I have installed compiz 0.9.11.2+14.04.20140714 on BLFS. After working around some DSO-like issues with cmake I finally got it to build. This version of compiz is a "bundle" that includes ccsm and its dependencies as well and features the GSettings backend.

There are two issues:

1. Running "compiz --replace" works but only the "core" plug-in gets initiated regardless of what is selected in ccsm. It is possible to work around this by initiating it like "compiz --replace opengl composite cube[list of plugins]". In that case everything (sort of) works (animations work, the cube rotates, etc.) although only the default settings are used.

2. This page tells how configuring with GSettings is supposed to work. I can successfully change the values of the keys, but compiz does not reflect the changes.

Changing the backend from GSettings to flat-file or gconf in ccsm causes ccsm to segfault. I assume ccsm only supports GSettings now.

How can I get compiz to launch and successfully read the GSettings profile(s)?

Solved (?) Launching compiz like this seems to do the trick.

Now CCSM or command-line gsettings can be used, and changes get applied in real time.