How to Install Compiz Fusion on Ubuntu

[Dark Star]

The following guide will teach you (step by step) how to install Compiz Fusion on your Ubuntu (Kubuntu) 7.04 operating system. Be aware that Compiz Fusion is still in heavy development, so it may not be very stable. For me (at this moment) it's pretty stable, as I didn't encounter any bugs.

Open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal for GNOME users or KMenu -> System -> Konsole for KDE users) and type:

sudo apt-get -y remove compiz-core desktop-effects

Leave the terminal open and go to System -> Administration -> Software Sources, click on the second tab (Third-Party Software), then click on the "Add" button and paste the following code:

deb *download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb feisty eyecandy

Click the "Add Source" button after you pasted the above code and to the same for the following code:

deb-src *download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb feisty eyecandy

Don't close the Software Sources window yet!

In the terminal window, type:

wget *download.tuxfamily.org/3v1deb/DD800CD9.gpg

sudo apt-key add DD800CD9.gpg

Now click the "Close" button on the Software Sources window and you will be asked if you want to reload the information about available software, so click the "Reload" button and wait for the window to disappear.

Copy/Paste the following lines in the terminal window:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get -y upgrade

FOR GNOME USERS:

sudo apt-get -y install compiz compiz-gtk compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-fusion-plugins-extra libcompizconfig-backend-gconf

FOR KDE USERS:

sudo apt-get -y install compiz compiz-kde compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-fusion-plugins-extra libcompizconfig-backend-kconfig

Now, if everything was correctly installed and you didn't encounter errors, press ALT+F2 and type:

compiz --replace

That's it! Enjoy the latest 3D eye candy effects on your (K)Ubuntu OS.

Some quick tricks:

• Hold CTRL + ALT keys and with the left mouse button rotate the cube
• Super + E activates the Expo plugin
• Hold Super + Shift and with your mouse paint fire on your desktop
• Super + Shift + C will erase the fire paint
• Super + Tab activates the Ring Switcher plugin

To watch the video click the url ;- Compiz Fusion

Source: Softpedia

 

[kalpik]

Original source: *ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=481615
Softpedia just copies from here and there.. By the way i installed compiz fusion yesterday morning.. And BOY am i amazed! Its so much more smoother too!

 

[Dark Star]

^ Lucky b33ch I am still wondering for my upgrade :'(

 

[QwertyManiac]

It sure as hell is smoother than anything before!

But now my Print Screen button's stopped working (Like, its stopped making auto screen-shots on pressing). Must be a binding alright but everything seems fine ..

 

[infra_red_dude]

upgrading from beryl 0.2.1 ti 0.3 broke everything for me. guess i'll try fusion instead....

jus installed compiz fusion.. and yes.. its smoother! i'm loving it...

 

[praka123]

beryl devel stopped a month back itself.now compiz and beryl(quinnstorm) merged to compiz-fusion.hope it is clear and news is already posted OSS section

 

[infra_red_dude]

btw, i wasn't able to install compiz-gtk no matter what. so for ppl whom it may give errors u may remove the compiz-gtk from the below command.

sudo apt-get -y install compiz compiz-gtk compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-fusion-plugins-extra libcompizconfig-backend-gconf

also add compiz-core to the above command.

beryl devel stopped a month back itself.now compiz and beryl(quinnstorm) merged to compiz-fusion.hope it is clear and news is already posted OSS section

yep buddy i know.. what i meant was that instead of trying to trace what broke beryl up i'd rather try out compiz fusion.. and its working like a charm.. no head breaking for the break!

oh and to change themes u need to install emerald. install it by issuing the command:

sudo apt-get install emerald emerald-themes

(if u haf beryl installed chances are there that its already installed)

after installing run emerald by pressing alt+f2 and typing:

emerald --replace &

one more thing. u can add compiz to startup as soon as u login in gnome. goto system>preferences>sessions. in the startup progs add these two entries:

compiz --replace
emerald --replace &

and tick these two. now compiz will be started as soon as u login. but be aware of the fact that rite now compiz fusion is not a full stable product. so it may or may not work for you. do this if u are absoluty sure of compiz, otherwise its better to haf a startup script for it and evoke it manually.

 

[QwertyManiac]

Any ideas on my Print Screen key trouble? I can't make it work now at all. Not only just that Gnome-Screenshot doesn't auto activate on hitting it, it isn't loading the screen into the clipboard either. So simply, I cant use it anymore But the key is fine, detected in the key-bindings and all.

 

[praka123]

cant it be disabled via 3D manager for compiz-fusion?

 

[QwertyManiac]

Tried it, of no use, still doesn't work.

 

[praka123]

there are complex methods to know what and which keys are binded etc.if i remember it is "xev"(pkg name is xbase-clients) u can note what keys are trying to bind when u press "printscrn".do it and post the corresponding trace from terminal here and some better OSS forums too ------------> *linuxquestions.org and ubuntu forums that am referring too

another thing is GNOME got its set of rules for X while in GNOME DE(for eg:gnome key binding) and X have another for eg: dpi(dots per inch) settings-for GNOME,in some distros i have to append "-dpi 96" in /etc/gdm.conf -x entriers to get 96 dpi resltn working for me :+ these are some disjusting parts of GNOME DE and its HIG.

 

[infra_red_dude]

hey qwerty, print screen works perfectly fine here. try changing ur locale/kb layout.

 

[QwertyManiac]

hey qwerty, print screen works perfectly fine here. try changing ur locale/kb layout.

You might be right at that locale thing. I just recently changed my Language Settings to EN_US from EN_IN in order to get Audacity work properly (Which didn't happen either, but leave that). Let me try reverting ..

Hey thanks a ton infra_red_dude, it did work out. But I need EN_US, how do I change it safely I wonder .. I heard some apps showing up errors on other EN_* locales. Audacity's menu's text simply don't show up, for instance.

Btw, can I know how and why it was related to locales?

 

[infra_red_dude]

well, i've had similar problems before and chaning locale has helped me sorting out the problems. it seems there's a slight differnce in key mapping and related stuff. i'm not completely sure about it.

hey for xmms and audacity text even i use english (us) in lingo support. but print screen works fine here.. no probs. change it to english(india) first.. then try. i think when u changed the locale from IN to US the change didn't happen properly. coz everyone i know who's shifted to english(us) has had audacity and xmms text working fine. so i think the problem likes there. some lingo files may be missing. try reinstalling...

 

[praka123]

You might be right at that locale thing. I just recently changed my Language Settings to EN_US from EN_IN in order to get Audacity work properly (Which didn't happen either, but leave that). Let me try reverting ..

Hey thanks a ton infra_red_dude, it did work out. But I need EN_US, how do I change it safely I wonder .. I heard some apps showing up errors on other EN_* locales. Audacity's menu's text simply don't show up, for instance.

Btw, can I know how and why it was related to locales?

U can generate en_us or whatever the locale is,using:

~#dpkg-reconfigure locales

-in terminal
For me,my default locale for Debian and Ubuntu are en_US.UTF-8
just look at the o/p via command "locales"
even better,u can control ur config via cli(configure-debian) or gtk2 gui:

~#apt-get install gkdebconf libgnome2-perl

^ that shows u the available options which can be tweaked(for packages)

 

[the_maassk]

Installing Fusion leaves me with the typical 'no window borders' situation for me!

Reverting back to last Beryl.

HELP !

 

[infra_red_dude]

install emerald. that'll bring back the window borders and decorations....

 

[QwertyManiac]

Yeah, after you activate Compiz, don't forget re-adding Emerald to the sessions.

emerald --replace &