Tag Archives: Compiz

Software

Fixed White Borders in Compiz Fusion

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As I mentioned the other day, I upgraded one of my systems from Kubuntu Feisty Fawn to Gutsy Gibbon and had to fix some quirks with Compiz Fusion. Another anomaly I had was the appearance of wide white borders around application menus as well as the K-Menu in KDE. It appeared as though the menu shadows weren’t being rendered properly.

Fortunately, the fix for that was quite easy. Instead of the default KDE window decorator, gtk-window-decorator, use Emerald. The package can be found in Adept. After installing it, run emerald –replace to turn it on without having to log out. To adjust settings and customize the window decorations, go to Settings in the K-Menu and run Emerald Theme Manager.

So far, I’m liking Compiz Fusion. It hasn’t crashed and it’s very fast. I don’t notice any performance penalty as compared to using the regular 2D desktop. Granted, the 3D animations are just eye candy but they’re fun.

Software

Fix Compiz Fusion on Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon (Ubuntu + KDE)

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Having trouble getting Compiz Fusion working on Kubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)? So did I and here’s how I fixed it.

I recently upgraded one of my Kubuntu Fiesty Fawn systems to Gutsy Gibbon (version 7.10). However, since it was a distro upgrade, not a new installation, the Compiz Fusion system wasn’t installed by default. Even after installing the compiz packages, things still weren’t quite right.

First, in addition to the compiz package, you have to select the compiz-kde package. For some reason, Adept doesn’t select it automatically with all the other compiz packages (even though this is Kubuntu, which uses KDE). Failure to install compiz-kde results in your windows not having any borders or widgets.

Second, install the compizconfig-settings-manager package. This is the configuration panel to access all the options for Compiz Fusion. Without this, some things just don’t behave quite right. For example, in the normal KDE desktop, I have focus follow the mouse. This doesn’t translate automatically to Compiz so you have to use the settings manager to adjust it. The tool also gives you access to all the Compiz plugins.

After all that’s done, restart X (Ctrl+Alt+Backspace) and log back in. Run the Compiz Settings Manager by going to the KMenu, Settings, Advanced Desktop Effects Settings. Adjust to your heart’s content.

There are still some quirks running Compiz on Kubuntu (such as the update manager icon sometimes appearing as a separate window rather than an icon in the notification area). But at least this gets it to be operational.

Have more tips? Post them in the comments.