Enable Basic Compositing for Gnome-Do 0.8.x
The recent release of Gnome-Do 0.8.0 has brought with it a number of interface changes and upgrades. I won’t go into all the new “shiny” stuff in this post, but simply outline how to satisfy the new requirements. Gnome-Do 0.8.x now requires some type of compositing support for its interface (unless you stick with “Classic”).
First of all, composite does not mean Compiz. Let’s get that out of the way right from the start. You do not need a flashy 3D desktop to run Gnome-Do. You do need a basic compositing manager however, and these should work on nearly any modern system and can run with minimal resources in the background.
I am using a tool called ‘xcompmgr’ for my compositing support, but there are others available. Ask around or leave some comments to find out what other compositing managers people use. Here is how I got mine setup:
sudo aptitude install xcompmgr
You can then start compositing manually via the ‘xcompmgr‘ command, or you can automate the process via Sessions.
System > Preferences > Sessions : Add
- Name – Compositing Manager
- Command – xcompmgr
- Comment – Shiny!
With basic compositing enabled you should now be able to use the enhanced features of Gnome-Do 0.8.x, including the Mini Interface, Docky, Glass Interface and Nouveau.
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I use standard metacity compositing for this.
Just run
gconftool-2 -s –type bool /apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager true
Or you enable metacity’s compositing features. To do this enable the gconf key /apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager via
$ gconftool-2 -s –type bool /apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager true
Keep in mind that there is a bug which breaks enabling compiz after that. So if you like to have compiz back you have to deactivate compositing in metacity…
$ gconftool-2 -s –type bool /apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager false
Thanks for this helpful tutorial. I’m now enjoying using gnome-do.
Only thing is that I found metacity compositing made my system feel quite sluggish, especially when using alt+tab to switch windows. I’ve now gone with xcompmgr and it seems much more responsive (although still not as good as no compositing).
It remains to be seen whether the slight performance loss is sufficiently compensated for by the shiny goodness of gnome-do…
Dear Sir
Your article helped me for enabling gnome docky in computer. Thank you very much. Keep it up.
Ramachandran