[R] rgl/compiz problem

[Barry Rowlingson]

I have just encountered the problem with rgl where plot3d figures
don't interact with the mouse. My plots zoom in and out with the mouse
wheel but the mouse buttons do nothing. I can't rotate the plot.

This has been mentioned and discussed here and in other lists before,
and the solution is to turn off Ubuntu's fancy graphics.  Back in
March, Ben Bolker said:

"""
unfortunately rgl and compiz/etc. both try to use
the same OpenGL interface, so you can't use both at
the same time.
"""

This has echoes of when TCP/IP was in its infancy back in the days of
DOS, and only one program could access the network interface at a time
(until TCP/IP software got its act together). Is OpenGL really in the
same position now? Or is Compiz being "greedy" in some sense? Surely
two OpenGL applications can run at the same time? Or is it because rgl
is running 'within' another OpenGL window already, so there's some
nesting problem going on?

 Google Earth works fine, and I think that uses OpenGL. Anyone had any
ideas since March?

I'm on Ubuntu 8.04 and R 2.7.1

Barry