ubuntu compiz window decorations
 

This one seems to be a relatively common problem. Trouble is, it has a relatively common solution... which doesn't work for me.

The problem is, I install compiz and all the extras (accellerated nvidia included) just like the howto's say. Then I launch the compiz-tray-icon. When I activate the GLDesktop, All the effects turn on, really cool. However, all the window decorations dissappear. When I turn the gldesktop back off, they reappear.

The usual answer given is that I didn't install gnome-compiz. Except of course that I have. Any other ideas?

Yes, the one which is mentioned - I'm sorry to say - in half of all tutorials here and on the compiz website itself - start kde-window-decorator or gtk-window-decorator. :)

Gtk-window-decorator is gnome-independent.

Ooh, that sure hit a nerve that compiz didn't like - executing gtk-window-decorator made my entire screen suddenly go solid white. Yet, it was like I was on a solid white cube, I could still circle around the cube. When I put the mouse in the lower right to trigger the kind of tile-view, all the windows tiled, except that they were solid white inside and only the icon which showed up in the bottom right of each tiled window and the outline showed. Reboot did nothing to help. Hrmm.

This sounds bad.

I can even switch between both decorations or change to emerald.

Nevertheless, loosing the window decorations IS indeed a common problem and you usally have to start a window decorator by hand.

There has been a lengthy debugging tips and tricks page of some distribution, I don't remember which one, but it was a long list of Compiz-related problems and how to get rid of them, very informative.

Ah, found it.

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_XGL/Troubleshooting

Try to add "gconf" as option to the start of compiz in the GLDesktop script, otherwise, if you use gtk-based GUIs like Gnome, Xfce or just not KDE.

Last resort: start it all by hand, you'll actually see error messages if there are some.

Start your X with your usal gnome, call from a terminal window

compiz --replace gconf decoration wobbly fade minimize cube move place resize rotate scale switcher water zoom &

and after that if you don't see any window-decorations

gtk-window-decorator &

Well, according to that link (thank you) it's a common problem with my graphics card. They fix it with a gentoo USE flag. I'll try working on this. A different page suggests that the problem is caused because I have desktop effects enabled, yet do not have acceleration enabled. I do have acceleration enabled, so I'll check other things first. Trouble is, it now does the white cube/white everything every time I start compiz, whether by the command, the tray icon, or the gnome app. I'll try some more stuff and report back.

Remember that compiz is not ready-to-run software yet. There might be any kinds of errors and slow downs and strange effects.

You also might have to tweak your xorg.conf for better settings.

I had to add a .drirc, because I got the "missing one third of the desktop" problem at first, for example.

I just gave up. I'll give compiz/beryl a try again in a few months. It was starting to get worse sooner than better.