Linux Mint Forums

(These are some noobie questions. I was advised to rather split my original post hereinto smaller sections and post them in the relevant sections of this forum)

I seem to have some trouble with my Linux Mint after installing ATI drivers through a driver update utility. I was given two choices for a propriety version and one seemed to be a upgrade or something. After running the thing I got all sorts of problems. In normal log-in through the Gnome I can't read any text! And there seems to be this weird color distortions appearing.

When I ran Mate everything seems to be fine. I finally figured out after a few questions on some chatroom help and Googling how to activate Compiz and all the nifty effects. But while some stuff like wobbly windows work it seems those 3D cube stuff and windows don't seem to do anything.

My questions here are:
a) To activate these 3D cube stuff and windows do I need to press a button or how does this work? Do they work in Gnome, Classic Gnome and Mate or only some of them?
b) Does anyone have a idea what could be wrong with my ATI driver installs? Should I avoid the propriety stuff and use something more specific to linux. Also, when I log-out to log-in again it seems linux freezes. It seems to have happened after these ATI driver installs.

Thanks for your time!

The 3D cube is usually activated by pressing and holding ctr-alt and then left mouse button and move the mouse to rotate. This can be changed in compiz settings.

I don't use gnome 3, but I understand that there may be some problems with fglrx and gnome 3. ATI say that the 12.1 update due at some point this month should fix it.