Fix for compiz in Mint 11 Katya

[coman norbert]

The problems with compiz in Katya is solved!!!
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/05/how-to-d ... 86-in.html

Thanks to webupd8 and Pinguy for the tip and Giodic for the PPA!

[ibm450]

ok, so what did you gain from doing this? any screen shots? better performance?

[ibm450]

bump any1?

[AdamS]

didn't even know it was broke lol.

Works great here on every last system I have installed it on.

Had to upgrade emerald and add the expansion packs. But that was it, all else works great, even cube and all effects.

[Tomtom]

Thanks very much! I will try this. I still had these problems with logging in with gnome no effect option. And the whole desktop felt unstable so I just installed XFCE on the top which feels rock solid. But I should have waited for your post.

[karashata]

ok, so what did you gain from doing this? any screen shots? better performance?

didn't even know it was broke lol.

Works great here on every last system I have installed it on.

Had to upgrade emerald and add the expansion packs. But that was it, all else works great, even cube and all effects.

A lot of people (myself included) have noticed that the latest versions of Compiz (those since the code rewrite) have been particularly buggy compared to the older 0.8.6 version (from before the code rewrite). A lot of people would have plugins randomly disable themselves or crash if they tried to change the settings or enable things. I myself didn't usually run into this problem when I set up Compiz how I primarily wanted it but would end up having everything randomly disable if I tried to enable some other plugins just to check them out. I did also notice that a number of graphical glitches like flickering fadeout effects and pop-ups disappeared with the older version, suggesting something was buggy with those in the newer version.

All in all, for a lot of people the newer version of Compiz just doesn't work very well and it might be beneficial for them to downgrade if they're really bent on using Compiz.

[AdamS]

allow me to point something out.

The new compiz uses a different filing system then the older one.

If you change a setting it will create a new folder with configs and starts your session over for the first time. After the first change, all else will work fine.

Change a setting and let all reset and create the new folder. Log out and back in and now setup compiz for the first time. Restart and your ready to rock.

In this pic I added the original compiz folder next to the new ones listed as compiz-1 etc.

Give you a better understanding as to why.

Screenshot-15.png

Screenshot-16.png

Lot of people see it wipe out there settings and think OMG its buggy. No , you just need to setup the newly created configs.

[HorrorCode]

downgrading may work for some, but id prefer not to.

I just noticed one thing did change, that being the option to set the ccursor theme in General, maybe theres a way to fix this in the config files or by running something as root, but I was wondering if anyone else noticed this option was missing? I ask because currently I've lost all ability to change my cursor theme, and am not sure what to do now?

[AdamS]

I change mine old school lol.

copy the cursor of your choice and replace the files in default with the one of your choice.

user/share/icons

Default is listed as default lol.

[HorrorCode]

i normally do it this way to, but something else has changed, defaults index.theme now points to:

/etc/alternatives/x-cursor-theme

im guessing theres a reason for the change, and i dont want to make it any worse, so im gonna go have a look there for the moment^ did you notice this before overwriting default?

edit: that etc/alternative/x-cursor-theme points to /usr/share/icons/DMZ-White/cursor.theme which is indeed the normal default, so im just gonna overwrite DMZ-White to save any headaches, and ill post back when i have

[AdamS]

What I do, over write default and dmz white.

backup then delete the config on default. wont hurt anything.

[HorrorCode]

that did the trick, thanks. i do wonder how this happened in the first place though,if you come across a fix for this one please share

[AdamS]

been patiently waiting for a planed plug-in update for compiz.

I do read there working on it.

It will add the mouse pointer option back to the new compiz.

[HorrorCode]

thats exellent news, i just cant wait Lol. for now i can change it this way, at least im sure itll do what i tell it

[karashata]

The proper way to change the default cursor is with the command "sudo update-alternatives --config x-cursor-theme" in the terminal, it will allow you to set any cursor theme you've installed as the default cursor theme. Unfortunately this doesn't allow for you to select a personal theme for each user on a multi-user PC, since Compiz doesn't currently have anywhere to set the user selected cursor theme in its newer version.

[HorrorCode]

Can someone verify this? When I run that command I see:

Code: Select all

$ sudo update-alternatives --config x-cursor-theme
There are 2 choices for the alternative x-cursor-theme (providing /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme).

  Selection    Path                                     Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/share/icons/DMZ-White/cursor.theme   90        auto mode
  1            /usr/share/icons/DMZ-Black/cursor.theme   30        manual mode
  2            /usr/share/icons/DMZ-White/cursor.theme   90  

[karashata]

Hm... That would suggest that you haven't installed any other cursor themes. I don't know if there's any way to update the alternatives list in the case of manually added themes, but I know cursor themes installed via Synaptic show up fine. Perhaps someone else might know something more..?

[HorrorCode]

You were spot on about it showing the ones installed with synaptic, as they are the only ones shown. Normally I either copy the cursors or just drag the archive to the appearance box and install that way as its a bit faster.

Maybe theres a tool out there that allows for better cursor integration, i.e will show them under update-alternatives and also provide an option to remove them, that being cursor theme archives from gnome-look for instance?

[karashata]

Found something potentially useful, it's about how to properly manually install cursor themes and includes a step to install them to update-alternatives.

Here's the link: http://mb-monkeypoo.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... hemes.html

Good luck!

EDIT: I love it when Google gives me exactly what I'm looking for, it's like it knows me... (Probably helps that I have an account and let them keep tabs on the kinds of things I look for, helps to fine tune the results they give me...)

[pazuzuthewise]

ok, so what did you gain from doing this? any screen shots? better performance?

The new compiz, the one installed by default in Katya, hasn't got any performance problem, at least nothing I could notice.
But some of it's plugins have suffered what seems to be a regression.
Activating "Desktop Cube" plugin disables "Desktop Wall", which is as it should be, but also disables all other presets and also all their options.
Also, the option to trigger an effect by clicking a corner or a side of the screen doesn't work, at least with the Expose and Scale plugins.

After installing the older version of compiz from the above-mentioned ppa, fusion-icon wouldn't start.