Configuring Compiz On Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)

1 Preliminary Note

I have tried this on a desktop computer with an NVIDIA GeForce 8200. It should work the same way with all other NVIDIA graphics cards. However dealing with Compiz may cause your graphic drivers to crash, so be careful about what you do and backup everything you might need in future.

2 Installing CompizConfig Settings Manager

The utility to use and configure Compiz is the CompizConfig Settings Manager (ccsm). Download it by opening a terminal and entering the following:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Unfortunately we are not done by now, but if it should work for you now, you are really lucky. The usual thing would be that there's still no composing working, even if you enable it and all the appropriate options in ccsm.

3 Configuring The Right Driver

The next thing to do is to make sure that your machine uses the correct driver. To ensure that, we are going to blacklist the nouveau driver first. Open a terminal and enter the following to do so:

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

At the end of the document, add this line:

[...]
blacklist nouveau

Afterwards update your initial ram file system by entering this into a terminal:

sudo update-initramfs -u -v

Now open the Additional Drivers tool; you will see that NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (version 173) is currently activated (at least it should be if you have not changed anything about the default setting here).

14 New Community Wallpapers Land in Ubuntu 11.10

Install Ask Ubuntu, Reddit Lens in Ubuntu 11.10 from PPA

Unity Lens API in Ubuntu 11.10 have been improved greatly with better filters and data sources. Both Ask Ubuntu and Reddit Lenses have been updated to match with the new API and now they are better equipped.

Meet Unico, The New GTK3 Theme Engine in Ubuntu 11.10

 Gnome 3 stack is steadily landing into Oneiric. Work is also being done to port default themes Ambiance and Radiance to GTK3.

Light themes in Oneiric will most likely use Unico theme engine and not Murrine as some style guidelines for GTK3 themes have changed. Unico was actively developed in past but the work stopped as the new overlay scrollbars in Natty took precedence. Unico engine is already present in Official Ubuntu 11.04 repositories but that should be only meant for testing purposes as it is far from being finished. However, the development has resumed now.

Unico Description in Launchpad

Unico is a Gtk+ engine that aims to be the more complete yet powerful theming engine for Gtk+ 3.0 and newer. It’s the first Gtk+ engine written with Gtk+ style context APIs in mind, using CSS as first class citizen.

No more information about Unico is available as of now. The package has been uploaded to Oneiric repositories only two days back. 

A new Ambiance theme (work-in-progress) which is based on Unico is available. I will post installation instructions with some screenshots tomorrow after testing it on one of my systems as I am travelling yet again and will reach my office tomorrow morning. So if you are using highly unstable and far from complete pre-alpha of Ubuntu 11.10 on a system which is NOT your production machine and are willing to get burnt, stay tuned.

Things You Should Do After Installing New Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot has been released now. As with every release, we write about list of things you should immediately do after a fresh installation. Here is one for Oneiric. 

• Ubuntu 11.10 installer allows you to install updates and refresh repositories from installer itself, if you are connected to the Internet. If you skip this part, later you should update your system and repositories. To do that, just launch update manager from dash menu. If you want to have faster updates, select a server near you or start the test which will automatically set a best server for you.

• Go to additional drivers and install new drivers as required. If you are using ATI/AMD proprietary drivers, read this to fix the lag issue.

• Install Ubuntu Restricted Extras from Ubuntu Software Center to add support for flash, java and mp3 playback. If you already installed updates and third party software during installation, you can skip this step.

• Add support for encrypted DVD by running following commands: sudo apt-get install libdvdread4 and sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh
• Install Compiz Config Settings Manager to customize Unity interface. You can tweak launcher size, panel transparency and many other things.

• If you want to add support for Systray or Notification Area which has been disabled in Unity, install and launch dconf-editor from Ubuntu Software Center. Now to enable it just add an extra string 'all' under Desktop > Unity > Panel as shown in screenshot below (requires a logout to work). To revert, just click on 'Set to Default'.

• Install your favorite indicators. A list of indicators with installation instructions can be found on Ask Ubuntu.

• Add custom quicklists support to favorite apps. Many quicklists and their installation instructions can be found here.

• Add global menu support for LibreOffice by running following command: sudo apt-get install lo-menubar
• There are many handy keyboard shortcuts for quickly performing a task. A list of all these shortcuts can be found here. My personal favorite is Super for launching dash menu and then quickly switching between lenses using TAB key.
• Browse Ubuntu Software Center for thousands of apps.

• Install the package gnome-sushi to quickly preview files by hitting Space key in Nautilus file manager.

• Latest Gnome Shell 3.2 and Classic Gnome are available in Ubuntu repositories. To install Gnome Shell run sudo apt-get install gnome-shell. To install classic two panel session run the following command: sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback(rendering issues in screenshot below is an ATI proprietary driver issue)

• The ability to create custom launcher from desktop right click menu is not available in Gnome 3 anymore. There are two ways to create custom launchers. In first method, you have manually define all the values in a .desktop file and then drag it to unity launcher. Below is a sample code:

          #!/usr/bin/env xdg-open

          [Desktop Entry]

          Version=1.0

          Type=Application

          Terminal=false

          Icon[en_US]=gnome-panel-launcher

          Name[en_US]=compiz --replace

          Exec=compiz --replace

          Name=compiz --replace

          Icon=gnome-panel-launcher

• In the second method you can get the classic GUI for creating a launcher by running the following command: gnome-desktop-item-edit ~/.local/share/applications/ --create-new. Please note that this will only work if you have gnome-panel installed.

• Install gnome-tweak-tool from Ubuntu Software Center to change various settings for themes, fonts etc.

Thats about it. If I have missed something, please let me know in comments.