KCM Qt Graphics System

System Software

Source (link to git-repo or to original if based on someone elses unmodified work): Add the source-code for this project on opencode.net

15
8.0
Description:

This KCM allows you to easily configure the standard Qt graphics system.

Please note that this requires Qt 4.7.0 or greater to work.
Last changelog:

9 years ago

- 1.3 -
Fix script creation if $KDEHOME/env directory does not exist

- 1.2 -
Improve backend handling in non-X11 default cases by triggering a file write only if necessary and remove it if not
More internal documentation
Typo fixes by Alessandro Ghersi

- 1.1 -
Detect standard backend if Qt was compiled with anything but X11
Add helper application (build with -DBUILD_PROBER=ON) to check what the current backend is

- 1.0 -
Initial release

34 comments
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g88

5 years ago

https://apachelog.wordpress.com/2010/09/05/qt-graphics-system-kcm/#comment-467

real homepage with docu

A way to set the Qt graphics system backend without recompiling Qt. In Qt 4.7 this is finally available.
You can configure the backend using the environment variable QT_GRAPHICSSYSTEM.
Now, since the topic of switching graphics backend in Qt is coming up now and then, I thought it would be a good idea to create a nice graphical interface. Actually I wanted something nicer to use for me personally :P
So I created a really simple KCM. You have 3 switches, of which two will write a .sh file to $HOME/.kde/env/. The content of this folder gets loaded at startup (via startkde), and that way you will globally end up with another graphics backend. That said, since the environment variable has lowest priority, it is still possible to override this on a per-application level (e.g. kolourpaint has problems with the raster backend I have been told).

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hipsterical

9 years ago

i'd like to install kcm but im clueless about howto compile/install the module. can someone please tell me or point to a resource where i can get it ? thanks. oh, btw i've kubuntu 10.10 64-bit

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9

ZaWertun

10 years ago

There is repos for OpenSUSE 11.2, 11.3, Factory and SLE 11-SP1:

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/ZaWertun:/kde4/

(those, prefixed with "KDE_Distro_Factory_")

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9

ZaWertun

10 years ago

Sorry for wrong url:

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/ZaWertun:/kde4/

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dunemafia

10 years ago

Tested it on Slack-current and on a custom LFS install with Qt 4.7 rc compiled with OpenGL as the default backend. It works the best, despite its experimental status, in fact brilliantly. Love it! Thanks, Harald.

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pejakm

10 years ago

http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=40582

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C

apachelogger

10 years ago

thanks

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whashnez

10 years ago

I installed 1.1 the way I installed 1.0, but I cannot see it in system settings... What's wrong?

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C

apachelogger

10 years ago

Works just fine here, what does the output of your make install look like?

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whashnez

10 years ago

It looks like this:

[ 0%] Built target kcm_qt_graphicssystem_automoc
[ 41%] Built target kcm_qt_graphicssystem
[100%] Built target qt-graphicssystem-prober
Install the project...
-- Install configuration: "RelWithDebInfo"
-- Installing: /usr/local/lib/kde4/kcm_qt_graphicssystem.so
-- Set runtime path of "/usr/local/lib/kde4/kcm_qt_graphicssystem.so" to "/usr/local/lib:/opt/qt-devel/lib"
-- Installing: /usr/local/share/kde4/services/qt-graphicssystem.desktop
-- Installing: /usr/local/bin/qt-graphicssystem-prober
-- Set runtime path of "/usr/local/bin/qt-graphicssystem-prober" to "/usr/local/lib:/opt/qt-devel/lib"

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apachelogger

10 years ago

/usr/local will almost certainly not be the right directory.

You will need to install to the KDE search path (usually /usr), otherwise the desktop file will not be found and hence not show up anywhere.

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whashnez

10 years ago

OK, installed it to /usr, thanks. So let me get it straight. I have KDE 4.5.1 installed from Arch Linux repos which is built against Qt 4.6.3 I guess. As a result any selection I make in your app won't have any result at all with the applications from Arch Linux repos? A program must be built against 4.7.0 to have these settings applied to it?

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apachelogger

10 years ago

Well, that depends partially on how the application was linked to the library. If dynamic, which is most likely for arch, then it only depends on whether Qt 4.7 is in the library search path and with higher priority than 4.6.

Say you have a Qt 4.7 installation in /opt/qt47 and your regular Qt 4.6 in /usr. Then you export LD_LIBRARY_PATH to include /opt/qt47/lib and hence override the standard search path /usr/lib, then every dynamically linked Qt application started with that setup will use Qt 4.7 and the option will have effect.

So it is more a question of runtime library loading rather than what an application was built against.

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apachelogger

10 years ago

a) You would have to use : as seperator when exporting LD_LIBRARY_PATH
b) Yes, generally when you do that all applications should load Qt 4.7 rather than the system one (that is: all apps that are not statically linked or have an rpath, I think rpath takes higher importance).
c) You do not want to do this globally since it can hurt stability (if/where) Qt 4.7 is incompatible with 4.6 (e.g. apps that are linked against QtMultimedia would still load that from 4.6 since 4.7 doesnt have it anymore and in the end you would have an application that overall runs on 4.7 but som parts are 4.7 due to QtMultimedia -> that can cause serious trouble).

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whashnez

10 years ago

So, you say that if I export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/qt-devel/lib/$LD_LIBRARY_PATH in console, every new started application will be dynamically linked to qt-devel, hence using openGL as Qt Graphics System? Or I should override /usr/lib with another way? How can I do it so it will be permanent and all my applications use Qt 4.7?

Thanks for your help and sorry for the many questions!

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whashnez

10 years ago

For me openGL works. Can you please explain what this does exactly? What are the benefits of using either of the three options provided?

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apachelogger

10 years ago

Simply put: it will use another backend to render your applications.

The backend basically is how widgets (i.e. buttons and textfields and icons etc.) are painted. And that how can either be a native toolkit choice, for example on Linux it will default to use the X11 API for that kind of stuff which will then take care of the actual processing. The raster engine is an own implementation of software rendering (which should be the same as X11 except that it is not as it mostly performs better). And OpenGL will, as the name suggests, directy all painting to the GPU.

So, say you use OpenGL then every button, textfield, icon... in a Qt application will be painted via OpenGL in the GPU. GPUs being specifically tweaked for graphics of course will calculate that usually super fast.

How the raster backend works is descirbed here:
http://labs.trolltech.com/blogs/2009/12/18/qt-graphics-and-performance-the-raster-engine

More information on OpenGL here:
http://labs.trolltech.com/blogs/2010/01/06/qt-graphics-and-performance-opengl/

So, while the OpenGL backend is probably the least working one (with Linux graphics drivers not being that much piece of awesome) it ought to be the fastest one if working, since the GPU will almost always out-perform the CPU when it comes to graphics.

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whashnez

10 years ago

Thanks for the replies! So I have OpenGL chosen, does that mean that it works perfectly on my system with the openGL chosen? Is tehre a chance that it failed and is using a fallback even if it shows openGL enabled? My graphics card is nVidia GeForce 9500M GS and my graphics driver is nvidia 256.53-1. I'm using Arch Linux 64. What's the difference I should notice in performance? Faster drawing for example?

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apachelogger

10 years ago

Generally apps should feel snappier. I think the best way to test i by adding a lot of plasma widgets and then draging them around wildly, resizing them etc.
On a netbook for example the plasma-netbook application launcher ought to perform super fast with OpenGL.

As far as I know there is no way to check what backend is in use.

I do not think Qt will use a fallback though, if it breaks, it breaks. So as long as you have a recent enough Qt version (which ought to be 4.7 beta2 or above if I am not mistaken) it should be usign OpenGL if that is selected.

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whashnez

10 years ago

I have qt 4.6.3 installed but I have also qt-devel installed (which is alfready version 4.7 beta2) so I compiled your program by setting the environment variable to : PATH=/opt/qt-devel/bin/:$PATH . Is this right? Is it working this way?

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apachelogger

10 years ago

You can probably build on Qt 4.5 even, but its setting will only have effect on Qt 4.7 applications.

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pejakm

10 years ago

I so envy you, opengl doesn't work for me, but at least the raster does.

http://labs.trolltech.com/blogs/2008/10/22/so-long-and-thanks-for-the-blit/

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babycakes

10 years ago

Can someone please explain me how to install it? I never downloaded source files... :)

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Schiwi

10 years ago

Ok, you should not choose OpenGL, its not a good idea ^^

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friesoft

10 years ago

yep... OpenGL makes kwin crash I think... and f*** all text rendering etc. up... not a good idea for the whole environment... some specific apps MAY SOMEDAY improve when using it... but not atm I think...

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9 years ago

- 1.3 -
Fix script creation if $KDEHOME/env directory does not exist

- 1.2 -
Improve backend handling in non-X11 default cases by triggering a file write only if necessary and remove it if not
More internal documentation
Typo fixes by Alessandro Ghersi

- 1.1 -
Detect standard backend if Qt was compiled with anything but X11
Add helper application (build with -DBUILD_PROBER=ON) to check what the current backend is

- 1.0 -
Initial release

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license
GPLv2 or later
version
1.3
updated Aug 26 2011
added Sep 05 2010
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