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

Some of my past HOW-TOs (Fiesty & Dapper) on desktop eye candy effects are based on Ubuntu distros. With the release of ATI´s new driver and Gutsy, installing desktop effects on Ubuntu is now a breeze for ATI users!

Fedora 8 (released early this month) included desktop effects in their distro package, similar to what Ubuntu´s Gutsy Gibbon has offered its users. However, you cannot enable the desktop effects straight away. You have to install the compiz-fusion packages and emerald packages (for a sleeker desktop theme). I will be doing a non-graphical method of installing compiz-fusion on Fedora 8 inspired by how-to forge.

Firstly, you will need to install some repositories into your system as the proprietary NVIDIA drivers cannot be found in the default repositories. Go to http://rpm.livna.org/rlowiki/ and click on Fedora8 proprietary RPM. Alternatively, you can just click Fedora 8 repository RPM to download the tar ball. You can open it straight after download or you can save it somewhere where you can find easily later. Double-click on the tar package and it will install the repository for you. There could be a chance that the system may not be able to verify the package but not to worry and just click ¨install anyway¨ when the message dialog box appears. This will finish installing your repositories.

Next, fire up your command prompt and go into your ¨root mode¨ or ¨superuser mode¨ by typing:

This will bring you to your root command prompt. Next you will need to install 2 packages (kmod-nvidia and xorg-x11-drv-nvidia) and their dependencies.

If you are on a fresh Fedora 8 distro, the installation above will also upgrade your kernel. Thus, you will need to reboot after the installation rather than just restarting your desktop environment by Ctrl+Alt+Backspace.

After installation of the drivers, its time to install the compiz-fusion packages and emerald themes. This are the packages that you will need.

• emerald-themes
• compiz-fusion-extras
• emerald
• compiz-fusion
• compiz-manager
• compiz-fusion-extras-gnome
• gnome-compiz-manager
• libcompizconfig
• compiz-fusion-gnome
• ccsm

In your command prompt console, type:

It will take sometime for the download to end. After installation, you will need to insert a startup service for emerald. Go to System-> Preferences -> Personal -> Session. Click on the startup tab and click Add.

Under the name field, type: Emerald
Under the command field type: emerald –replace

Click OK and close the session dialog box. Then, restart your computer. After restarting, you will need to enable desktop effects. Go to System-> Preferences -> Look and Feel -> Desktop Effects. Click on ¨Enable desktop effects¨ and check on the two boxes. That is it! You´ve already run the desktop effects on Fedora 8!

You can now change your Emerald themes by going to the Emerald Theme Manager (System-> Preferences-> Emerald theme manager) and choosing the themes from the list. You can also configure your Compiz-fusion settings by going to System-> Preferences -> Look and Feel -> Compizconfig settings manager).

Here is the list commonly used commands:

SUPER+SHIFT+DRAG LEFT MOUSE = draw fire
SUPER+SHIFT+C = clear fire
CTRL+ALT+DRAG LEFT MOUSE = rotate cube
CTRL+ALT+LEFT ARROW = rotate cube
CTRL+ALT+DOWN ARROW = flat desktop
SHIFT+ALT+UP = initiate window picker
CTRL+ALT+DOWN = unfold cube
ALT+TAB = window switch
SUPER+TAB = flip switcher or ring switcher, depending on which is enabled.
ALT+F7 = initiate ‘move windows’
SHIFT+F9 = water effect
SHIFT+F10 = slow animations
CTRL+ALT+D = show desktop

For Grouping and Tabbing:
SUPER+S = select single window
SUPER+T = tab group
SUPER+Left = change left tab
SUPER+Right = change right tab
SUPER+G = group windows
SUPER+U = ungroup windows
SUPER+R = remove group window
SUPER+C = close group
SUPER+X = ignore group
Hold the SUPER button then select the windows you want to group and then hit SUPER+G.

Enjoy your newly beloved eyecandy!