Introduction
Compiz Fusion is the the result of the merge of Compiz and Beryl.
The Beryl developers gave up their own core (and therefore the window manager itself) and focus now - together with voluntary Compiz devs - on developing plugins for Compiz.
Additionally Emerald (Beryl's window decorator) got ported to Compiz and a config tool called "CompizConfig Settings Manager" got developed, that continues to give the users the choice and flexibility they're used to from the defunct "Beryl Settings Manager".
Since Compiz Fusion is in early development there are no official packages for Feisty out there right now.
But the next release of Ubuntu (Gutsy Gibbon) is in development as well and therefore already includes packages for Compiz Fusion.
So how does this help us on Feisty? Amaranth of the Ubuntu (and Compiz) community backported those packages to Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn!
I wouldn't go so far to call those packages rock stable, but they are definitely the most stable ones you can get right now. This means on the other hand they probably omit some features you might have heard of. It includes only the plugins that are in the "plugins-main" and "plugins-extra" branches. Nothing from "plugins-unsupported" or even uncategorised plugins. But these are very few and most of them aren't ready for the end-user anyway. In fact, I for myself did not miss any plugins while using those packages and I'm compiling from git on a daily basis.
So this how-to is for everyone that want new eye-candy but don't want to worry about whether the installation will corrupt anything on their machine or face new problems with every update (what is the case with those bleeding edge repositories - don't get me wrong, I think those guys are doing a great job but that's certainly not for everyone - and the forums are packed with threads like "Help! Latest update broke my Compiz" etc.).
I'm going to keep the guide as simple as I can, because I know there are many people out there getting attracted by those fancy effects and are otherwise totally new to Linux.
(Because of that, I'm going to use Synaptic for most of the steps - if you're on KDE, you can do similar things with Adept)
Install Compiz Fusion on Feisty
First we have to launch Synpatic via System → Administration → Synaptic Package Manager
Important:
Due to dependency problems, it's necessary to remove at least one package but I recommend removing everything regarding Compiz.
In order to do that, click on Search and type compiz (if it's not set by default, choose "Look in: Description and Name").
Then click on the (green) box next to all the installed packages we found and choose "Mark for Removal". Afterwards, click Apply.
In addition to that: if you have any other packages related to Compiz, Beryl and/or Emerald installed (besides the ones that came with your installation of Ubuntu) you have to remove all of them!
It's also of vital importance to remove any third-party repository for Compiz and/or Beryl you have added to your sources.list!
On a side note: as you might have noticed, removing compiz will cause to automatically remove ubuntu-desktop too. That's generally nothing to worry about, as it's just an empty metapackage. But it's perfectly safe to install it subsequent to the installation again (that applies to applications that depend on Compiz, like Screenlets, as well).
Adding the Repository
Click on Settings and choose Repositories - that will start the "Software Sources" application where you click on the Third Party Software tab and choose Add...
This is the APT line you need:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/amaranth/ubuntu feisty main
After we added the repository and closed the window, we need to reload the package informations in Synaptic, click Reload to do so.
Choosing the packages
Now we do a search for compiz again, wich will list all the packages that are ready to install (in order to do that, click on the empty box next to each entry and choose "Mark for installation").
Since the repository doesn't have a
GPG-Key, Synaptic will list the packages as "NOT AUTHENTICATED" in the installation process.
In this case, that's nothing to worry about.
The following packages (including dependencies) are the ones we are looking for:
-
compiz - this is a metapackage, that will install most of the necessary packages, including the Compiz Fusion ones.
-
compizconfig-settings-manager (recommended) - powerful configuration tool for Compiz and it's plugins
-
sexy-python (optional)
required for clear-buttons in certain input fields
(you have to do a separate search for that package)
-
emerald (optional) - nice independent window decorator
-
emerald-themes (optional) - a set of themes for Emerald (including "human-ubuntulooks", a port of the Ubuntu standard theme)
(you have to do a separate search for that package)
After we have checked all the packages we want for installation, we finally click Apply
Due to a bug, the version number of compiz-core doesn't get updated and therefore Synaptic wants to upgrade the package all the time, although it's already the latest available. So it's best to remove the repository after we have installed every package we need: all we have to do is uncheck the box next to the repository at Settings → Repositories → Third Party Software
And after another reload we can finally close Synaptic.
First steps
Before we launch Compiz for the first time, start the CompizConfig Settings Manager via System → Preferences.
- There we click on Preferences and in the Backend section choose "Flat-file Configuration Backend" (this is the most reliable and it won't mess with your previous settings of Compiz in gconf).
- Then create a new profile, so that you can easily switch back to default and back. To do so, click on the [+] in the Profile section.
- Last but not least, click Back and look for the Window Decoration button. Right next to Command, type gtk-window-decorator (this will prevent the window borders to disappear in certain situations) - if you want to use Emerald as your default window decorator, see below.
Run Compiz
Press [Alt]+[F2] to start "Run Application" and type:
compiz --replace
This should start Compiz with your standard window boarder.
If you want to use Emerald instead, press [Alt]+[F2] again and type:
emerald --replace
Run Compiz on startup
In order to use Compiz as your default window manager, all you have to do is add the before mentioned command (only the compiz one) to
System → Preferences → Sessions → Startup Programs
Run Compiz with Emerald by default (optional)
Compiz uses the gtk-window-decorator by default, but if you want to start Emerald right away, there are two ways to achieve this:
- Remove the package compiz-gnome (it will remove compiz too but don't worry, that's just an empty metapackage)
This will leave you without your window boarders, that you are used to from GNOME (only on Compiz, of course), so you should only do that when you are certain you solely want to use Emerald from now on!
- Create a startscript
Run Applications → Accessories → Text Editor and type the following:
#!/bin/bash
compiz --replace &
sleep 5
emerald --replace
Then save the file as start-compiz in your home folder. Close the text editor and open Places → Home Folder.
There you right-click on the file and check the box at Properties → Permissions → Allow executing file as program
After this, you can use that file to start Compiz - it's even possible to use that file with a launcher in the panel (or on the desktop) and of course use it for the command in the startup programs
Either way, insert emerald at System → Preferences → CompizConfig Settings Manager → Window Decoration → Command
Configure Compiz and it's plugins
This section of the guide has been moved to a separate blog entry
Troubleshooting
Compiz doesn't work at all
Please make sure you have the right driver for your graphics card installed as well as configured it correctly.
Here are some rules of the thumb depending on your graphics card brand:
Nvidia user
Install the appropriate driver via
System → Administration → Restricted Drivers Manager
Afterwards, run this command in a terminal to make sure your xorg.conf is configured correctly:
sudo nvidia-xconfig --add-argb-glx-visuals -d 24
ATI user
If your graphics card is supported by the open radeon driver, it should work out-of-the-box with Compiz.
Check your xorg.conf, if ati is listed as the driver:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
this is how it should look like:
Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Technologies, Inc. RV350 AR [Radeon 9600 XT]"
Driver "ati"
BusID "PCI:2:0:0"
EndSection
If you want to make sure or it's set to "vesa" (then your graphics card didn't get recognized by default) change it to "radeon" (but nothing else!)
If you want (or have) to use the fglrx driver, install it via
System → Administration → Restricted Drivers Manager
But then you have to install and set up Xgl (I strongly recommend Method A)
Intel user
Normally there are no troubles with intel chips whatsoever, since there is an open driver available, that comes with Ubuntu by default.
If you have issues nevertheless, have a look at this.
Compiz Fusion needs too much resources on Xgl
Try starting Compiz this way:
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/fglrx/libGL.so.1.2.xlibmesa compiz --replace
Compiz freezes randomly and/or permanently on logout
If you are using a Nvidia driver, try this:
Open the startscript for Compiz:
sudo gedit /usr/bin/compiz
look for the line about "No indirect by default" and change it to
No cube and wobbly windows
It's not a bug, it's a feature. 
Just check out the following guide how to set up Compiz Fusion
Additionally, you might want to check out this thread on the ubuntuforums, where I already answered many other questions.
Disclaimer: I have written and tested this how-to on a (relatively) fresh install of Ubuntu Studio (because I didn't want to mess with the git-install on my main machine), which has the advantage of not having Compiz installed by default. I did install the desktop-effects package, to check which (dependency) problems it brings but I may have missed something anyhow. So please let me know if you didn't understand a specific part of the guide and/or ran into problems I didn't address here.
Compiz-Switch
Compiz-Check
Ubuntu
Ubuntu forums
Compiz
Compiz Fusion forum
