t e c h i e - t a l k s ::: technology at its best

This is an update from the previous article on Desktop effects on Ubuntu. Previously, the guide was to help users to install desktop effects of XGL+Compiz on Dapper. This guide however, is for the installation of XGL+Beryl on Fiesty Fawn. Just for clarity sake, I’m going to let in into a little bit of history on the two 3D desktop windows manager.Beryl is a composting windows manager for the X Windows system. It is a spin-off from the previous 3D windows manager, Compiz. However, there are some talks recently that there could be a merger soon between the two. Not to be confused with the two desktop managers, XGL/AGLX are underlying graphic engines that allows for the beautiful 3D rendering that you will see (have seen) in Beryl/Compiz.

Differences between Compiz and Beryl. (Source: Beryl wiki)

• The window decorator, formerly known as cgwd, is now named emerald. Currently, a cgwd theme can be ported to emerald by changing the extension from .cgwd to .emerald.
• Uses flat file backend instead of gconf, almost no GNOME dependency.
  • Compiz now has a flat file backend with no gnome dependency.
• Has a large variety of extra plugins, and enhanced features in other plugins.
  • Most of these have been ported to the compiz-extra package[5] [6]
• It has three themeable decorators: Emerald, Heliodor, and Aquamarine.
• It has a theme manager called emerald-theme-manager.
• Made by a community at Beryl Project Forums.
  • Compiz is made by David Reveman and the community at Compiz forums

Like Compiz and unlike traditional window managers, Beryl delegates the drawing of window borders to a separate process, called a window decorator. There are currently three of them, all named after varieties of beryl, although only Emerald is currently considered stable.

• Emerald, the default window decorator and a continuation of cgwd, has its own theme format and supports effects like alpha transparency, a fork of Compiz’s gtk-window-decorator.
• Heliodor, another fork of Compiz’s gtk-window-decorator, supports Metacity themes.
• Aquamarine supports KWin themes.

Now that the history lessons is done, let’s get to the interesting part of the article. There are lots of sources out there showing you how to install and configure the programs to make Beryl work with Fiesty. Firstly, I’d like to acknowledge a few sources that I’ve used to come out with this tutorial.

Ubuntuguide (http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Feisty#Eye_Candy)
Beryl Wiki (http://wiki.beryl-project.org/wiki/Install_Beryl_on_Ubuntu_Edgy_with_XGL)
KoolPenguin’s Answer (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2570002)

This guide is mainly for ATI graphic card users. Currently I’m using ACER Travelmate 3210 with ATI Mobility Raedon X700 (64mb VRAM).

Before we start adding stuffs to the repositories, we will need to change the default graphic card drivers first. By default on Fiesty, the drivers that are pre-installed in Fiesty are closed source. We’ll need an open-source driver for Beryl to work. To check whether you’d need the driver, just type this in your command window:

If it says something like this, then skip the next step of installing the ATI drivers:

To install and configure the ATI drivers, open up your console and type:

Use you favourite text editor to configure your xorg.conf file. Here I’ll be using the Gnome text editor.

Look for the lines containing these lines:

Driver “vesa”
or
Driver “ATI”
or
Driver “radeon”

and replace the line with: Driver fglrx

Under the section Module, you’ll need to change certain settings. Make sure that these settings are available in your Module section:

Next, you’ll need to disable the Composite value in your xorg.conf file. Add the lines below anywhere in the configuration file, as long as it is not within a section. Normally, I’d place it at the bottom of the file. It should look like this:

That is it! Now you have configured the ATI drivers correctly. Restart Ubuntu and thereafter, type fglrxinfo again to double comfirm this. Now you are ready to install XGL+Beryl. But you have got to add the repositories first in your repositories list. You can do it by command line or by synaptics. On command line, type:

This will open your sources/repositories list. Add the Beryl repository into you list. Copy and paste the following line into the file, save and your file.

deb http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org feisty main

Then, you have to add the GPG key. In the same terminal, type:

This will add the key that is use to verify the package that you’ll be downloading soon.
If you plan to use your synaptics, go to System > Administration > Software updates. Click on the Third Party tab and click Add Sources. Paste the following line into the text area and click Add Source.

deb http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org feisty main

To get your GPG key, right click this link and click Save Link As … Then save it somewhere that you can remember. From the Software Updates program, find the Authentication Tab and click Import Key File button. Here is where you’ll need to look for the key file that you had save previously, select it and press OK to import. Close the Software Updates prorgam.

Finally you are ready to begin downloading and installing XGL and Beryl. Open up your console and type these commands:

What you are currently doing is to get the new updates, thereafter installing XGL, Beryl & Emerald (Beryl’s windows decorator) and Emerald themes. Up till now, the installation shouldn’t be much of a problem. Next we need to configure your startup sessions script. Fire up your terminal and type:

Then paste the lines below into your editor:

Save and close your editor. Do not forget to change the permissions of your script.

Next we need to create a customized a start-up session.

Then paste the lines below into your editor:

Save and close your text editor. Next you’ll need to add Beryl and Emerald themes into your startup programs. Go to System > Preferences > Sessions. Go to the Startup Program tab and click New.

First, we’ll need to add the Beryl Manager into the startup programs. Put a screen name in the textbox of the Name field. I put mine as Beryl Manager. In the textbox Command Name

add: beryl-manager. Click OK.

Next we need to add Emerald themes to the startup programs. In the same Sessions screen and Startup Program tab, click New. Put a screen name in the textbox of the Name field. I named mine as Emerald Themes. In the textbox Command Name

add: emerald –replace. Click OK.

Close the session dialog box and you are done! Now you’ll have to reboot your Ubuntu and select XGL under the Sessions options before the next login.

In most configurations, this would be the final step. Thereafter, you can boot into the XGL session and load Beryl and it’s nice windows effects. However, there are a few more steps to complete before you get the desired effects. This is because in some ATI cards, especially X700 and X1400, an error message occurs if your type beryl-manger into your terminal and Beryl just won’t load. Thus, you will need to do these following steps to counter the problem.
Download the Beryl core .deb file from here.
(http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org/pool/feisty/main/0.2.0/beryl-core_0.2.0~0beryl1_i386.deb)
Unpack the .deb file to somewhere that you can remember. I saved mine on my desktop. Open up your console and type:

Then you’ll need to copy a file beryl-xgl into your /usr/bin/beryl-xgl directory. In your terminal, type:

Congratulations! By now the installation and configuration of your XGL+Beryl is complete! Do a final reboot and login into the XGL session to compelete the installation.

Here are just some of the commands for you to use in your Beryl Ubuntu (taken from Beryl wiki).

General Option

Alt+Mouse wheel Make window translucent/opaque

• Application Switcher

Alt+Tab switch between windows from current workspace
Ctrl+Alt+Tab switch between windows from all workspaces

• Scale (Arrange and view all windows)

Bottom-Left (hot corner) All workspaces (clicking a window will zoom it to the front)
Top-right (hot corner) Current workspace

• Show Desktop (View desktop of current cube face )

Bottom-right (hot corner) Turns on or off;

• Rotate cube

Ctrl+Alt+Left/Right Arrow Switch desktops on cube;
Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Left/Right Arrow Send the active window to the left/right workspace
Ctrl+Alt+Left-click and grab Rotate cube manually

• Zoom

Super-key+Right-click Zoom in once
Super-key+Mouse wheel up/down Zoom in/out manually

• Move Window

Alt+Left-click Move window
Ctrl+Shift+Left-click Snap move window (will stick to borders)

• Resize window

Alt+Middle-click

• Water

Hold Ctrl+Super key and move mouse Your pointer is moving on water (Disabled by default)
Shift-F9 Rain is falling on your screen

• Blur

Add some blur under transparent windows (will slow down your computer!)

• Minimize Effect

Animations when creating or closing windows (works also for menu but then you have to select “Unknown”! “Menu” alone doesn’t work)

• Negative

Super Key+m Inverse color of the screen
Super Key+n Inverse color of the current window

• Reflection

Add somes textures to decoration (mostly visible when transparent)

• Screenshot

Super Key+Left Click and grab Take a screenshot of the selected area (picture saved on the desktop)

• Trail focus

Older windows are more transparent

• Wobbly

Makes windows, menus,… like chewing-gum

• Brightness and Saturation

Ctrl+Mouse wheel down/up Desaturate/Resaturate (works also for desktop)
Shift+Mouse wheel down/up Less/more Brightness (works also for desktop)

• Put

Super Key+Keypad 1..9 Quickly place a window on a screen (1=top left, 2=top center,…). On a laptop (i.e if you don’t have a numeric keypad, use Super Key+Fn Key+Virtual Keypad)

• Bring up the window below the top window (I don’t know that plugin?)
• Reminder: Super Key ( Super-Key ) = Windows Key on PC, Apple Key on Macintosh and Amiga Key on Amiga