Can extensions such as "Composite" be loaded/unloaded w/o restarting X?

[Brian J. Tarricone]

On Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:07:48 +0200 Tomas Carnecky wrote:

> ben chang wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I'm pretty sure the answer is "No", but I thought I'd ask
> > anyway :) Two reasons why I'm interested : 
> > 
> > one, naturally it's always pleasant when you can reconfigure as
> > much as possible without restarting.
> > 
> > two, actually the main reason:  I use Maya a lot, which crashes
> > badly if you're using the Composite extension.  But, I love the
> > GL-accelerated desktop, both for aesthetic pleasure and real
> > functionality improvement!  It seems this means having to switch
> > between different xorg.conf files and restart the window manager
> > whenever I want to use Maya or use other apps while enjoying
> > Compiz, etc.
> 
> Does maya crash when the server has Composite loaded or when a 
> compositing manager is active? The former case would be quite strange 
> (likely a bug in the xserver), the later case can be easily fixed by 
> starting a normal window manager when you need to run Maya and after 
> you're done restarting compiz.

In addition to disabling the compositing manager, try setting
XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 before starting Maya.  It could be barfing on
ARGB visuals.  And if that solves your problem, try also with that env
var set, but the compositing manager still enabled.

	-brian