[SOLVED] Compiz-config and workspaces problem, maybe from nVidia driver

Chili.Willy · 02-13-2011, 02:42 AM

A couple of issues with compiz. I'm setting up Debian Squeeze on a new-to-me laptop. Video card is nVidia Quadro FX 570M.

I installed the nVidia non-free driver, and that's working fine. Compiz starts up ok (I say "compiz --replace"). At least some of the effects are working, and the windows look normal.

First issue: as soon as I start Compiz, the number of workspaces goes from 4 to 2. And Workspace Switcher Preferences (the thing that pops up when you right-click the workspace switcher in the Gnome Panel) no longer shows the controls for changing the number of workspaces.

Is there is a way to change the no. of workspaces using gnome configuration editor? That might be a good workaround.

The second issue is, compizconfig-settings-manager will not run, whether Compiz is running or not. I don’t know if it would run before I installed the nVidia driver (Compiz wouldn't run so there was no reason to try CCSM). When I try to start it from the menu, I get the spinning cursor for several seconds, and that's all. When I say "ccsm" in a console...

Code:

>ccsm

(process:4345): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library.
	Using the fallback 'C' locale.
Info: No sexy-python package found, don't worry it's optional.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/ccsm", line 100, in <module>
    import ccm
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/ccm/__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from ccm.Conflicts import *
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/ccm/Conflicts.py", line 26, in <module>
    from ccm.Constants import *
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/ccm/Constants.py", line 87, in <module>
    locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, "")
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/locale.py", line 513, in setlocale
    return _setlocale(category, locale)
locale.Error: unsupported locale setting

I don’t think the locale error is the problem. I get locale warnings all the time, like when I use apt-get, but it doesn’t stop the program from running. But I could be wrong about that.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

smoker · 02-13-2011, 05:46 AM

You need to set the number of workspaces within compiz to enable the cube or increase the number of virtual desktops.
See here.

This will be difficult without ccsm running but it is possible (apparently) using gconf-editor.

Chili.Willy · 02-13-2011, 09:22 AM

Thanks, Smoker. I think I already did what you suggest, but I'm still at 2 workspaces. Workspace Switcher Preferences shows 4 workspaces in 1 row.

In Gnome config editor, I took the path apps > compiz > general > screen0 > options. hsize is 4, number_of_desktops is 1, and vsize is 1.

For completeness, here are the other settings: default_icon = icon, detect_outputs = yes, detect_refresh_rate = yes, focus_prevention_level = 1,
focus_prevention_match = !(class=Polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1)
force_independent_output_painting = no, lighting = yes, outputs = [640x480+0+0], overlapping_outputs = 0, refresh_rate = 50, sync_to_vblank = no, texture_compression = no, unredirect_fullscreen_windows = no

I messed around in /usr/bin/ccsm (it's a python script). I added some diagnostic lines and found that the program gets thru the step

Code:

import compizconfig

without sending any error messages, but it doesn't get thru the step after that,

Code:

import ccm

All the errors and messages in my original post must have been generated during the attempt to execute "import ccm". (I have very little idea what this tells us.)

Chili.Willy · 02-18-2011, 09:35 PM

Solved.

It was the locale settings after all. I followed the directions at http://wiki.debian.org/Locale and now ccsm runs just fine and I can set the number of workspaces.