There are a million other howtos, but maybe this will help somebody with the same setup as I have (Kubuntu Dapper / NVidia graphics card.)
Before you start, if you are going to do this, realize that you’ll have to live with the gnome window decorations; also, it seems to work better if you use gdm rather than kdm (UPDATE – you will need to select the “default” session in kdm to make it obey your .Xsession). This is a worthwhile compromise. There are exactly three steps here:
- Add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list: deb http://xgl.compiz.info/ dapper main
- Using synaptic or apt, install:
- compiz-vanilla
- compiz-vanilla-gnome
- gset-compiz
- xserver-xgl
- Finally, add or edit ~/.Xsession as follows (if it contains stuff already, make a backup in case you need to roll back):
# Run Xgl server on :1, on top of normal X
Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -accel xv -accel glx:pbuffer &
# Tell subsequent X programs to access the Xgl server at :1
DISPLAY=:1
# Start Compiz window manager
gnome-window-decorator &
compiz gconf decoration fade dock widget miniwin minimize cube rotate zoom scale move resize place menu switcher &
# Start KDE
exec startkde
Make sure that it’s executable (do chmod +x ~/.Xsession).
[it's true that compiz is present in the ubuntu universe repositories, but this repository is more up to date]
And…that’s it. Restart X. You’re good to go (hopefully). If X does not start, you will find yourself in text mode, from which you can edit or delete .Xsession to recover.
TIPS:
- gset-compiz should have been added to the utilities menu. Run it to change the settings.
- To change the gnome window decorations, run gnome-theme-manager
- Ctrl-left/ctrl-right/ctrl-down controls the desktop switcher.
- Pause gives you expose’.
- Alt-tab is enhanced.
- compiz.net will keep you up to date
- There’s plenty more to discover
Comments (16)
I’ll try this tonight, I’ve tried lots of guides and none of them have worked. What card are you using?
Awesome! Worked a treat!
Much thanks.
While this worked and Xgl ran, it crashed my linux box (hard) when I went to rotate the cube (ctrl shift LEFT | RIGHT, I think). I couldn’t find anything in the logs to indicate what might have happened.
KDE starts up by default on my box and I tried configuring kdmrc to start Xgl, but I get the following message in my syslog:
“X server ‘Xgl’ cannot be executed”
“X server for display :0 cannot be started”
I’ve tried changing the StaticServers to :1 and :0 and played with removing the :1 -fullscreen from the startup command but no dice.
I also tried playing w/ the .Xsession file to only start certain things but also no dice.
Any thoughts?
I tried again last night, with all the normal parameters as suggested and as usual, X locked up, but I was able to ssh in to my box and so I checked the log files – there was nothing out of order so on a whim I ran “top” and lo, Xgl was using 100% of the CPU. I tried killing it with 15, 2, and 6 but nothing. I assume 9 would have worked but I switched back to the linux box (I have a KVM switch) and that must have done something because my ssh session locked up and I couldn’t establish another one after that so I had to reboot.
Methinks it’s just too unstable at this point to be viable and is really just a cool toy to play with…
Yeah, it’s definitely hit or miss. I use it pretty much full time, but there are a couple of quirks (ctrl alt + sends me to a fuzzy screen, e.g.) I think it really depends on your graphics card, drivers, etc.
Tried a number of howto’s, but this was the only one which worked, and yet is bar far the easiest to follow. Thanks very much, worked a treat!
Worked a treat. Thanks!
How exactly to you access the gnome-theme-manager?
Hello. Initially, from the command line only, but you could always add it as a menu item. If you type gnome- and then tab, you’ll see all of the gnome settings modules tha you can use (tho, of course, not all will apply.)
Hi again – whenever I try to change a theme in the gnome-theme-manager nothing happens – any ideas?
Thanks.
Hm, I’m not sure.
I actually stopped using XGL/Compiz for the time being because of two annoying issues w/ video playing that I couldn’t get around (a: it would blank frequently; b: it sometimes rendered artifacts at the top or the bottom of the video image).
THANKS!!! I tried a few other howto’s before this one and got into a mess. This one worked first time, good work fella!
worked great, thanks for the howto! 2 things:
Don’t forget to run an update && upgrade after adding the new repository, otherwise you won’t bring down all the needed libraries
I got xgl/compiz to work with the KDE window decorations by ending the x session then running startx from a text terminal (ctrl-alt-F1 for instance). the wm came right back up and when i logged in the KDE window decorations were working fine. any ideas why this would work?
Thanks again.
Thanx for the Howto!
I followed it (almost). I couldn’t install the vanilla packages so I installed compiz and compiz-gnome instead.
The problem is that compiz wont start. If I type
“compiz –replace”
in the console I get an error saying
“No GLXBConfig for default depth”
Any ideas what that means? I googled for GLXBConfig and found ONE page… in Greek or whatever.
I have a problem running the script .Xsession as normal user.
when, in kdm, i login as root everything is ok, but when i login as simple user nothing happens. i see for a while the background image of kdm and then it return to the login mask.
any ideas?
Hm. It is possible that your .Xsession is owned by root for some reason. Type ls -al .Xsession on the CLI, and post the results here.
excuse me if i reply now.
maybe there was some problem with permissions, i don’t know. at last, after a reboot, everything worked fine! thanks!
now i can start the normal xorg or the xgl in kdm.