I had a similar issue, where compositing was working fine until I upgrade KDE4. I created a brand new account and compositing worked as expected, while broken in my normal account.
I moved my ~/.kde/share/config/kwinrc out of the way and relogged-in. Compositing started working again. Here's the diff between the old and new version of kwinrc, for the [Compositing] section. The diff is significant in other sections too; I can provide it if needed. [Compositing] -AnimationSpeed=2 -Backend=OpenGL +AnimationSpeed=3 CheckIsSafe=true -DisableChecks=true Enabled=true -GLDirect=true -GLMode=SHM -GLTextureFilter=0 -GLVSync=true -HiddenPreviews=5 -XRenderSmoothScale=false -- System Information: Debian Release: wheezy/sid APT prefers unstable APT policy: (700, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 2.6.38-2-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=en_CA.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_CA.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Versions of packages kde-window-manager depends on: ii kdebase-runtime 4:4.4.5-1 runtime components from the offici ii libc6 2.11.2-13 Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib ii libgl1-mesa-glx [libgl1] 7.10.2-1 A free implementation of the OpenG ii libice6 2:1.0.7-1 X11 Inter-Client Exchange library ii libkdecorations4 4:4.4.5-9 library used by decorations for th ii libkdecore5 4:4.4.5-4 the KDE Platform Core Library ii libkdeui5 4:4.4.5-4 the KDE Platform User Interface Li ii libkephal4 4:4.4.5-9 API for easier handling of multihe ii libkio5 4:4.4.5-4 the Network-enabled File Managemen ii libknewstuff3-4 4:4.4.5-4 the "Get Hot New Stuff" v3 Library ii libkutils4 4:4.4.5-4 various utility classes for the KD ii libkwineffects1a 4:4.4.5-9 library used by effects for the KD ii libkworkspace4 4:4.4.5-9 library for the kdebase workspace ii libplasma3 4:4.4.5-4 the Plasma Library for the KDE Pla ii libqt4-dbus 4:4.7.2-3 Qt 4 D-Bus module ii libqt4-xml 4:4.7.2-3 Qt 4 XML module ii libqtcore4 4:4.7.2-3 Qt 4 core module ii libqtgui4 4:4.7.2-3 Qt 4 GUI module ii libsm6 2:1.2.0-1 X11 Session Management library ii libstdc++6 4.6.0-5 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3 ii libx11-6 2:1.4.3-1 X11 client-side library ii libxcomposite1 1:0.4.3-1 X11 Composite extension library ii libxdamage1 1:1.1.3-1 X11 damaged region extension libra ii libxext6 2:1.2.0-2 X11 miscellaneous extension librar ii libxfixes3 1:4.0.5-1 X11 miscellaneous 'fixes' extensio ii libxrandr2 2:1.3.1-1 X11 RandR extension library ii libxrender1 1:0.9.6-1 X Rendering Extension client libra ii perl 5.10.1-20 Larry Wall's Practical Extraction kde-window-manager recommends no packages. kde-window-manager suggests no packages. -- no debconf information -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-qt-kde-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/1303687526.12655.9.camel@localhost
