kapsobor

Xgl and Compiz for Gnome under Debian unstable

Installing XGL & Compiz on Debian (even unstable) still is a pain in the ass. The xserver-xgl deb package has not yet arrived so the easiest way is to abuse some ubuntu packages:

~# su -
deathbird:~# cat >> /etc/apt/source-list
deb http://www.beerorkid.com/compiz dapper main
deb http://media.blutkind.org/xgl/ dapper main
deb http://ubuntu.compiz.net/ dapper main
^D

( That last character stands for hitting ctrl-d, just in case you did not recognize that. )

deathbird:~# apt-get update
deathbird:~# apt-get install xserver-xgl compiz libsvg libsvg-cairo cgwd \ 
 cgwd-themes compiz-gnome xfonts-75dpi
deathbird:~# cd /etc/X11
deathbird:/etc/X11# mv X Xorg
deathbird:/etc/X11# ln -s /usr/bin/Xgl X
deathbird:/etc/X11# logout
~# cat >> ~/.xsession
cgwd &
compiz gconf decoration wobbly fade minimize cube rotate zoom \ 
scale move resize place menu switcher water --replace &
^D
~# chmod +x ~/.xsession

I also had to change my /etc/X11/xorg.conf configuration as they seem to have moved some fonts and Xgl won't run without them (there are a bazillion ways to work around this). Look for fonts and change their path to /usr/share/fonts so that they more or less match these lines:

Section "Files"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc/:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
    FontPath        "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
EndSection

In case you also use gdm you can change the gdm setting in /etc/gdm/gdm.conf. Look for 0=Standard and replace that line with:

#0=Standard
0=Xgl
[server-Xgl]
name=Xgl
command=/usr/X11R6/bin/Xgl :0 -fullscreen -ac -br -accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:fbo

( This line works for nvidia cards.. )

When you're done your desktop MIGHT look like this: