I've heard a few folks have had some of the same issues I have had with Compiz, or similar issues. With the default Compiz window manager installed in Mint, my rotate desktop and desktop cube features were completely unusable. They simply didn't work. Other 3d effects in compiz would work sporadically, or not at all. I couldn't get window previews or many other functions to work reliably.
I tried a multitude of settings, researched the problem extensively, and finally ran across a solution rather by accident. In testing another Linux distro (one that I won't name for obvious reasons), I noted that all of the 3d effects Compiz had to offer worked perfectly, right out of the box. All of the 3d effects worked flawlessy. Desktop cube, rotation, you name it. I also noticed that my compiz menu settings had a lot more options than the ones in Mint. Naturally, I was intrigued.
Investigating further, naturally I assumed that this unamed distro must use a newer, better version of Compiz and that's why it was working. Imagine my surprise to discover that it wasn't a newer version, it was an older one than the one that shipped with Mint 11.
So I fired up Mint, downgraded to this same version of compiz.. and low and behold, all of my animation features worked perfectly. Previews, desktop cube, rotation, everything up and running just as they should.
So, if your like me and your having issues with compiz, any of it's animation or 3d effects, you might want to follow these steps and try downgrading your compiz to this earlier version. With any luck it will solve your problems just as it solved mine.
Ok, first things first, you'll need to remove your current compiz setup so it can be replaced. So, open a terminal and type:
- Code: Select all
sudo apt-get purge compiz compiz-plugins-extra compiz-plugins-main
sudo apt-get purge compizconfig-settings-manager
sudo apt-get purge libemeraldengine0 emerald
The settings manager and emerald theme manager may or may not be installed, but if there not there don't be concerned, we just needed to make sure that if they did exist that the incompatible versions were removed before downgrading to the earlier version of compiz. Ok, so now a few more terminal commands and were good to go.
- Code: Select all
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:guido-iodice/compiz-0.8.6-natty
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
This will add the needed PPA for the compiz version we want to install, then it will refresh your package manager and make sure all the sources are up to date. One last step, the install:
- Code: Select all
sudo apt-get install compiz compiz-core compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-fusion-plugins-extra compiz-fusion-plugins-unsupported compiz-gnome compiz-plugins compizconfig-backend-gconf compizconfig-settings-manager libcompizconfig0 libdecoration0 python-compizconfig
Granted, it's a long command line, but it will install everything you need in one shot. Now you can take your new (er.. old?) version of compiz for a test spin. At the moment it's been freshly installed, so none of the options will be selected. You can do this manually, or if you prefer you can use this default settings file attached to this message. To use the default settings, use the compiz manager to import them and your good to go.
Hopefully you'll find this useful, it certainly fixed all the issues I had with compiz.
