Enabling Compiz Fusion On A Fedora 11 GNOME Desktop (NVIDIA GeForce 8100)

Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme <ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com>
Last edited 06/16/2009

This tutorial shows how you can enable Compiz Fusion on a Fedora 11 GNOME desktop (the system must have a 3D-capable graphics card - I'm using an NVIDIA GeForce 8100 here). With Compiz Fusion you can use beautiful 3D effects like wobbly windows or a desktop cube on your desktop.

This document comes without warranty of any kind! I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Preliminary Note

I have tried this on a desktop system with an NVIDIA GeForce 8100 graphics card. It should work with any other NVIDIA graphics card as well.

2 Graphic Card Driver

To use 3D effects on an NVIDIA graphics card, we need the proprietary NVIDIA driver which is not available from the official Fedora 11 repositories, but from RPMFusion.

To add the RPMFusion repository, open a terminal window (under Applications > System Tools > Terminal)...

... and type in

su

to become root.

Then run

rpm -Uvh http://download1.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-stable.noarch.rpm http://download1.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-stable.noarch.rpm

This adds the RPM Fusion repository (a merger or Dribble, Freshrpms, and rpm.livna.org) to our package manager.

Afterwards you can install the proprietary NVIDIA driver as follows:

yum install kmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia

Afterwards you need to log out and back in for the changes to take effect:

3 Installing Compiz Fusion

To install Compiz Fusion, open a terminal again (Applications > System Tools > Terminal) and become root:

su

Then install Compiz Fusion as follows:

yum install emerald-themes compiz-fusion-extras emerald compiz-fusion compiz-manager compiz-fusion-extras-gnome gnome-compiz-manager libcompizconfig compiz-fusion-gnome ccsm

4 Enabling Compiz Fusion

To enable Compiz Fusion, go to System > Preferences > Desktop Effects:

Click on Enable Desktop Effects:

The new settings are now being tested. If everything seems to work ok, click on Keep settings (otherwise you won't be able to use Compiz Fusion):

Afterwards, you can enable Windows Wobble when Moved and Workspaces on a Cube, if you like, and click on Close to leave the Desktop Effects window:

Compiz Fusion should now be working.

To configure Compiz Fusion, open the CompizConfig Settings Manager (System > Preferences > CompizConfig Settings Manager):

In the CompizConfig Settings Manager you can define the behaviour of Compiz Fusion:

5 Keyboard Shortcuts

Here's a list of the most common Compiz Fusion keyboard shortcuts:

SUPER+SHIFT+DRAG LEFT MOUSE = draw fire
SUPER+SHIFT+C = clear fire
CTRL+ALT+DRAG LEFT MOUSE = rotate cube
CTRL+ALT+LEFT ARROW = rotate cube
CTRL+ALT+DOWN ARROW = flat desktop
SHIFT+ALT+UP = initiate window picker
CTRL+ALT+DOWN = unfold cube
ALT+TAB = window switch
SUPER+TAB = flip switcher or ring switcher, depending on which is enabled.
ALT+F7 = initiate 'move windows'
SHIFT+F9 = water effect
SHIFT+F10 = slow animations
CTRL+ALT+D = show desktop

For Grouping and Tabbing:
SUPER+S = select single window
SUPER+T = tab group
SUPER+Left = change left tab
SUPER+Right = change right tab
SUPER+G = group windows
SUPER+U = ungroup windows
SUPER+R = remove group window
SUPER+C = close group
SUPER+X = ignore group
Hold the SUPER button then select the windows you want to group and then hit SUPER+G.

The SUPER key is the Windows key on most keyboards.

6 Some Screenshots

Here are some screenshots of Compiz Fusion in action:

7 Links

• Compiz Fusion: http://www.compiz-fusion.org/
• Fedora: http://fedoraproject.org/