Ubuntu 7.10 - Gutsy Gibbon with XGL

Upgraded my Ubuntu to 7.10 yesterday, the coolest add-on to it is the support of Compiz Fusion (Compiz effects came in at 7.04 actually). Some of you might have seen the effects, which I will briefly walk through those that I have experienced later before I end this short blog entry.

A few problems that I experienced after the upgrade were:

1. Restricted drivers manager not working. It said something like this:
   

   You need to install the package linux-restricted-modules-* for this program to work.

   Solution: Install the restricted module, e.g.
   

   apt-get install linux-restricted-modules-2.6.22-14-generic



2. Couldn't turn on Compiz effects via System -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Visual Effects. It said something like:
   

   Desktop effects could not be enabled

   Solution: Turn on "Composite" in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, i.e.
   

   Section "Extensions"
    Option          "Composite"     "1"

   
   However, before that, you have to install the GL based X server, i.e.
   

   apt-get install xserver-xgl

   
   Then, restart your X server (ALT + CTRL + Backspace) after you have made configuration changes.
   
   
3. IDE and Java applications such as IntelliJ and Netbeans were broken with blank swing interface. I noticed that the menus were still working when I moved my mouse over them.
   
   Solution: Set AWT_TOOLKIT to MToolkit, for instance, add this entry to /etc/profile:
   

   export AWT_TOOLKIT="MToolkit"

   Then, reload the profile (source <profile>) and restart your IDE.
   

To find out what can Compiz effects do, please take a look at this Youtube video. I noticed and managed to discover some newly added effects:

1. Shadow effects
2. Maximize and Minimize effects
3. Blinking/fading effects caused by error/alert, e.g. backspace on an empty text box in Pidgin; filling in invalid phrase in Firefox search box;
4. Wobbly window effects while it's dragged
5. Transparent effects (use ALT + Wheel Scroll on a window)
6. ALT + Tab with real-time snapshots
7. M$ + E to choose desktops
8. M$ + Wheel Scroll to zoom
9. M$ + Right Click to zoom in once

Read these to discover more:

1. Compiz documentation
2. Novel - Xgl on Suse 10.1 (see Xgl Shortcuts section)
   

- yc, impressed