Compiz Fusion On Mandriva One 2008.1 Spring (GNOME/NVIDIA)

Version 1.0
Author: Oliver Meyer <o [dot] meyer [at] projektfarm [dot] de>

This document describes how to enable and configure Compiz Fusion on a Mandriva One 2008.1 Spring GNOME desktop with an NVIDIA graphics card.

This howto is a practical guide without any warranty - it doesn't cover the theoretical backgrounds. There are many ways to set up such a system - this is the way I chose.

1 Enable Compiz Fusion

1.1 Option 1: During The Installation

When the live/install media is booting you'll be asked if you want to enable 3D desktop effects. Choose "Compiz Fusion" and proceed with the boot process and the following installation.

1.2 Option 2: After The Installation

If you have already set up your system, you can enable the desktop effects within the "Mandriva Linux Control Center" - it's available in the upper GNOME panel and in the GNOME menu.

Enter the root password.

Now switch to the "Hardware"-tab and click on "Configure graphics".

Mark the radio-button next to "Compiz Fusion" and click on "OK" to apply the settings.

2 Extra Plugins

Install the following packages to get a lot of additional plugins.

compiz-fusion-plugins-extra
compiz-fusion-plugins-unsupported

3 Configuration

The compiz configurator is available in the GNOME applications menu.

As you can see there are a lot of plugins available - and each plugin has its own options/settings.

4 Screenshots

To give you a slight foretaste I took a few screenshots :)

4.1 Desktop Cube

Main keyboard shortcuts:

CTRL+ALT+DRAG LEFT MOUSE = rotate cube (3D)
CTRL+ALT+LEFT ARROW = rotate cube to the left
CTRL+ALT+RIGHT ARROW = rotate cube to the right
CTRL+ALT+DOWN ARROW = unfold