Can't get rid of compiz [solved]

[lykwydchykyn]

sometime back around hardy or gutsy (in the KDE3 days), I used desktop-effects-kde to set compiz as the window manager for KDE.

Now that I'm playing with kde 4.2, I want kwin to be the window manager. Only problem is, compiz keeps launching when I log in. I can't figure out where it's launching from.

I tried running desktop effects-kde4, but it just claims that compiz isn't installed (patently false, since it's running), says my setting is "custom", and refuses to let me change any of the radio buttons to turn it back to kwin.

I've tried grepping through ~/.kde for mention of compiz, but I'm not having much luck sifting through the output of that.

Anyone know where this bit of config is stored, so I can wipe it out?

[sasha]

Re: Can't get rid of compiz

Something somewhere exports KDEWM and sets it to /usr/bin/compiz
try "env |grep KDEWM" and you will see it there. I was not able to find what that something is so I just edited /usr/bin/startkde and added

KDEWM=

on line 411 so it blanks out whaever KDEWM is set to and starts kwin, just before this line

test -n "$KDEWM" && KDEWM="--windowmanager $KDEWM"

[lykwydchykyn]

Re: Can't get rid of compiz

I found it; in the system settings under autostart, "compiz --replace" was set there. Deleting that did the trick, I think.

EDIT: that didn't fix. It came back. I'm grepping ~/.kde for KDEWM. The way I see it, the problem has got to be in my home directory somewhere.

[dibl]

Re: Can't get rid of compiz

First, take a look in .kde/Autostart and make sure there's no Compiz in there.

Then, open your Konsole and give it a

kwin --replace

If that doesn't get you where you want to be, I guess you'll have to resort to desperate measures.
After making sure everything you care about is backed up, try a

sudo apt-get remove --purge compiz*

I'll cross my fingers.

[lykwydchykyn]

Re: Can't get rid of compiz

Autostart was the first place I checked. Nuthin there, nor in .kde/share/autostart.

I can do kwin --replace, but that's not a solution. I want to get rid of this setting, for two reasons:

1. running kwin --replace is an extra step that makes startup even longer (my machine is no spring chicken).
2. if compiz runs first, my keyboard shortcuts get hosed. Even alt-f2 doesn't work.

I want to fix this cleanly without hacking system-level files, so that the change survives upgrades.

I appreciate the help, though.

[lykwydchykyn]

Re: Can't get rid of compiz

Ok, I found it!

grepping /etc for KDEWM, I came across /etc/X11/Xsession.d/25enable-compiz. It checks to see if a file exists, ~/.kde/share/config/compizasWM. If so, it sets KDEWM=/usr/bin/compiz.

Deleting this file should get rid of compiz at startup. I'll give it a try and report back if it works.

[Snowhog]

Re: Can't get rid of compiz

Is your current 8.10 system the result of an upgrade from 8.04? If yes, when you were running 8.04, did you 'upgrade' to KDE 4.0.x (remix), and afterwards (at some point) upgrade your system to 8.10? I think it will be helpful to know the sequence of events that led you to the point you are at now.

[lykwydchykyn]

Re: Can't get rid of compiz

Ok, what I said in my last post fixed it. Thanks everyone for your help!

[dibl]

Re: Can't get rid of compiz [solved]

Excellent -- yes, that's a good solution. Can you mark your original topic "SOLVED", please, in case anyone else is looking for the same issue?