compiz fusion set up help

[hellfried]

i have juts installed kubuntu 7.10 and would like to get compiz fusion going. i have enabled the restricted driver for my ati radeon x550 card. i have also installed the following packages:
compiz
compiz-core
compiz-fusion-plugins-main
compiz-kde
compiz-plugins
compizconfig-settings-manager
emerald

but when i type in compiz in the terminal i get :

Checking for Xgl: not present.
No whitelisted driver found
aborting and using fallback: /usr/bin/metacity
no /usr/bin/metacity found, exiting

any help would be appreciated

[gameforge]

Re: compiz fusion set up help

Try this:

$ sudo apt-get install xserver-xgl

Then, log out, kill the X server (push <Ctrl><Alt><Backspace> on login prompt, it will blink and come right back), log back in - note that when I did this, my system was very slow until I started compiz.

So then try this, perhaps with K Menu -> Run (as it's faster than starting konsole when it's sluggish):

$ compiz --replace ccp &

And it should start correctly, or at least spit out a different error. If it starts emerald and doesn't crash, run this:

$ ccsm &

And you should be able to play with the different compiz effects. enable "Desktop Cube" and "Rotate Cube", then hold <Ctrl><Alt> and drag your mouse - this should rotate the cube, and is one way to be sure compiz is running. When you change a setting in ccsm (i.e. check a checkbox, etc.) it's immediate - you don't have to save or click an "Apply" button.

Good luck...

[LdKefka21]

Re: compiz fusion set up help

It doesn't look like the compiz-fusion project officially supports your video card yet, so in order to get things running you will need to run xgl as your compositing manager and compiz will run on top of that.

Either go into adept and filter for xgl and install xserver-xgl or sudo apt-get install xserver-xgl

Mine even modified my xorg.conf to make xgl turned on by default, which was a very pleasant surprise since in previous releases I had configure that manually.

Sadly, running XGL in KDE is a bit too buggy for my tastes, and if you find you feel the same way you'll want to comment out the following lines in xorg.conf:

Section "Module"
Load "glx"
EndSection
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "0"
EndSection

(after backing up of course)

Still, don't remove it entirely, as it's always nice to show compiz to any 'Veesta'-loving MS fanboys who think their aero glass is so great.

It really bugs them I can get nicer (and more) effects on my humble Radeon 200M laptop with only 256 megs of RAM.

Personally, I'm gonna wait for KDE 4 and see if the compositing manager planned for that release performs any better - I'm betting it will.