Sun Jun 3 2007 - Desktop Effects

Did I mention that Ubuntu found all my Windows partitions (and the DELL utility one!) and placed an icon for each on my desktop? That was impressive. I can see NTFS drives and peruse their contents. But I can't save files there. Not yet anyway. (But that will come)

Then I clicked the blue question mark icon in the top panel and read the help file, to familiarise myself a little more with the Linux world. I also went looking for the equivalent of Windows' 'add/install programs' and I found it in the 'Applications' menu (top panel left).

My goal for today was to get Compiz desktop effects. I had read about them online and was intrigued - wobbling windows, a rotating cube of the four workspaces and transparent window borders. This I had to see.

First some more background reading. I found the compiz.org site and also a very useful unofficial Feisty Fawn 'how-to' guide at http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty. I should mention at this point that my video card is an nvidia (GeForce), and this guide has a brief section on installing Compiz with nvidia. But I also had the benefit of some advice from a friend. "Install the nvidia driver first", he said. "Save yourself some pain. Use 'Synaptic' - look for nvidia-glx." And so I did. Under 'System/Administration', I found 'Synaptic package Manager'. I opened it and in the search box typed 'nvidia'. In the resulting list, I selected 'nvidia-glx' and clicked apply. Installation was straightforward. I didn't get a prompt to restart. But since this seemed like a major system change, I did. (Did I need to?)

Back in Ubuntu I chose 'Desktop Effects' from the 'System/Preferences' menu and ticked both options. A warning prompt later (they're a little racy and unsupported, you know), I had both window wobble (grab the title bar and shake) and workspaces on a cube (press ctrl-alt and the drag with your mouse on the desktop). Snodger!

I couldn't see any evidence of transparent window borders though. I was expecting something like Vista's aero glass, but they seemed unchanged from the Ubuntu 'Human' theme default. After an hour or so of googling and forum trawling, I discovered that in fact the 'Compiz' themes listed at gnome-look.org as well as some application called 'Compiz themer' belong to a former era (prior to the split with Beryl?) and no longer work in Compiz. Bottom line - the latest stable version of Compiz (the one which comes with Ubuntu) has no separate category of themes and has no system tray applet or program listed in the menu options, for configuring its effects. But you can make window borders transparent, fairly simply. Here's how:

The only configuration tool available with my current setup is the gnome configurator, called gconf. But it's hidden by default in Ubuntu. So I went to 'System/Preferences/Main Menu' then clicked on 'System Tools' under 'Applications', ticked 'Configuration Editor' and closed that window. I was now able to choose 'Configuration Editor' from the 'Applications' menu. Following the instructions I found in a forum entry I've since lost, I clicked 'apps' then 'gwd' then right clicked on 'metacity_theme_active_opacity' and changed it's value to .7 (ends up as .69 ?!) I also adjusted the 'metacity_theme_opacity' to .5. Then I opened a couple of windows and by sliding one across the other could clearly see the content of the lower pane through the title bar of the upper. Whacko - transparency!

So what's the story with themes? Quite simply, you use Metacity themes. These are the standard ones - the type included with Ubuntu and listed under 'Preferences/Themes'. There are also reams of others you can download from gnome-look.org. And then you adjust the opacity of 'gwd' (what is that short for?) in gconf (see above). I imagine there's a Metacity theme somewhere that looks a little like Vista and which, with an opacity of .3 or so, would look rather 'aero glass'. But I'm sticking with the default 'Human' theme for the moment.

Next question: What are Compiz extras? The Compiz site suggested installing them, so I located them in synaptic (see above) and installed. But what to do with them? What effects were offered and how do i configure them?

http://www.compiz.org/Plugins describes briefly all the plugins. And http://www.compiz.org/Gconf-Editor gives an overview of gconf
I discovered in gconf under apps/compiz/general/allscreens/options that I had the following active plugins i.a.: gconf, png, svg, decoration, wobbly, fade, minimize, cube, rotate, zoom, move, resize, switcher, annotate, screenshot, scale, place, inotify, dbus, keybinding. The ones that interested me most were: fade, minimize, zoom, switcher, scale.

Note - there are a few dead-ends on the compiz site. The 'compiz-settings' app for example, has been abandoned. So ignore that avenue. It's down to gconf (see above) for adjusting Compiz effects. Generally speaking, key combinations enable them. On key combinations, http://computerbits.wordpress.com/tag/compiz/ was useful, but had me scratching my head in a few places. And this page has a good overview of the various effects - http://gentoo-wiki.com/Compiz, as well as key combinations.

Fade - this affects menus on opening and closing. I slowed this in gconf from 5 to 10.

Minimise - slowed this gliding effect (on minimising windows) from 1.5 to 1. Sweet.

Zoom-in = Super-key (windows logo) + wheel mouse up - yeah
Zoom-out = Super-key + wheel mouse down - bewdy

Switcher - ctrl-alt + tab - bonzer, got that working.

Scale - I could see what this would do at http://www.compiz.org/Plugins - tile all my open windows so that each was visible. But how to enable it? what was the key combination? I couldn't find a forum post that made sense to me. Finally I found the answer in gconf itself under compiz/plugins/scale/allscreens/options - the initiate key is ctrl-alt + up (arrow at bottom right of keyboard). Snodger - it's cookin'.

NB - by default, the Ubuntu (or Gnome) setup gives you 4 workspaces. And you need all 4 to work the rotating cube. Sometimes, inexplicably, the workspaces contract to a single one, which disables the cube. You need to then reinstate the 4 workspaces by right-clicking on the workspace icon and resetting to 4 in preferences. Then deselect and reselect the cube effect under 'System/Desktop Effects' from the main menu.