Desktop effects quit working

do you have the latest Intel video driver installed?

xserver-xorg-video-i740
xserver-xorg-video-i810
xserver-xorg-video-intel

are the three in the repos

If you are not sure what card you have do an 'lspci' in a terminal and you should see your card listed there. If you are not sure you can paste the results in to a message here.

lspci:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 01)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 4 (rev 01)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 01)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4401-B0 100Base-TX (rev 02)
02:01.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 IEEE 1394 Controller
02:01.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 19)
02:01.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 0a)
02:01.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 05)
0c:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection (rev 02)

nick@nck-dell:~$ sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel
[sudo] password for nick:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
xserver-xorg-video-intel is already the newest version.
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  libglitz-glx1 libglitz1
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

Perhaps try this link - http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Installing_Ubuntu_8.04_(Hardy_Heron)_on_a_ThinkPad_T60

i read through that and followed a few links, still unsuccessful...

Hmm... I wonder if your card was recently blacklisted. It had been in 7.10, but I thought it was removed in 8.04.

Try the steps on this page -- http://wiki.compiz-fusion.org/Hardware/Blacklist

using an intel chip, should i have to install xserver-xgl?

i read that i shouldn't need to. however, experimenting with this package made compiz work, but very very slowly

I would guess that the real issue might be the card being black listed. I have not seen the xserver-xgl helping.

Also, you could try

'apt-get purge xserver-xorg-video-intel'

then

'apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-intel'

I don't think it will work, but if your configuration was pooched that might resolve the issue.

Any luck Nick?

Any luck Nick?

sorry for the double post...

sorry for the delay, if your still reading this heres what i found

I use xrandr to mange dual screens. I have to add the following to xorg.conf to get dual screens to work:

SubSection "Display"
Virtual 4000 4000
EndSubSection

when i do this and restart x, compiz breaks

so i have to choose between dual screens and desktop effects

ah...
Have you tried using the Nvidia controls to enable dual displays?