How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

kBang · 2009-05-19 19:45:11

Pics from Arpbook/Arplinux:

My own while reviewing the steps below:

You can do this as a clean install (minimal Ubuntu/other distro + compiz) or include it as an alternative environment alongside Openbox. The following assumes you prefer to do this with your #! installation, if not it is a very rudimentary endeavor to build it from a minimal.

This information is simply a reparsing of what I have found on the net.

Here are the steps I take:

1) sudo apt-get install compiz fusion-icon emerald compizconfig-settings-manager

* if you are doing a fresh install (perhaps only minimal ubuntu and compiz) or you don't have a panel installed, it is recommended the first time you use compiz you should have a panel so you don't get stuck with no gmrun or interface, right-click menus won't work from scratch. I recommend lxpanel for first time, you can remove it later once you get everything the way you like it.

2) sudo nano /usr/share/xsessions/fusion.desktop

(use whatever editor you like, I use nano for fresh install with no other window manager, leafpad if I am in #!)

3) copy and paste the following in to fusion.desktop (note: using GDM in the example, for fresh install you can simply startx or include the menu of your choice):
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
# This is the name you'll see for the session in gdm
Name=Fusion
# This is the comment
Comment=Compiz Fusion Standalone
# The command
Exec=/usr/local/bin/start-fusion.sh
Type=Application

4) now create the start-fusion.sh:

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/start-fusion.sh

5) copy this in to the start-fusion.sh and edit it to include whatever you would normally include in your autostart.sh, I don't recommend starting conky it's a bit buggy, you can work with it after you are done:
#!/bin/bash
compiz ccp &
emerald & #edit to add: this is optional, you don't need emerald at all.
fusion-icon &
lxpanel #or whatever panel you prefer, or no panel if you are brave

6) save and make the file executable:
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/start-fusion.sh
note: I recommend you start with the few items you definetly must have in your startup, then add others a few at a time in case they get buggy. The last item does not need the ampersand "&" at the end. However if you kill this app your session will exit. This can be useful or annoying.

More tips:
When you first log in use lxpanel to start a terminal session. Type ccsm and hit enter. Go to Commands, check to enable it. Now inside Commands you can make keybindings shortcuts just like in open box. I recommend setting one for gmrun (alt+F2), terminator (Super+t), firefox (Super+w), and so on. Use ccsm for setting your bling, right click the fusion-icon in the tray for setting up your desktop however you prefer.
If you want wallpaper(s) and already use nitrogen, you can add the same entry you find in autostart.sh at step 5 above:
nitrogen --restore &
If you plan to use compiz to set your wallpaper you won't need to bother with nitrogen.
If you are doing this from within an environment like #!, you can skip adding a panel if you like and run ccsm before you log out, set up your keybindings as mentioned above.

Completeness: No Emerald, yet Windows have Decorations

Compiz+Conky:

Found via google -

First, this doesn’t work perfectly, unfortunately conky uses pseudo transparency, which means it draws it’s own background. This means that if you run one conky instance it will draw the first background it finds. Which is fine until you use multiple background. This causes conky to have the first desktops background on any other desktops you move to. Looks kind of funny.
First a caveat, by using this method you will no longer have desktop icons. If this is a problem for you, this method won’t be your best solution.
First the windows settings in my conkyrc:
own_window yes
own_window_hints undecorated
own_window_type normal
own_window_transparent no
This lets conky draw inside it’s own window, does not show borders, and draws a background.
Second you should Nautilus from drawing your desktop. This is also what keeps you from having icons. Run
gconf and go to apps>nautilus>preferences and unpick “show_desktop”
At this point you could quit, but conky will be in your taskbar, and won’t have transparency. So the next step is to make changes to your compiz settings. Go to System>Preferences>CompizConfig Settings Manager. (If you do not have this entry run sudo apt-get compizconfig-settings-manager)
First go to Window Management and select Window Rules. In each of the following boxes add the following entry “class=Conky”. Skip Taskbar, Skip Pager, Below, Sticky, None movable windows, Non resizable windows, Non minimizable windows, Non Maximizable windows, None closable windows, and No Focus. This will force conky to remain below your windows and sit on all desktops.
Next set some transparency. Click back, then General Options. Choose the Opacity Settings Tab, and choose New under Window Opacities. Under the option Opacity windows put class=Conky. For the window values I use 50, but you can play with this until it suits you.
Now conky should meld well with your desktop, and allow you to have different backgrounds on each desktop.

Note: Where he mentions going back and doing things in opacity tab I found via Accessibility>Opacity, Brightness and Saturation>Opacity tab.

Here is a post I was unaware of on these forums by Arp, it includes his pics and links

Last edited by kBang (2009-05-20 13:01:58)

Hanna · 2009-05-19 20:01:03

Thanks again smile I'll see if I try this already now or tomorrow morning tongue

arpinux · 2009-05-19 21:33:19

hi,
thanks kBang smile
i'd tried it a few month ago and i assume that compiz as standalone is as fast as #!. just a suggestion: you can use compiz deskmenu to have a right-clic menu on desktop like openbox wink
it's a little bit disturbing at the beginning but as kBang said, when you have ccsm well configured, all goes easy wink
if you want to see what it looks like : http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/post/4029/#p4029

robconnolly · 2009-05-19 21:46:50

Woah! That's awesome.

I'll have to give that a try. Thank a lot!

kBang · 2009-05-19 22:59:21

arpinux wrote:

hi,
thanks kBang
i'd tried it a few month ago and i assume that compiz as standalone is as fast as #!. just a suggestion: you can use compiz deskmenu to have a right-clic menu on desktop like openbox
it's a little bit disturbing at the beginning but as kBang said, when you have ccsm well configured, all goes easy
if you want to see what it looks like : http://crunchbanglinux.org/forums/post/4029/#p4029

I was aware several of us #! users had run this type of setup, but I didn't know you had posted your post and included links. I linked your post at the end of mine above, Arp, thanks for pointing it out.

The link to the compiz-menu is also in that second link I included previously. I have issues with it not working well for me so I usually just use keybindings.

arpinux · 2009-05-19 23:17:25

^^thanks smile

iggykoopa · 2009-05-20 06:01:47

I gave it a try a while ago on my mini 9, but with the changes going on with the intel drivers I was having some issues with artifacts. Now that I'm running karmic I'll have to give it a try again and see if anything has improved.

kBang · 2009-05-20 06:08:28

iggykoopa wrote:

I gave it a try a while ago on my mini 9, but with the changes going on with the intel drivers I was having some issues with artifacts. Now that I'm running karmic I'll have to give it a try again and see if anything has improved.

I kinda pity your mini 9, I think the only thing it lacks is wheels.

iggykoopa · 2009-05-20 06:13:03

lol thats whats nice about it, it's really portable and if I hose anything on it it only takes about an hour to set back up. Also backing it up is quick since its only 32gb. Now I just need to switch out the wireless card, I really hate broadcom wireless.

NuclearStr1der · 2009-05-20 13:19:44

I'll give it a go in my spare time on my EEE - although I like the current snappiness, the Compiz ran flawlessly and smoothly while I was running Ubuntu a while back.

Thanks for the HowTo!

feelin_froggy8877 · 2009-06-20 17:29:30

I'm not sure how much a diff it makes, but I'm running antix. And followed these steps. Seems all is where it needs to be, I have the "start-fusion.sh" in /usr/bin, "fusion.desktop" in /usr/share/xsessions. It is not showing up in "session" at login. Did I miss something?

arpinux · 2009-08-08 09:47:59

feelin_froggy8877 wrote:

I'm not sure how much a diff it makes, but I'm running antix. And followed these steps. Seems all is where it needs to be, I have the "start-fusion.sh" in /usr/bin, "fusion.desktop" in /usr/share/xsessions. It is not showing up in "session" at login. Did I miss something?

i'm not Antix user but on Antix forum , they talk about ~/.xinitrc instead of gdm... you should take a look wink

and now a question... how do you logout compiz-standalone ?? how to return to gdm as <Ctrl><Alt><Backspace> doesn't work anymore...

iggykoopa · 2009-08-08 10:24:58

you can install dontzap, then run it from the command line. It'll let you turn CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE back on.

arpinux · 2009-08-08 10:53:01

thanks iggykoopa, after a reboot, it works perfectly and i prefer that as a 'sudo halt' smile

iDIEDaLONGtimeAGO · 2009-08-10 22:51:11

i actually managed to get compiz working flawlessly, but only for a couple of flaws wink
tint2 doesnt show multiple desktops the way i intend it to.
if i choose "horizantal virtual size = x", tint2 has only one one taskbar but the keybindings to switch desktops work
if i choose "no. of desktops = x", tint2 does show x taskbars but now the keybindings, cube & wall effects, animations etc dont work.

any suggestions?

iDIEDaLONGtimeAGO · 2009-08-10 22:53:54

just one more question, what would be the command to display the shutdown dialog box, i tried the gnome and openbox ones , didnt work..couldnt find anything specific for compiz

anonymous · 2009-08-10 23:00:34

Have you already tried oblogout? You can get it from the CrunchBang repos.

iDIEDaLONGtimeAGO · 2009-08-10 23:11:52

anonymous wrote:

Have you already tried oblogout? You can get it from the CrunchBang repos.

well it says openbox and im using compiz as my wm, will it work?

arpinux · 2009-08-10 23:25:17

hi iDIEDaLONGtimeAGO,
tint2 shows only one taskbar: of course, compiz has a cube-desktop but only ONE desktop (separate in 4 or 3,5,6,as you want): if you choose no.desktop=x, you will have x cubes so, no effect between desktops but still effect inside the same desktop.
oblogout work only for 'shutdown' and 'restart' because compiz is not openbox and so , the command 'openbox --exit' (logout) doesn't work in compiz.
but you can run 'gnome-power-cmd shutdown' in gmrun dialog box, and you can also 'attach' this command to a special hotkeys using ccsm. smile

iDIEDaLONGtimeAGO · 2009-08-10 23:55:14

hey arpinux, thanks for ur reply
i've spend the last 40 minutes trying all sort of vague options in tint cool
isnt there a way around using the "vertical" or "horizontal" options ?i really like tint2.
if i use no of desktops=1, and horizontal no =4, tint shows windows windows from all 4 screens, is it atleast possible to make it show the windows from only the current horizontal screen?
i did try out oblogout and gnome-power-cmd-shutdown , oblogout workd as u said, but the gnome-command didnt work, sadly im still without a logout command, will lxsession-logout work ?, i m in the middle of a download so couldnt test it yet

linux is hard work but im loving it wink

arpinux · 2009-08-11 00:41:01

_ tint2 vert or horiz ... : don't really know, don't really try wink
_ show the current screen windows: no, not with compiz because tint treat all the 4 horizontal screens as only ONE desktop
_ gnome-power-cmd doesn't work : you have to enable 'gnome-power-manager' in your 'start-fusion.sh'

here is mine:

#!/bin/bash
#dbus
if which dbus-launch >/dev/null && test -z "$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS"; then
eval `dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session`
fi
#fusion-box
compiz ccp &
#ogg123 -q /home/arp/.config/compiz/creepy_organ.ogg &  ##very optional: just to play sound on start##
sleep 5
nitrogen --restore &
tint2 -c /home/arp/.config/tint2/tint2fusionrc1 &
tint2 -c /home/arp/.config/tint2/tint2fusionrc2 &
volwheel &
parcellite &
gnome-power-manager &
sh /home/arp/bin/conky-toggle &
nm-applet

and for the logout command, follow iggykoopa tips about dontzap. after installing, just run it from terminal, and after a reboot, you can logout with [Ctrl][Alt][Backspace].... i've got nothing better to logout compiz session.
hope it helps smile

iDIEDaLONGtimeAGO · 2009-08-11 01:01:41

oh well my fingers are aching and my typing speed has actually gone up in the last few hours smile
i managed to get it all working, thx to ur help. cheers

arpinux · 2009-08-11 01:04:53

^you're welcome smile

tartan · 2009-08-30 10:14:26

It works just perfect on my EEE, looks awesome and it is really ergonomic with all those compiz window managing features! Wanted to tell about compiz-deskmenu and to ask about logout, but it is already done.

Thanks for the instruction.

/The best panel for such a shiny window manager is awn, I believe. They look good together.

Last edited by tartan (2009-08-30 10:16:20)

tartan · 2009-09-01 13:26:11

Just in case somebody doesn't know how to set up compiz-deskmenu:

1. Install dependencies:

sudo aptitude install python-lxml libgtk2.0-dev libwnck-dev libdbus-1-dev git-core compizconfig-settings-manager libdbus-glib-1-dev

2. Get sources:

git clone git://anongit.compiz-fusion.org/users/crdlb/compiz-deskmenu

3. Install the plugin:

cd compiz-deskmenu
make
sudo make install

4. Set up shortcut:

ccsm

There - Command > Command line 0 (or whatever) compiz-deskmenu, button shortcut, say, ctrl+button 3, key shortcut - win+space

CrunchBang Linux

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#1 2009-05-19 19:45:11

How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#2 2009-05-19 20:01:03

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#3 2009-05-19 21:33:19

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#4 2009-05-19 21:46:50

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#5 2009-05-19 22:59:21

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#6 2009-05-19 23:17:25

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#7 2009-05-20 06:01:47

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#8 2009-05-20 06:08:28

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#9 2009-05-20 06:13:03

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#10 2009-05-20 13:19:44

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#11 2009-06-20 17:29:30

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#12 2009-08-08 09:47:59

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#13 2009-08-08 10:24:58

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#14 2009-08-08 10:53:01

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#15 2009-08-10 22:51:11

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#16 2009-08-10 22:53:54

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#17 2009-08-10 23:00:34

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#18 2009-08-10 23:11:52

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#19 2009-08-10 23:25:17

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#20 2009-08-10 23:55:14

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#21 2009-08-11 00:41:01

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#22 2009-08-11 01:01:41

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#23 2009-08-11 01:04:53

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#24 2009-08-30 10:14:26

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

#25 2009-09-01 13:26:11

Re: How-to run compiz as a stand-alone window manager

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