bug in Jaunty that causes the mouse cursor to stick to the xscreen on all video cards.. So if you move the mouse from one monitor to the next it leaves a "copy" of the mouse cursor behind on the previous xscreen you transitioned from right where the mouse transitioned to the next monitor.. If you move the mouse back the cursor picks right back up on your mouse movements.. This was not in intrepid, but is now in Jaunty.. I read someplace this is a bug in the kernel, but I have yet to find the bug report..

Main issue of this report howerver - remains.. When Xinerama is enabled with nvidia drivers - composite is disabled.

- Shane

Just in case anyone is following this bug, hoping that it will be fixed soon, I'll point out that I don't believe that nVidia actually plans to implement Composite+Xinerama (and there's nothing that we can do about it). It's time to switch to TwinView, folks!

@Chris Halse Rogers: Some of us have more than two displays or are using displays from two different GPU's. Sadly, Twinview only works for two displays on the same GPU. I agree that Twinview works very nice, but there are some configurations where Xinerama is a necessity.

DanielW

Xinerama is a necessity for me too, so I do not use Compiz (blender uses my 2 monitors and this is great.)

I'm forced to use Xinerama because Twinview won't work with one display oriented normally and the other rotated 90 degrees (portrait view). Now I can't drag windows between desktops because Xinerama doesn't work with Composite.

Ok. So, there are some use-cases that I didn't know about where
Xinerama is required. That doesn't change my comment, though: the
nVidia drivers are proprietary, closed source blobs.
************
We cannot fix or improve the nvidia drivers in any way.
************
Furthermore, I don't believe nVidia intends to (re)implement
Xinerama+Composite. If you want a definitive statement on this,
you'll need to contact nVidia. The official nVidia support forums are
here: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=14 - nVidia
employees do frequent that board, so you can hopefully get an official
response if you ask.

This is an X server limitation, not a driver limitation.

Since this isn't an nividia bug, shouldn't 'wishlist' be moved from nvidia-graphics-driver-180 to xorg-server?

I have the same problems as well.

I have dual GeForce 9800 GTX+ cards running three monitors with SLI enabled. This is working very well. I was trying to enable the extra visual effects and get the error:...Well sometimes I get the error and sometimes it just locks up the Appearance Preferences window like just now...OK... I get ther error: The Composite extension is not available. And when you click OK on the dialogue box nothing happens, you have to click the X on the window to make the dialogue box go away.

I also have the issue when I cross from one screen to the other the mouse will continue to the next screen, but it will leave a mouse pointer on the previous screen at the point where the mouse crossed over.

I am running Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope with the nVidia 180 driver. I had the three monitor setup with 8.10/Intrepid and it didn't have the mouse pointer issue.

If I disable Xinerama then I have a task bar across every screen and I can't move a window from one screen to the other, but even worse when I open an application from one of the other screens it will put them all on the primary screen which renders my other two monitors useless.

I just wanted some eye candy, but I will just have to keep waiting.

Hardware:
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 9800 GTX+ (rev a2)
04:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 9800 GTX+ (rev a2)

This is also a problem for me.

I have a Quadro NVS 440, with four screens running on 9.04. I can confirm the mouse cursor issue, where the cursor stays on every screen. I also have the same compositing problem

This is a problem for me as well. I was able to get the mouse cursor issue fixed by applying a patch from a thread somewhere (sorry, I don't have the link handy), but it would be great to get the composite extension working with Xinerama.