Get compiz at Kubuntu start! (Nvidia)

[chadwick359]

Hey there, all After a long break due to school and other concerns, I had to ditch any hope of keeping this HowTo up to date, but now i should be able to make sure it doesn't fall so woefully behind as it has this time. For discussions about configuring compiz, plugins, and the such, i would suggest goint over to http://compiz.net it's a good forum, and almost always up to date.

NOTICE: ATI users, as of right now, I am (still) suggesting that you do not attempt to use this guide. I have left the Ati apecific tags on the howto, but if you use them, don't expect them to work. However, if any Ati users are feeling brave and would like to try this, I would appreciate having the extra info to determine what your hardware has a problem with.

(NOTE: This first part is for nVidia users ONLY. For ATI, you guys are on your own for actually installing the driver untill i get this up to speed for you)

First off, let's get all the sources we are going to need, as well as QuinnStorm's gpg key. Add

deb http://xgl.compiz.info/ dapper main
deb-src http://xgl.compiz.info/ dapper main

and

deb http://www.beerorkid.com/compiz/ dapper main

To your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Note, you will have to edit this as root, so use 'kdesu kate' from a terminal. (without the quotes) After that is done, make sure to run

wget http://www.beerorkid.com/compiz/quinn.key.asc -O - | sudo apt-key add -

to get Quinn's key. After all of this is done, make sure to run 'sudo apt-get update' to make sure all the repos you need are in correctly and available.

Next, install the latest nVidia drivers, as well as XGL and compiz from the repos, with

sudo apt-get install nvidia-kernel-common nvidia-glx compiz xserver-xgl libgl1-mesa xserver-xorg libglitz-glx1 compiz-gnome gconf-editor gset-compiz

(ATI users: use this same command but don't include nvidia-kernel-common or the nvidia-glx)

Next, we need to make sure that the driver is working, so fire up

kdesu kate

and open your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.First we need to comment out the 'GLcore' and 'dri' modules with the trusty #, and make sure that the 'glx' module is loading.

#       Load    "GLcore"
#       Load    "dri" 
          Load "glx"

IMPORTANT: ATI users, do NOT comment out 'dri', you'll need it.

Next, we have to move down to the device entry for your graphics card, where we are going to tell it to use the newly installed driver, as well as enable acceleration and compositing. Basically, edit it to look like this. (Thanks PoofyHairGuy, I started using this from one of your earlier eye candy threads)

Section "Device"
	Identifier          "YourCardHere" <-- Don't change me!
	Driver		"nvidia"
	BusID		"PCI:1:0:0"
	Option 		"RenderAccel" 		"true"
	Option 		"AllowGLXWithComposite" "true" 
EndSection

For ATI: insert fglrx instead of nvidia,and ignore the RenderAccel and AllowGLX lines alltogether

Next, we need to make sure that the default color depth is set to 24, (16 makes compiz freak out pretty bad) so scroll on down to the "Screen section" and change the DefaultDepth to 24


Users, you may want to experement with the this both enable and commented out, as this howto is aimed at getting everybody's XGL up right away, I've included it as a step.

Okay, now that your machine nows to use the right driver, it's time to get XGL to load with KDM. open your /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc file edit the ServerCmd line (line 464 in my fresh Flight 5 instal) to read

ServerCmd=/usr/bin/Xgl -br -ac -accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:pbuffer

For nVidia, or

ServerCmd=/usr/bin/Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:pbuffer

for ATI fans in the crowd.

Note: For safety's sake, you may want to want to merely comment out the original ServerCmd and place the new command a line below it, just to make it easy to edit in case something goes wrong.

After making that change, proceede to edit /usr/bin/displayconfig-restore (as root) and place a comment in the last line, making

#main()

the last line.

Now we're in the home stretch, fire up kate (without kdesu or sudo), and paste the following into it

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=compiz --replace decoration wobbly fade switcher minimize cube rotate zoom scale move resize place & gnome-window-decorator &xmodmap -e "keycode 22 = BackSpace" &
GenericName[en_US]=
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
TerminalOptions=
Type=Application
X-KDE-autostart-after=kdesktop"

dock or miniwin can also be active, but make sure not to try and use both at the same time, they don't play very well together. This command will initialize all the plugins for compiz. After running this for the first time, I suggest going back and commenting out everything after the gconf entry with a pound sign. (#)

save this file in your /home/USERNAME*/.kde/Autostart folder as compiz.desktop

* make sure to put your username instead of USERNAME


Now, restart you session (making sure to restart X with a ctrl+alt+backspace) and login as normal, have a great time playing with compiz!

Well, there you go! XGL should load instead of X, and after kde starts up, you should have wobbly windows, and tons other neat effects! Again i suggest heading over to The Compiz Forums to get great advice on configuring compiz with both gconf-editor and the handy gset-compiz tool


TODO:
Do a fresh install of Dapper and try this updated version from the beginning! (Done! And it worked just fine)

[watje]

#!/bin/bash
compiz --replace gconf decoration dock wobbly fade minimize cube rotate zoom scale move resize place state switcher trailfocus water bs widget 
& gnome-window-decorator

Isn't this for gnome users?

[parsival]

Hi chadwick359,

nice FAQ.

I followed all the directions except I added
sudo nvidia-glx-config enable
after the download. X come up OK but I cant drag windows
plus a few other oddities. So close! But not there yet

Fortunately
/etc/init.d/kdm stop
startx
kwin --replace

gets me back to X with kwin.

Any hints?

Bye
PArsival

[chadwick359]

I followed all the directions except I added
sudo nvidia-glx-config enable
after the download. X come up OK but I cant drag windows
plus a few other oddities. So close! But not there yet

PArsival

When the windows come up, and you cant drag them, do they have title bars at the top? To me it sounds like Compiz is crashing at KDE startup, which happens from time to time, as updates are applied. I would suggest making a copy or a link to the file the HowTo tells you to put into your autostart folder, and try clicking that if windows are borderless and immoble. I keep a link right on my desktop, because it's almost impossible to do anything without being able to focus keyboard input or move windows.

[xinix]

How do I change the compiz font? It's rather small for me. Also, is there any way to set compiz as a session option in kdm? This way I can use a non compiz session as the same user. They way it is working now, you load kde and then kill kwin and start compiz. Is it possible to set compiz to start instead of kwin at startup?

[chadwick359]

The font is changeable in the normal system settings dialouge for Kubuntu.

[ErikTheRed]

Anyone know if kde-window-decorator is working yet? I know it was missing from the CVS up until recently. I'm gonna see if I can get it to work tonight. I'll definitely let you guys know how it goes.

UPDATE: Looks like kde-window-decorator is still broken. Wah.

[chadwick359]

Yeah, I don't plan on seeing a working Kde decorator until much later in the dev cycle, which is strange, because it seems that KDE has always been the DE for the eyecandy obsessed.

[misguided]

This is seriously odd to me:
I followed the Ubuntu (GNOME) Xgl+compiz tutorial for ATI cards (which lies here) and used the set of instructions to give Xgl its own GNOME X session. It works beautifully. I had some initial problems that were corrected by the latest quinn that came out over the weekend. It's perfect now, or near it at least.
I decided, however, that GNOME might not be for me, and I wanted to switch to KDE.
I tried using the ServerCmd and compiz launch script from this tutorial, and nothing changed... running that compiz script from a terminal window returns "compiz.real: No composite extension".
So I tried using the ServerCmd from my GNOME session's startxgl.sh, and the startcompiz script from the same, and it does the same.
If I try putting the option composite enable in the extensions section of xorg.conf, it screws up (as in, no title bars or ability to control my windows whatsoever) not only my KDE session, and not only the Xgl GNOME session, but also the non-xgl GNOME session. So clearly that's not the answer.
I'm obviously missing something, but I'm having trouble understanding why the same X command and compiz command would work on GNOME and not on KDE.
How can I tell if I'm running Xgl rather than X? (I don't know how X would get launched instead, but it would be one less problem to try to figure out if I knew for sure)

[XiN-eViL]

Hello,

I followed this guide, and everything worked, but when a kde window wants attention (i.e. flashing in the panel), it keeps flashing (it won't stop). Does anyone know how to fix this ?