Drop shadows & Menu fades for Gnome Desktops

[uncholowapo]

I have been playing with a sample "compositing manager" called xcompmgr a bit. It, like the title suggest creates effects for the gnome desktop.

To use it, first you must add this section at the bottom your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:

Code:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

EDIT: There is supposed to be an indent on the line with option.

You'll need to reboot after changing your xorg.conf file. In case you're not sure how to edit the file...
Code:

su


gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf



Then install xcompmgr either through Add/Remove programs or from the command line: *
Code:

yum install xcompmgr



* The RPM is in Fedora Extras, so you'll need to set up that repo first if you haven't done so already. Instructions for setting up repos and installing software on YDL can be found in this guide.

Finally, you can start xcompmgr from a terminal window to enable the effects. Various command line switches can be used -- here is a list (copied from the source code):

-d display Specifies which display should be managed.
-r radius Specifies the blur radius for client-side shadows. (default 12)
-o opacity Specifies the translucency for client-side shadows. (default .75)
-l left-offset Specifies the left offset for client-side shadows. (default -15)
-t top-offset Specifies the top offset for clinet-side shadows. (default -15)
-I fade-in-step Specifies the opacity change between steps while fading in. (default 0.02
-O fade-out-step Specifies the opacity change between steps while fading out. (default 0.03)
-D fade-delta-time Specifies the time between steps in a fade in milliseconds. (default 10)
-a Use automatic server-side compositing. Faster, but no special effects.
-c Draw client-side shadows with fuzzy edges.
-C Avoid drawing shadows on dock/panel windows.
-f Fade windows in/out when opening/closing.
-F Fade windows during opacity changes.
-n Normal client-side compositing with transparency support
-s Draw server-side shadows with sharp edges.
-S Enable synchronous operation (for debugging).


The effects I'm using were from:
Code:

xcompmgr -cfC &


(the & part starts it running in the background so you can still use the terminal window)

To disable it: Code:

killall xcompmgr



In addition to the effects, while xcompmgr is running you can move windows around faster without any graphical artifacts. On the downside, it doesn't play well with all applications.

If you do decide to automatically load it at startup, one way to do this is add it to your startup programs in the Session config GUI (start from the menu or using this command: gnome-session-properties )

I had problems with my gnome-panels not showing up after this, though, and had to change the Order for xcompmgr in gnome-session-properties to 10 to correct the problem. (you can use Alt-F1 to bring up the menu if your panels aren't visible). Also, the command killall gnome-panels seems to fix the problem.

Overall I like the effects and it seems to run well on the PS3 / YDL even without any accelerated video.

[haxen]

Have you tried running XFCE as your desktop manager? it really is much quicker, i just enhanced it with some KDE functions and it runs quick compared to E17, Gnome, or KDE.

[uncholowapo]

No I haven't actually I'll install it now.

EDIT: I downloaded it and I thought it was really boring. So I went to [Please register to see this link. ] to get some themes. I downloaded one and now I can't install it. Also I can't open Opera which I installed myself.

[lwb7590d]

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