MX Linux Forum

MX and Compiz

Installing compiz on mx linux with the mx-packageinstaller "full catalog" test repo function.

dolphin_oracle wrote:MX and Compiz

Installing compiz on mx linux with the mx-packageinstaller "full catalog" test repo function.

Nice job D.O.

That's a pretty good video, D_O.

What emerald theme were you using there?

asqwerth wrote:That's a pretty good video, D_O.

What emerald theme were you using there?

I'll check it out when I get home and let you know. It is one of the built in emerald ones, that's all I remember.

Nice and informative video. Thanks for make and share it.

asqwerth wrote:That's a pretty good video, D_O.

What emerald theme were you using there?

Shiki-Colors, toward the very end of list.

Thanks, D_O.

Nice built in editor for emerald themes helps me make adjustments for the tiny titlebar on large screens with all packaged themes. Have not had success yet for the titlebar icons, but there is a mechanism in the editor to do that. I think I just need the right format for the image files.

I am impressed how well the recording software handled all the transitions.

Adrian wrote:I am impressed how well the recording software handled all the transitions.

simplescreenrecorder almost never fails. I used to have tons and tons of problems with both gtk-recordmydesktop and vokoscreen. Even though I *can* run obs-studio on my main laptop, I see no reason to change.

It looks like just installing the compiz metapackage pulls in all those extras anyway:

Depends: compiz-core (>= 2:0.8.12.3-0mx15+1), compiz-plugins (>= 2:0.8.12.3-0mx15+1), compiz-gtk (>= 2:0.8.12.3-0mx15+1), compiz-fusion-plugins-main, compizconfig-settings-manager, libcompizconfig0 (>= 0.8.12-0~), fusion-icon, ccsm | simple-ccsm, compiz-fusion-plugins-extra, compiz-fusion-plugins-unsupported

I think I moved some of those from recommended to hard dependencies to make it a simpler install when rebuilding the packages, so that should make it easier to put compiz in the package installer.

Another thing to note about using Compiz - if you activate it and find that the window top bar and borders are missing, it's because you didn't tick the "Window Decorations" option in Compiz Settings Manager (accessible from right-clicking the Fusion Icon in notification area):
I saw one comment in your Youtube video mentioning the missing top bar of windows.

Anyway, after ticking the said option, right click Fusion Icon and Reload Window Manager.

asqwerth wrote:Another thing to note about using Compiz - if you activate it and find that the window top bar and borders are missing, it's because you didn't tick the "Window Decorations" option in Compiz Settings Manager (accessible from right-clicking the Fusion Icon in notification area):

mx-compizsettings.png

I saw one comment in your Youtube video mentioning the missing top bar of windows.

Anyway, after ticking the said option, right click Fusion Icon and Reload Window Manager.

After seeing your post I figured I give compiz an other try. Even with Window Decorations selected it still doesn't show the title bar on any windows making my computer not usable for me. I went back to not using compiz and the title bars are back.

@Mauser, after ticking on "Window Decoration" did you open the Emerald Theme Manager (accessible from right-clicking the Fusion Icon in notification area) and choosing any theme within, and then reload Window Manager (also from Fusion Icon right click menu)?

asqwerth wrote:@Mauser, after ticking on "Window Decoration" did you open the Emerald Theme Manager (accessible from right-clicking the Fusion Icon in notification area) and choosing any theme within, and then reload Window Manager (also from Fusion Icon right click menu)?

I now tried that and it almost bricked my system. Windows wouldn't respond at all and still no top title bar. Not even X-kill would work. Luckily the window sizes were rendered incorrectly that I had a free space on the desktop to right click on so I could navigate to take compiz out of start up to get my computer back. I am not going to try to use compiz ever again.

Mauser wrote:

asqwerth wrote:@Mauser, after ticking on "Window Decoration" did you open the Emerald Theme Manager (accessible from right-clicking the Fusion Icon in notification area) and choosing any theme within, and then reload Window Manager (also from Fusion Icon right click menu)?

I now tried that and it almost bricked my system. Windows wouldn't respond at all and still no top title bar. Not even X-kill would work. Luckily the window sizes were rendered incorrectly that I had a free space on the desktop to right click on so I could navigate to take compiz out of start up to get my computer back. I am not going to try to use compiz ever again.

What system are you using? Inxi -F. On MX 16.1 XFCE DE it is working fine for me.

richb wrote:

Mauser wrote:

asqwerth wrote:@Mauser, after ticking on "Window Decoration" did you open the Emerald Theme Manager (accessible from right-clicking the Fusion Icon in notification area) and choosing any theme within, and then reload Window Manager (also from Fusion Icon right click menu)?

I now tried that and it almost bricked my system. Windows wouldn't respond at all and still no top title bar. Not even X-kill would work. Luckily the window sizes were rendered incorrectly that I had a free space on the desktop to right click on so I could navigate to take compiz out of start up to get my computer back. I am not going to try to use compiz ever again.

What system are you using? Inxi -F. On MX 16.1 XFCE DE it is working fine for me.

I don't understand what you mean.

Mauser wrote:

richb wrote:

Mauser wrote: I now tried that and it almost bricked my system. Windows wouldn't respond at all and still no top title bar. Not even X-kill would work. Luckily the window sizes were rendered incorrectly that I had a free space on the desktop to right click on so I could navigate to take compiz out of start up to get my computer back. I am not going to try to use compiz ever again.

What system are you using? Inxi -F. On MX 16.1 XFCE DE it is working fine for me.

I don't understand what you mean.

Show command inxi -F output....

Open the terminal and type

inxi -F
[case is important]


press RETURN


Then copy and paste the output in this forum.


This will help us have a better idea of what hardware cannot support compiz.

I'm curious myself because I was happily running compiz and its predecessors on a Dell Pentium 4 with weak ATI Radeon graphics card up to end 2014.

Ogis wrote:

Mauser wrote:

richb wrote: What system are you using? Inxi -F. On MX 16.1 XFCE DE it is working fine for me.

I don't understand what you mean.

Show command inxi -F output....

System: Host: MX16 Kernel: 4.7.0-0.bpo.1-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Desktop: Xfce 4.12.2
Distro: MX-16_x64 Metamorphosis 12 December 2016
Machine: Device: desktop System: HP product: 510-p026
Mobo: HP model: 81B4 v: 00 UEFI [Legacy]: AMI v: F.13 date: 08/02/2016
CPU: Quad core Intel Core i5-6400T (-MCP-) cache: 6144 KB
clock speeds: max: 2800 MHz 1: 897 MHz 2: 860 MHz 3: 875 MHz 4: 899 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel Device 1912
Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: modesetting,fbdev,vesa)
Resolution: 1920x1080@60.00hz, 1366x768@59.81hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 530 (Skylake GT2) GLX Version: 4.3 Mesa 12.0.3
Audio: Card Intel Device a170 driver: snd_hda_intel Sound: ALSA v: k4.7.0-0.bpo.1-amd64
Network: Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller driver: r8169
IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: ec:8e:b5:d8:80:88
Card-2: Intel Device 3165 driver: iwlwifi
IF: wlan0 state: down mac: 84:ef:18:57:29:2f
Drives: HDD Total Size: 8001.5GB (6.8% used)
ID-1: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD4003FZEX size: 4000.8GB
ID-2: USB /dev/sdb model: Elements_107C size: 4000.8GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 3.6T used: 496G (15%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
ID-2: swap-1 size: 8.60GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda1
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 30.0C mobo: 27.8C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 213 Uptime: 1:29 Memory: 1307.1/11881.4MB Client: Shell (bash) inxi: 2.3.21

Nothing jumps out at me that is unusual.

I found and fixed the problem. I was looking at kwin on YouTube since compiz didn't work and I came across this video from Spatry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEA_h0NBrG8&t=67s I followed his directions and it worked. I then enabled compiz in Sessions and Startup and the title bar was missing again but the windows were somewhat responsive this time. Then I thought about it and I figured I try disabling compton from Application Auto-start and rebooted and the title bar came back and everything works now. :) So it looks like there is a conflict between compiz and compton.

That makes sense. You had 2 different compositing programs running at the same time probably trying to do the same thing.

Mauser wrote:I found and fixed the problem. I was looking at kwin on YouTube since compiz didn't work and I came across this video from Spatry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEA_h0NBrG8&t=67s I followed his directions and it worked. I then enabled compiz in Sessions and Startup and the title bar was missing again but the windows were somewhat responsive this time. Then I thought about it and I figured I try disabling compton from Application Auto-start and rebooted and the title bar came back and everything works now. :) So it looks like there is a conflict between compiz and compton.

You don't have to disable compton and restart, just run killall compton in a terminal. It's a good idea to disable it if you want to use compiz by default, of course.

Stevo wrote:

Mauser wrote:I found and fixed the problem. I was looking at kwin on YouTube since compiz didn't work and I came across this video from Spatry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEA_h0NBrG8&t=67s I followed his directions and it worked. I then enabled compiz in Sessions and Startup and the title bar was missing again but the windows were somewhat responsive this time. Then I thought about it and I figured I try disabling compton from Application Auto-start and rebooted and the title bar came back and everything works now. :) So it looks like there is a conflict between compiz and compton.

You don't have to disable compton and restart, just run killall compton in a terminal. It's a good idea to disable it if you want to use compiz by default, of course.

I am not a fan of the ancient antiquated C.L.I. It's easier for me to do it through the G.U.I. Thanks anyway.

Mauser wrote:

Stevo wrote:

Mauser wrote:I found and fixed the problem. I was looking at kwin on YouTube since compiz didn't work and I came across this video from Spatry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEA_h0NBrG8&t=67s I followed his directions and it worked. I then enabled compiz in Sessions and Startup and the title bar was missing again but the windows were somewhat responsive this time. Then I thought about it and I figured I try disabling compton from Application Auto-start and rebooted and the title bar came back and everything works now. :) So it looks like there is a conflict between compiz and compton.

You don't have to disable compton and restart, just run killall compton in a terminal. It's a good idea to disable it if you want to use compiz by default, of course.

I am not a fan of the ancient antiquated C.L.I. It's easier for me to do it through the G.U.I. Thanks anyway.

I find it a lot faster than restarting the system, but you can always just put that command in a script or a .desktop file and just click it with the mouse if you really want to be l33t