Linux Mint 15 XFCE + Compiz (broken; missing XFCE support)

[rkmugen]

First, I want to appologize for not posting this in the Compiz section of this forum.... but after having Googled for solutions on how to get Compiz to work under Linux Mint 15 XFCE, I've been going in circles and found that the only current discussions seemed to revolve around MATE/Cinnamon/Gnome, which is kind of sad. Oh well.

Next, I want to just add that I've tried both the version of Compiz that's currently in the repo and that I also tried the Sam Spilsbury's PPA. After having configured my preferences in the CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM), I attempted to activate Compiz from the terminal to test out my settings.

Code: Select all

~$ compiz --replace ccp &

The result is the same for both (the PPA version and the one from the repo): Compiz simply refuses to work with XFCE under Linux Mint 15 (as far as I can tell). And I already know that the Fusion-Icon is pretty much useless and didn't bother to install it.

My (humble) questions (please don't bite my head off for asking these):
1) Does anyone else here have had better luck in getting Compiz to work with Mint 15 XFCE?
2) Should I even bother (not giving up hope) or is this some type of sign that Compiz is in fact a "dead" project?

[Nilla Wafer]

I've read that the newest version of Xfce has it's own great compositing window manager. Perhaps the new one conflicts with Compiz in a way that the former one didn't. Maybe you don't even need Compiz in addition to Xfwm anyway! If Compiz is one of those things you just automatically add to a new install (like I do with some favorite software), perhaps you didn't anticipate it...

I'm no Linux veteran, just a newbie, but just from reading here and there, I offer it as a possibility.

~nillawafer

[rkmugen]

Well, there are really just two things that draw me in to using Compiz in the first place:

• "Scale" (which behaves/looks like Mac OS X's "Exposé"
• "Ring Switcher"

... And also because XFCE's built-in switcher looks so.... "bleh." Compiz gives me two decent switchers and doesn't seem to eat up a lot of resources.

Side-note:
And after I posted my original posting (above), I have also since tried KWIN.... it works alright (it does what it says it does), and CAN be a decent alternative to Compiz, but many features/buttons are VERY buggy.

[Nilla Wafer]

I'm using Maya (13) Xfce LTS and am not experiencing any conflicts, but I think Xfwm is the older version than the one in Mint 15 Xfce.

~nillawafer

[dante_r_]

Hi to all, i found a workaround for compiz on xfce
As I ussualy do after a fresh install of wathever, I proceeded installing compiz, fusion-icon and emerald.
Long story short, I started fusion-icon and get a segmentation fault, tried with compiz --replace and it seems to work but with no effects at all, so I decided to check ccsm, everything okay there but as soon as I close ccsm the configurations were restored to barely no effects, or at least just one desktop. I clicked on "preferences" - "add-ons list", unticked "automatically sort add-ons". I activated wobbly windows and went back to the general list, searched for desktop size and setted it up to 4.
After all that I restarted compiz and everything was ok, repeated the proceeding to automatically sort add-ons, and it's working as ussual. I haven't tried out the emerald part yet, but i'll try it soon...
Hope this help someone, since there's not many info on latest xfce + compiz.
Regards from Chile!!

[rkmugen]

Though I have since reverted to Mint 13 XFCE, I still appreciate your efforts, Dante!

[phill1978]

Its about hide time that XFCE incorporated some minimal and stable effects for XFCE. The new menu is 3rd party even. I know xfce is light but so are a few others.. in fact the other Light weight DE's are even faster and lighter.

Perhaps MATE should take up where compiz left off and bring just 1 handfull of effects?

these would be:

Menu Slide
Window fade in / out
Expo mode for desktops
Expo mode for windows on an individual desktop
Cover switchers (a couple as people have a strong preference here)
fade to logout / fade to log in.

[CapitalG]

so compiz doesnt work with mint 15 xfce?

update!

ok so i was able to get compiz installed and working. not sure why everyone else was having problems with it? since i havent used compiz in a while i was wondering how you set it to work on boot?

on a side note. why in the world don't more distros use compiz? it has some cool features to use. i use it for wobbly windows alone ubuntu use to feature it in its distro a long time ago and then it got dropped. i read the compiz blog doesnt seem to be much going on with it. what is the deal? something this cool and it just sits there collecting dust

come on people!

i guess we need emerald to make it look nice or use themes? i forgot how it works its been so long since i have used it. doesnt look like emerald is in linux mint repos.

[aac74]

Yep compiz is working fine for me in mint 15 xfce.

There are a couple of things to note:
no emerald in repos
fusion icon doesn't seem to load (use compiz --replace in startup list or alt-f2 after boot to reload)

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gtk3 themes work fine (in place of emerald) just need to install gnome-tweak-tool and dconf-editor.
in tweak-tool go to: theme > current theme (i like adwaita). Theme is applied straight away.

in dconf editor go to:
org > gnome > desktop > wm > preferences > button layout
to set the layout of window buttons (i like - menu:minimize,maximize,close)
buttons change as soon as you hit enter

can download more gtk3 themes here:
http://gnome-look.org/index.php?xcontentmode=167
just place them in: /usr/share/themes to make them available for selection in gnome-tweak-tool

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I found that to get my CCSM options to stick (after reboot) I had to create a new empty profile first and start from scratch turning features on
ccsm > preferences > profile > +

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to get desktops working with the xfce desktop switcher :
In compiz general options > desktop size: set horizontal size to 4, vertical to 1 and desktops to 1.
In xfce settings> workspaces set workspaces to 1.
this works with desktop wall or cube on one monitor

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compiz now turns itself off for fullscreen opengl games for maximum performance ! (but still composites full screen video for minimum tearing)

In the composite plugin in compiz settings ‘unredirect fullscreen windows’ is now turned on by default (this stops compositing for fullscreen windows - excluding media players and plugin containers like flash - the excluded window types are given in the redirect match preceded by a ‘!’ ). It is CRITICAL that the Regex window manager plugin is turned on in compiz settings for this to work correctly.

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my ccsm options:

window decoration,
window move,
place window,
window resize,
opengl (with vblank sync on - can turn off vblanks but the xtra performance comes with tearing
composite,
shift switcher
Also regex window matching

if want multi desktops enable exbo (bindings>F12) and desktop wall

if want window picker enable scale(bindings>F11 and [super + mouse 1 button] - all windows)

use ‘shift switcher’ with alt-tab on all windows/workspaces - disable other next window switches !

can also add enhanced zoom [set mouse to pan when zoomed] (bind to ctrl-pgup/pgdown/end - lock) to improve poor flash fullscreen frame rates by zooming in.

use window grid to place windows automatically on one half of the screen

can use the workspace naming plugin to name workspace. - put name at top of screen

Turn on workarounds plugin and set ‘keep preview of minimised windows’ to off - so dock icons or xfce window buttons can toggle windows to max/min
(scale plugin will not show minimised windows, but alt-tab will show them as icons.

turn on the show desktop plugin and in compiz general options > bindings set F10 to show the desktop.
this works with the xfce show destop panel applet

[CapitalG]

thanks for posting that info

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