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Contents
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1 Installation
Contributing 1.1 Installing the 0.9 series
Recent changes 1.2 Installing the 0.8 series
Recent talks 2 Starting Compiz
New pages 2.1 Enabling important plugins
Statistics
2.1.1 Window decoration
Reports
2.2 Compiz startup
Requests
2.2.1 Fusion Icon
tools 2.3 Autostarting Compiz in a desktop environment
What links here 3 Using Compiz as a standalone window manager
Related changes
3.1 Starting the session with a display manager
Special pages
3.1.1 Autostarting programs when using a display manager
Printable version
Permanent link 3.2 Starting the session with startx

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 Page information 3.3 Add a root menu
3.4 Allow users to shutdown/reboot
in other languages
4 Tips and tricks
Deutsch
Ελληνικά
4.1 Restoring the native window manager
Español 4.2 Enabling the Alt+F2 run dialog
Français 5 Troubleshooting
Italiano 5.1 Missing GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmaps
日本語 5.1.1 On ATI cards (first solution)
Polski
5.1.2 On ATI cards (second solution)
Português
5.1.3 On Intel chips
Русский
Türkçe 5.2 Compiz starts without window borders with NVIDIA binary drivers
中文（中国大陆）​ 5.3 Blank screen on resume from suspend-to-ram with NVIDIA binary drivers
5.4 Poor performance from capable graphics cards
5.5 Screen flicks with NVIDIA card
5.6 Video tearing
5.7 Compiz effects not working (GConf backend)
5.8 Fusion Icon fails to start
5.9 Alt+F4 keybinding not working (Xfce)
5.10 Emerald crashes when selecting a theme
5.11 No system bell when Compiz is running
5.12 Compiz crashes when enabling the Gnome Compatibility plugin
(GSettings backend)
5.13 Windows lose focus when unminimised
5.14 Popout windows are offset when Compiz is running
5.15 Alt-Tab switcher has no background (Emerald)
6 Known issues
6.1 Plugins in Compiz 0.8 are not present in Compiz 0.9
6.2 Xfce panel window buttons are not refreshed when a window changes
viewport
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 6.3 Compiz crashes when enabling the D-Bus plugin
6.4 Workspace pager and window buttons issues
6.5 Xfce workspace switcher has wrong aspect ratio
7 See also

Installation
As of May 2013, Compiz is no longer available in the official repositories. Packages for installing
both the 0.9 and 0.8 series are available in the AUR. The two series are not parallel installable.

Installing the 0.9 series

Note: From Compiz 0.9.8 onwards, all Compiz components are developed and distributed as a single
project. This means that a single package can provide all of the Compiz components.

Required:
Compiz — OpenGL compositing window manager with CCSM, Plugins and GTK Window Decorator.
https://launchpad.net/compiz || compizAUR

Optional:

Note: To have emerald-themes with emerald0.9, first install emerald0.9AUR and then install emerald-
AUR
themes . Doing the opposite will resolve the wrong dependencies and cause conflicts.

Emerald — A standalone window decorator for Compiz.

http://www.compiz.org/ || emerald0.9AUR

Emerald Themes — Extra themes for the Emerald window decorator.

http://www.northfield.ws/projects/compiz/ || emerald-themesAUR

Fusion Icon — A tray applet for starting Compiz and switching window managers and decorators on the
fly.
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 https://github.com/kozec/fusion-icon-gtk3 || fusion-icon0.9AUR

Installing the 0.8 series

Note: The compiz-coreAUR package does not provide the GTK Window Decorator by default. Users of this
package should use emeraldAUR for #Window decoration. Alternatively, use compiz-gtk-standaloneAUR for
a Compiz Core package that also provides GTK Window Decorator.

Required:
Compiz Core — OpenGL compositing window manager.
http://www.northfield.ws/projects/compiz/ || compiz-coreAUR , compiz-gtk-standalone
AUR

Highly recommended:
CompizConfig Settings Manager — Graphical settings manager for Compiz.
http://www.northfield.ws/projects/compiz/ || ccsmAUR

Compiz Fusion Plugins Main — Main plugins collection for Compiz.

http://www.northfield.ws/projects/compiz/ || compiz-fusion-plugins-mainAUR

Compiz Fusion Plugins Extra — Extra plugins collection for Compiz.

http://www.northfield.ws/projects/compiz/ || compiz-fusion-plugins-extraAUR

Optional:
Compiz Fusion Plugins Unsupported — Unsupported Compiz plugins.
http://www.northfield.ws/projects/compiz/ || compiz-fusion-plugins-unsupportedAUR

Emerald — A standalone window decorator for Compiz.

http://www.northfield.ws/projects/compiz/ || emeraldAUR

Emerald Themes — Extra themes for the Emerald window decorator.

http://www.northfield.ws/projects/compiz/ || emerald-themesAUR

Fusion Icon — A tray applet for starting Compiz and switching window managers and decorators on the
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 Fusion Icon — A tray applet for starting Compiz and switching window managers and decorators on the
fly.
http://www.compiz.org/ || fusion-iconAUR

Starting Compiz

Enabling important plugins

Tip: Depending on which package you installed Compiz from, some of these plugins may already be
activated.

Before starting Compiz, you should activate some plugins to provide basic window manager behaviour or
else you will have no ability to drag, scale or close any windows. Important plugins are listed below:
Window Decoration - provides window borders, see #Window decoration.
Move Window.
Resize Window.
Place Windows - configure window placement options.
Application Switcher - provides an Alt+Tab switcher - there are numerous alternative application switcher
plugins, for example: Shift Switcher, Static Application Switcher and more. Not all of them use the
Alt+Tab keybinding.

OpenGL - only visible in CCSM 0.9.

Composite - only visible in CCSM 0.9.
To be able to switch to different viewports you will need to enable one of the following:
Desktop Cube & Rotate Cube - provides the spinning cube with each side being a different viewport.
Desktop Wall - viewports are arranged next to each other - the animation is similar to the workspace
switching animation in Cinnamon and GNOME Shell.
Expo - creates a view of all viewports and windows when the mouse is moved into the top left corner -
this plugin can be used on its own or in conjunction with either of the two previous plugins.

Window decoration
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 Tip: For information on selecting and managing themes, see: Compiz configuration#Window
decoration themes.

The window decorator is the program which provides windows with borders. Unlike window managers such
as Kwin or Xfwm which provide just one decorator, users of Compiz have a choice of three: GTK Window
Decorator, KDE Window Decorator and Emerald. The GTK Window Decorator and the KDE Window
Decorator are included in the Compiz source and can be optionally compiled whilst building Compiz.
Emerald, on the other hand, is a separate, standalone decorator. The Window Decoration plugin in CCSM
must be ticked otherwise no window decorator will be started.
Choosing the decorator
In most versions of Compiz, the decorator is started with the compiz-decorator script. This will first try to
detect a GNOME or KDE session and start the appropriate decorator for that session and then, if this fails,
it will search for the emerald, gtk-window-decorator and kde4-window-decorator executables in that order and
start the first decorator it finds. For this reason, it should not usually be necessary to change the decorator
command. However, in cases where the compiz-decorator script is not available, not being used or is not
starting the desired decorator, the decorator command can be changed under CCSM -> Effects -> Window
Decoration -> Command. If just specifying the decorator executable does not cause the decorator to be
started, use the --replace switch as well.

Compiz startup

Note: It should no longer be necessary to use the ccp switch with the compiz --replace command in
order to load Compiz plugins. This bug was fixed downstream in Compiz packaging and then fixed
upstream in Compiz 0.9.12 with revision 3951 . Older Compiz versions might still need to be started
with the following: compiz --replace ccp .

You can start Compiz using the following command:

$ compiz --replace

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See compiz --help for more options.
Fusion Icon
Tip: When #Autostarting Compiz in a desktop environment fusion-icon can be set as the default
command instead of compiz.
To start Compiz using Fusion Icon, execute the command below:
$ fusion-icon
To ensure that fusion-icon then starts Compiz, right click on the icon in the panel and go to select window
manager. Choose Compiz if it is not selected already.
Autostarting Compiz in a desktop environment
See Desktop environment#Custom window manager.
Using Compiz as a standalone window manager
Starting the session with a display manager
A standalone Compiz session can be started from a display manager. For most display manager's -
LightDM for example - all that is required is to create a .desktop file in /usr/share/xsessions that executes
compiz (with command line options if needed) or fusion-icon. See the article for your display manager. See
Desktop entries for information on creating a .desktop file.
Autostarting programs when using a display manager
One way in which you could start programs with your Compiz session, when it is started from a display
manager, is to use an xprofile file. Another option is for the .desktop file in /usr/share/xsessions to not
execute compiz directly but to execute a script which starts the programs you wish to start and also starts
Compiz.
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 Alternatively, you could use Compiz's Session Management plugin. This plugin will save running programs
on exit and restore them when the session is next started. Simply enable the Session Management plugin
in CCSM.

Starting the session with startx

A Compiz session can be started with startx. Define either compiz or fusion-icon in your .xinitrc file. See
the xinitrc article for more details.

Add a root menu

To add a root menu similar to that in Openbox and other standalone window managers install compiz-
AUR
boxmenu . This program is a fork of compiz-deskmenuAUR .

Then copy the config files to your home directory as shown below:

# cp -R /etc/xdg/compiz /home/username/.config
# chown -R username:group /home/username/.config/compiz

where username is your username and group is the primary group for your user.

Then, open CCSM, navigate to the Commands plugin and in Command line 0 enter the command
compiz-boxmenu . In the Key Bindings tab, set Run command 0 to Control+Space or another key/mouse

button combination of choice. Take care not to use a combination that is already used for other functionality.
Now navigate to the Viewport Switcher plugin and click on the Desktop-based Viewport Switching tab.
Change the Plugin for initiate action to core and change Action name for initiate to run_command0_key .

You should now find that a menu appears when you click Control+Space . To launch a graphical menu editor,
click on the Edit option or run compiz-boxmenu-editor in a terminal. If you would prefer to edit your menu
manually, open the following file in your favourite editor: ~/.config/compiz/boxmenu/menu.xml . For your
changes to take effect, you must click the Reload option in your menu.

Allow users to shutdown/reboot

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 An unprivileged user should be able to execute commands such as systemctl poweroff and
systemctl reboot . You could assign a keyboard shortcut to one of these commands using the Commands
plugin in CCSM. Alternatively, you could create a launcher for one of these commands in compiz-boxmenuAUR
- see above. For more detailed information on shutting down see the following article: Allow users to
shutdown.

Tips and tricks

Restoring the native window manager

You can switch back to your desktop environment's default window manager with the following command:

wm_name --replace

using kwin, metacity or xfwm4 for example instead of wm_name.

Enabling the Alt+F2 run dialog

GNOME Panel
Enable the Gnome Compatibility plugin in CCSM.
MATE Panel
There are two ways to enable MATE Panel's run dialog in Compiz. You can either:
Enable the MATE Compatibility plugin in CCSM (use the Gnome Compatibility plugin for older Compiz
versions which lack the MATE plugin).
Map the command below to the Alt+F2 key combination using the Commands plugin in CCSM.

mate-panel --run-dialog

LXDE Panel

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 Map the command below to the Alt+F2 key combination using the Commands plugin in CCSM.

lxpanelctl run

Xfce Appfinder
When Compiz is used in an Xfce session, the run dialog (provided by xfce4-appfinder) should work without
intervention. If you are using Xfce Appfinder in a standalone Compiz session, map the command to the
Alt+F2 key combination using the Commands plugin in CCSM.

Other run dialogs

Map the command for a run dialog of choice to the Alt+F2 key combination using the Commands plugin in
CCSM.

Troubleshooting

Missing GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmaps
On ATI cards (first solution)
You may run into the following error when trying to run Compiz on an ATI card:

Missing GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap

This is because Compiz's binary was compiled against Mesa's OpenGL library rather than ATI's OpenGL
library.
Firstly, copy the library into a directory to keep it because ATI's drivers will over write it:

$ install -Dm644 /usr/lib/libGL.so.1.2 /usr/lib/mesa/libGL.so.1.2

Then you can reinstall your fglrx drivers. Now start Compiz as shown below:

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 LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/mesa/libGL.so.1.2 compiz --replace &

On ATI cards (second solution)

Another possible problem with GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap on ATI cards is that the card can only
render it indirectly. If so, you have to pass the option to your libgl as shown below:

LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1 compiz --replace &

This workaround was tested on the following card : ATI Technologies Inc Radeon R250 [Mobility FireGL
9000] (rev 02).

On Intel chips
Firstly, check that you're using the intel driver as opposed to i810. Then, use the following command to start
Compiz (this command must be used every time).

LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=true compiz --replace --sm-disable &

Compiz starts without window borders with NVIDIA binary drivers

Firstly, ensure that your window decorator settings are configured correctly - see #Window decoration. If
window borders still do not start try adding Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "True" and Option
"DisableGLXRootClipping" "True" to your "Screen" section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf . If
window borders still do not load and you have used other Options elsewhere in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ try
commenting them out and using only the aformentioned ARGBGLXVisuals and GLXRootClipping Options.

Blank screen on resume from suspend-to-ram with NVIDIA binary drivers

If you receive a blank screen with a responsive cursor upon resume, try disabling sync to vblank. To do so,
open CCSM, navigate to the OpenGL plugin and untick the Sync to VBlank option.

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 Poor performance from capable graphics cards
NVIDIA and Intel chips: If everything is configured correctly but you still have poor performance with some
effects, try disabling CCSM > General Options > Display Settings > Detect Refresh Rate and instead
choose a value manually.
NVIDIA chips only: The inadequate refresh rate with Detect Refresh Rate may be due to an option called
DynamicTwinView being enabled by default which plays a factor in accurately reporting the maximum
refresh rate that your card and display support. You can disable DynamicTwinView by adding the following
line to the "Device" or "Screen" section of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-nvidia.conf , and then restarting
your computer:

Option "DynamicTwinView" "False"

Screen flicks with NVIDIA card

To fix this behaviour create the file below:

/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf

options nvidia NVreg_RegistryDwords="PerfLevelSrc=0x2222"

Video tearing
If you experience video tearing when using Compiz, try enabling the Workarounds plugin in CCSM. Once
enabled, ensure that the following options are enabled in Workarounds: Force complete redraw on initial
damage, Force full screen redraws (buffer swap) on repaint.
If you are using Intel graphics and the workaround above does not fix the video tearing, see Intel
graphics#Tear-free video.
Also see, #Poor performance from capable graphics cards.

Compiz effects not working (GConf backend)

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 If you have installed the GTK Window Decorator, check if the GConf schema was correctly installed:

$ gconftool-2 -R /apps/compiz/plugins | grep plugins

Make sure that all plugins are listed. If they are not, try to install the Compiz schema manually (do not run
this command as root):

$ gconftool-2 --install-schema-file=/usr/share/gconf/schemas/compiz-decorator-gtk.schemas

Fusion Icon fails to start

If you get an output like this from the command line:

$ fusion-icon

* Detected Session: gnome

* Searching for installed applications...
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/fusion-icon", line 57, in <module>
from FusionIcon.interface import choose_interface
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/FusionIcon/interface.py", line 23, in <module>
import start
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/FusionIcon/start.py", line 36, in <module>
config.check()
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/FusionIcon/util.py", line 362, in check
os.makedirs(self.config_folder)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/os.py", line 172, in makedirs
mkdir(name, mode)
OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/home/andy/.config/compiz'

the problem is with the permission on ~/.config/compiz/ . To fix it, use:

# chown -R username /home/username/.config/compiz/

Alt+F4 keybinding not working (Xfce)

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 If Compiz directly replaces Xfwm4 (in other words, if compiz --replace is executed whilst Xfwm4 is running),
then the Alt-F4 key combination will become non-functional. In this instance, run compiz --replace again.
This will mean that Compiz replaces itself and so regains control of the Alt-F4 key combination. For this
reason, if you wish to use Compiz in the Xfce desktop, it is a good idea to not autostart compiz --replace

at login but instead to set compiz as the default window manager in xfconf - see Xfce#Default window
manager.

Emerald crashes when selecting a theme

You may find that Emerald crashes when selecting certain themes (especially themes that use the legacy
engine). If this occurs, select another theme in Emerald Theme Manager and then run the command
emerald --replace .

No system bell when Compiz is running

You may find that the system bell (such as the drip sound played when pressing backspace at the
beginning of a line in GNOME or MATE Terminal) will not sound if Compiz is running. See the following
upstream bug report .
PulseAudio users, as a workaround, can force PulseAudio to handle the system bell, see
PulseAudio#X11 Bell Events.

Compiz crashes when enabling the Gnome Compatibility plugin (GSettings

backend)
If you are using the GSettings backend, you may find that Compiz crashes if you try to enable the Gnome
Compatibility plugin. In order to enable this plugin whilst using the GSettings backend you need to open
CCSM and navigate to Preferences. Under the header Integration untick the box labelled Enable integration
into the desktop environment. After unticking this option, you should find it possible to enable the Gnome
Compatibility plugin.

Windows lose focus when unminimised

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You may find that certain windows (such as a Chromium window) will lose focus when unminimised. See
the following upstream bug report . One possible solution is to enable the Keep previews of minimized
windows option, located within the Workarounds plugin.
Note: If you use the Chrome/Chromium browser and you enable this workaround, you will need to ensure
that the Use system title bar and borders option within Chrome is enabled. If Chrome's own titlebar is used
with the Keep previews of minimized windows Compiz workaround then when Chrome is minimized, the
desktop beneath will become unresponsive.
Popout windows are offset when Compiz is running
You may find that popout windows for panels which are placed at the bottom of the screen are offset by a
few pixels so that the window appears to float above the panel. This problem is known to affect Xfce and
KDE and may affect other desktops as well. Listed below are a number of workarounds that might fix some
cases.
Place the panel at the top of screen instead of the bottom - this should work in most cases.
Disable the Place Windows plugin - this works for the Xfce Whisker Menu plugin but may not work
elsewhere.
Use fixed window placement to determine the window's position. This can be set from the Place
Windows plugin. For instance, for the Whisker Menu, specify that the window with the title Whisker
Menu should appear at (-1, -1).
For more information, see the following upstream bug report .
Alt-Tab switcher has no background (Emerald)
You may find that the Alt-Tab switcher (provided by the staticswitcher or switcher plugins) has a
completely transparent background when using Emerald as well. This can make it hard to differentiate
window thumbnails from the desktop background behind them. As of revision 3975 a workaround is
available. In CCSM, navigate to Application Switcher or Static Application Switcher depending on which
plugin you are using. For the former, the Background settings are located under General and for the latter
the settings are located under Appearance. Once you have found the settings, ensure that the Set
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 background color box is ticked. The default is a dark grey which can be optionally changed.
Alternatively, use GTK Window Decorator instead of Emerald or use a different window switcher altogether
such as the shift switcher. Note that even if you are using the GTK Window Decorator, you can still change
the background color as described above.

Known issues

Plugins in Compiz 0.8 are not present in Compiz 0.9

Many plugins that were popular in Compiz 0.8 (such as the Animations Add-On plugin) were disabled in
Compiz versions 0.9.8 and above in order to complete OpenGL ES support. Disabled plugins that receive
patches for this issue may well be re-enabled in future releases. For more information, see the Compiz
0.9.8 release notes .
Likewise, Compiz Plugins Unsupported (a package which includes plugins such as Atlantis) is unavailable in
recent versions of Compiz 0.9. It has not been developed for the Compiz 0.9 series since Compiz 0.9.5 and
no longer builds successfully.

Xfce panel window buttons are not refreshed when a window changes viewport
You may find that if you right click on a window title and choose an option such as Move to Workspace
Right then the window will move but the window button will still be visible in the viewport the window moved
from until you switch viewports. This issue can be fixed by replacing xfce4-panel with xfce4-panel-compizAUR
which incorporates a patch for this issue. See the following upstream bug report for more information.

Compiz crashes when enabling the D-Bus plugin

The D-Bus plugin will cause Compiz to crash if enabled in conjunction with certain other plugins such as the
Cube plugin. See the following upstream bug report .

Workspace pager and window buttons issues

Only a few panels and docks are compatible with Compiz's viewports. Incompatible panels and docks

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 may display issues such as showing all window buttons in all workspaces or the workspace pager may only
show one workspace available. The panels listed below are known to be compatible:
xfce4-panel

mate-panel

perlpanel

gnome-panel

cairo-dock

Xfce workspace switcher has wrong aspect ratio

When Compiz is used with Xfce Panel 4.11 and above, the workspace pager will use the width of only one
workspace but will divide this space into ever smaller bars, according to how many viewports Compiz will
specify. This issue can be fixed by replacing xfce4-panel with xfce4-panel-compizAUR which incorporates a
patch for this issue. For more information, see the following upstream bug report .

See also
Compiz in Launchpad
Compiz Home , including wiki and forum (website and wiki are unmaintained)
Troubleshooting - Compiz Wiki , (wiki is unmaintained)

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