Xgl + Ubuntu Dapper + compiz

whitecrook · 22 Feb 2006 at 00:24

Hi,

I've been playing with this for a few days now and it's fair to say the wobbly windows, expose, and cube desktop features absolutely rock!!

Anyone else using it?

If you don't know what I mean check the videos here: http://www.novell.com/linux/xglrelease/

Seems to work quite well with my GF3 ti200 XP1900+ 1GB ram.

Hades · 22 Feb 2006 at 01:17

Phil99 · 22 Feb 2006 at 01:36

How did you get the expose/cube to work?

I managed to get up to the wobbly windows on KDE but couldn't get anything else to do much. (complete linux newbie here)

I think I used Kubuntu though, I take it plain ol' Ubuntu is better?

jd99 · 22 Feb 2006 at 08:23

Theres lots of good guides on the Ubuntu forum... a lot depends on what graphics card you are running. You also need to be running Dapper Drake.. (or more specifically modular XOrg 7)

Briefly, this is how i got it to work on an ATI Mobility 9600 (supposedly one of the more fussy cards):

Install ATI Proprietary Driver and kernel modules and then configure xorg.conf to use fglrx

Code:

sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx
sudo apt-get remove linux-restricted-modules-$(uname -r)

Then install XGL, Compiz etc...

Code:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xgl compiz compiz-gnome libgl1-mesa libgl1-mesa-dri libglitz1 libglitz-glx1 transset

Create an init file called /usr/bin/startxgl.sh The init file should be executable (chmod 755 <file>), and contain something like:

Code:

#!/bin/bash

Xgl -fullscreen :1 -ac -accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:fbo & sleep 2 && DISPLAY=:1 gnome-session

Then create a file called /usr/share/xsessions/xgl.desktop, containing:

Code:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=XGL
Exec=/usr/bin/startxgl.sh
Icon=
Type=Application

Restart your machine and then Xgl should appear as a Session option on the login screen (where you select between GNOME, KDE, etc).

Then when you login open a terminal and type:

Code:

gnome-window-decorator

Code:

compiz --replace gconf decoration wobbly fade minimize cube rotate zoom scale move resize place menu switcher

Code:

xmodmap /usr/share/xmodmap/xmodmap.uk

After this everything may work,... XGL is still very experimental and quite hard to get to work... personally i like it performance is good..the cube is quite cool (ctrl+shift+left/right) and the expose-like effects (F12) a great improvement. I do like the vista-like alt+tab... especially when a video is playing and you see it playing in the alt+tab window

wesley · 22 Feb 2006 at 09:47

yep been playing with it in last few days, its fab

Phil99 · 22 Feb 2006 at 10:38

jd99 said:
After this everything may work,... XGL is still very experimental and quite hard to get to work... personally i like it performance is good..the cube is quite cool (ctrl+shift+left/right) and the expose-like effects (F12) a great improvement. I do like the vista-like alt+tab... especially when a video is playing and you see it playing in the alt+tab window

Thanks for posting that, the guide I followed was a lot more complex. I'll try and give that method a go today

whitecrook · 22 Feb 2006 at 17:39

phil 99

hold ctrl+alt and left click+drag on desktop to do cube stuff

Actually I am running dapper flight 3 kubuntu dist-upgraded to ubuntu-desktop .

F12 does the expose thing

different combos of win, shift, alt and ctrl + the arrow keys and the mouse wheel all do different stuff.

you may need to instal compiz-kde
instead of compix-gnome

also, check out gconf setting for compiz, there you can define your key combo's.