Problem With Compiz Install: SOLVED

[Guest]

Hi,

I just installed Kubuntu 8.04 (regular KDE 3 version) on a Dell Inspiron 8500 laptop. According to lspci, this is my video card: 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV28 [GeForce4 Ti 4200 Go AGP 8x] (rev a1)

After the OS install, I did a full update using Adept. After reboot, I chose System - Desktop Effects and installed Compiz. After install, I chose "Standard Effects" and click Apply, but nothing happens. Then I chose "Extra Effects", but nothing happens.

Then I chose "Custom Effects, and download the Compiz Settings Manager, and try to enable some effects, but nothing happens.

Any suggestions? Any logs I can look in?

Thanks,

Jimmy

[Duggeek]

Re: Problem With Compiz Install

Hello "soundz",

One question; did you add the 'restricted' nVidia driver to enable 3D acceleration? You may have noticed it, but the word 'restricted' does have a fearful ring to it. (as if it implies, "Don't go there!")

The term 'restricted' is only in the sense that you, the user, are not necessarily allowed to modify or re-distribute the driver or source-code in any way. (in other words, it's use is governed by an End User License Agreement, or sometimes simply called "EULA")

Modifying or re-distributing drivers is preposterous for most 'regular' users, even myself. While it doesn't have any practical bearing on what you, or I, would actually do, it is the duty of Ubuntu to enforce the difference between their "Open Source" Operating System and the "Closed Source" drivers for specific video cards.

That all may be entirely tangential, since I pretty much assumed that you don't have the 'restricted' drivers.

Still... if you have a small icon on the taskbar that looks like a tiny drawing of an add-in card, click on it and see if additional drivers are available. That would be the easiest way of going about it... otherwise, let us know here what you see and we'll move on.

Best of luck,
- Douglas

[Guest]

Re: Problem With Compiz Install

Hi Douglas,

That was exactly what the problem was. I installed the restricted nVidia drivers and everything is working fine now.

If anyone is reading this, here is a newbie's install guide for Compiz Fusion on Kubuntu Hardy:

1) Everything can be done through the GUI - exception being if you have some graphics card that Hardy doesn't recognize.

2) The auto-install program for the nVidia restricted drivers (probably other drivers too) is also located on System - Hardware Drivers Manager. Reboot after installing.

3) To install Compiz, make sure you run System - Adept Manager at least once and click "Fetch Updates" to get the latest packages. All of the repositories should be checked by default, but just incase, check Adept - Manage Repositories and make sure everything is checked first.

4) After running Adept Manager once, run System - Desktop Effects. Adept will install some extra packages. After it installs, choose the Custom Effects option. The Extra Effects option is not so "extra" as they make it seem, and you definitely don't need sunglasses as you barely see anything happen. This set me back couple of hours; long live Linux.

5) Install compizconfig-settings-manager using Adept. It will install a configurator into Settings - Advanced Desktop Effects Settings. Run the configurator and start clicking on the all the checkboxes and play around. The make the desktop cube work, make sure Desktop Cube and Rotate Cube are checked. To rotate the cube, one way is to press ctrl & alt at the same time and left click your mouse and start dragging.

6) You'll need size your desktops to get a proper cube. This is something that took me another couple of hours to figure out. Long live Linux. First you have to go to compiz settings manager and select General - Desktop Size. Set Horizontal Size to 4 and Vertical Size to 1. This might be good enough for you. But I like to have 4 separate desktops. So right click on the desktop and select Configure Desktop - Multiple Desktops and select 4 desktops as the number of desktops. Warning: You have to set the size using compiz settings first, otherwise the number of desktops won't work.

Thanks,

Jimmy

Hello "soundz",

One question; did you add the 'restricted' nVidia driver to enable 3D acceleration? You may have noticed it, but the word 'restricted' does have a fearful ring to it. (as if it implies, "Don't go there!")

The term 'restricted' is only in the sense that you, the user, are not necessarily allowed to modify or re-distribute the driver or source-code in any way. (in other words, it's use is governed by an End User License Agreement, or sometimes simply called "EULA")

Modifying or re-distributing drivers is preposterous for most 'regular' users, even myself. While it doesn't have any practical bearing on what you, or I, would actually do, it is the duty of Ubuntu to enforce the difference between their "Open Source" Operating System and the "Closed Source" drivers for specific video cards.

That all may be entirely tangential, since I pretty much assumed that you don't have the 'restricted' drivers.

Still... if you have a small icon on the taskbar that looks like a tiny drawing of an add-in card, click on it and see if additional drivers are available. That would be the easiest way of going about it... otherwise, let us know here what you see and we'll move on.

Best of luck,
- Douglas

[toad]

Re: Problem With Compiz Install

Glad you got it sorted - could you now edit the subject line of your first post to include SOLVED so others will know it is worth looking into?

Thanks