How To: "Simple" Install Xgl/compiz for Dapper, ATI, Gnome -

Florentina

ok I really want to say it is amazing!!!!!!!

1. Get your xorg.conf setup properly. The main thread has more than enough information on this. Follow it paying attention to the ATI differences that are well noted.

Just to be clear however, these instructions are targeted for those people using the ATI Proprietary Driver ("fglrx"). This is configured in your xorg.conf. If you're using "ati" that's not going to work for you. If you're using "radeon" then this is theoretically possible (radeon is the OSS driver targeted more - for now - for your lower end Radeon cards, in particular the 9000/9200/9250)... but I wasn't able to get it to work with my lower end PC that uses the 9200. In both cases, there are known/outstanding bugs with both sets of drivers that require work arounds described below.

To make sure you are "accelerated", running with the new driver, try typing fglrxinfo in a terminal and see what you get. If it talks about ATI then awesome... if it talks about Mesa, you still don't have your driver setup properly (xorg.conf).

**For ATI do not enable composite in xorg.conf, xgl does not need it.

2. Install all the new stuff from the Dapper universe repository... this includes xserver-xgl, compiz, libgl1-mesa, libgl1-mesa-dri, libglitz1, libglitz-glx1 and any dependencies.

3. Modify /etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom - For most this file is generally full of empty stubs. Look for the one called [servers] and do this:
####
[servers]
# Override display 1 to use Xgl (DISPLAY 1 IMPORTANT FOR ATI FGLRX).
1=Xgl

[server-Xgl]
name=Xgl server
command=/usr/bin/Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:fbo
flexible=true
########


4. Modify /etc/gdm/gdm.conf to change your display:
###
#0=Standard
1=Standard
####

5. Another bug in the driver... And for video, there is a bug with xv, so we want to start "gstreamer-properties" and tell it not to use xv for video. (This is the same as starting "Multimedia Systems Selector", a Preferences application that is currently hidden in your menu system)

next:

sudo vi /usr/bin/start_compiz
code in followed:
#!/bin/bash
gnome-window-decorator &
compiz --replace gconf decoration wobbly fade minimize cube rotate zoom scale move resize place menu switcher

MUST be in this order as there are dependencies between them. If you've already been playing with this from earlier debs - maybe from battlehorse, or maybe you rolled your own - this is an important step because it's very likely in the wrong order. Most people that are missing certain plugins or are missing things like "alt-switch" will find they need to correct this and restart.
next:
chmod 755 start_compiz

ok
restart
and injoy it

you can look up in these pages:
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=131253&page=1
http://www.linuxsir.cn/bbs/showthread.php?t=243752