How to test Compiz on Ubuntu MATE 14.04 and 14.10

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Sorry, but I have no intention of adding emerald to the default install of Ubuntu MATE. Nor will I be back porting emerald.

I have to draw a line somewhere. Full compiz support out of the box, with proper MATE integration and a sane profile with one click enablement is what most people will be happy with. This setup integrates with the Appearances control center applet for changing the window manager theme.

I’ll leave installing emerald and tweaking it’s themes to the Compiz enthusiasts, such as yourself :smiley:

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ok I understand , thanks for answer

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I did the things in the tutorrial from adding the ppa to installing everything but there is no mate compability plugin in my ccsm . Is it a bug or ?
Tech Info : Ubuntu Mate 15.04

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Using 14.10 as well as in 15.04 alpha 2 , My problem is the same with both , when I switch to Compiz i loose window borders , I tried to add them back with the compiz setting manager, but I can not get it to show the window borders.

I have noticed on the arch wiki there is a section on window borders not showing with compiz when using nvidia binary drivers. I found this when searching but it doesnt help me fix it any on ubuntu-mate
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Compiz#MATE_Panel

and here is my system information
http://pastebin.com/cn7eWwWc

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Just so I get what you’re saying, when you go to MATE Tweak and switch to Compiz, you get no window borders. Then you go into compizconfig-settings-manager (I think that’s the full name) and turn on window borders and still nothing shows? Have you tried cycling window borders off and on again? Maybe try opening the appearances dialog and try a different theme then go back to the one you’re using?

I ran into a problem where you may need to go into compizconfig-settings-manager and change the backend for the settings to gsettings.

Sorry if you’ve been through all those steps, just thinking of what I would run through as an initial diagnosis.

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I had exactly this problem and reported as such when it was made available. I just got rid of it.

I’m running a brand new Asus 81M-Plus mother board with an ATI graphics card

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@Robsteady Before I had tried everything you suggested except for changing the backend to mate , and from settings to gsettings.

Now I did that , and then all i had to do is turn off window borders and then back on !

Now it works perfect !

Thank you for your help.

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I’m going to try that

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Glad to help! Compiz can be a pain to configure but I think the results are worth it.

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When 15.04 comes will we have to configure the compiz defaults ourselves , or will the basic defaults be set?

Compiz is very nice but getting it set up is hard if you dont know what all the plugins are called and what they do.

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15.04 will come with sensible defaults.

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Sweeet!
Yeah, I only just tried this (14.10). I guess I’m not that brave. Still, as far as I can see, everything is pretty smooth. My hardware handles it like a breeze, the animations are pretty slick, and I have some better keybindings without any trouble. I will say, though, I had to manually change the keybinding for minimize back to Alt+F9. The others were fine. Also, when I move or resize a window with the keyboard, the modifier keys have no effect (eg. Shift should take the object to the next other object, and Ctrl should move it one pixel). I don’t know how to find the relevant setting. Is it in CCSM?

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@Stephen_Angelico I’ve not looked in to that level of detail, but if you can tweak it accordingly please share the how you did it so I can improve the defaults.

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Just popping in to give some feedback. I have a fresh installed 14.04.2 64-bit on a AMD Phenom II X4 965, ATI Radeon HD 5870 - compiz runs smooth and excellent. Still: since I like simple desktops, I had to install compiz-settings-manager first, just to remove the “ugly” cube and get a nice and clean desktop wall working (my personal opinion - forgive me, played around with the cube many years ago…). Maybe just activate the very basic compiz-stuff on a fresh install and let the users decide, if they want to “opt-in” with compiz whistles and bells? Big thanks for bringing a nice DE back to Ubuntu. Keep up the good work!

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Some feedback on compiz:

For clarity, I am running Ubuntu 14.04 32 bit on an Asus quad core with a very up to date and beefy AMD/ATI GPU and 8 GB of RAM.

When compiz was first implemented for testing for UM, I found it to be extremely flakey in terms of displaying windows borders and so, following testing, did not use it. But, with it recently turning up after an update, I decided to re-enable compiz an hour ago and a reasonably significant bug that still seems to be related to windows borders has since become apparent.

The minimize, maximise and close buttons on the top left of windows dissapear after a minute or two of a window or web-page being open. At which point I am forced to go to the menu on the left of the window to change its state.

The only way to fix the above is to reset to marco and then immediately back to compiz. At which point the buttons reappear. However, a couple of minutes later, they are gone again.

Anyone know about this bug and how to fix it?

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May i ask which version of Compiz you are enabling? The newer ones do not come with all the extra animations like burn explode etc? I believe they are in the animations extra category and i didn’t see that category in your screen shot of ccsm

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I could not get Compiz to work at all with an AMD GPU (6630M) and it was so bad that I gave up. Interestingly enough Unity 7 worked fine on it though so I figured it was a configuration issue given that Unity is basically a compiz plugin.

For what it’s worth, compiz works perfectly on Intel Haswell graphics.

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Glorious success :thumbsup: raised_hands ubuntu mate14.04 on ACER Extensa 5635g

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