Enabling Compiz On Linux Mint 12 (GNOME Classic)
Version 1.0
Author: Falko Timme , Christian Schmalfeld <c [dot] schmalfeld [at] projektfarm [dot] de>
This tutorial shows how you can enable Compiz on a Linux Mint 12 Lisa desktop (the system must have a 3D-capable graphics card - I'm using an NVIDIA GeForce 8200 here). With Compiz 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 computer with an NVIDIA GeForce 8200. It should work the same way with all other NVIDIA graphics cards. Compiz is not supported on GNOME 3 yet, that's why this how-to is applicable only for the classic GNOME desktop. To switch to the classic desktop, log out of your current session and click on the cogwheel icon next to your username in the log-in screen:
Select GNOME Classic from the dropdown-menu and log back in:
2 Enabling The NVIDIA Driver
To use 3D effects on an NVIDIA graphics card, we need the proprietary NVIDIA driver which we can install from the Additional Drivers tool. The Additional Drivers tool can be started from Applications > System Tools > System Settings > Additional Drivers:
The Additional Drivers tool should tell you that there are NVIDIA graphics drivers available for your system - select the recommended one.
To install it, click on Activate. You will be asked to type in your password afterwards:
The NVIDIA driver is now being downloaded and installed:
The Additional Drivers tool should now tell you that a system restart is required to activate the driver. Click on Close to leave the Additional Drivers tool but don't restart yet:
To make sure that your machine uses the proprietary NVIDIA graphics driver after the reboot, specify them in your xorg.conf file, which is located in /etc/X11. List this directory's contents to see if the file is present:
ls -l /etc/X11
ctest-System-Product-Name X11 # ls -l /etc/X11
total 72
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2011-04-26 01:06 app-defaults
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 14 2011-04-26 01:04 default-display-manager
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2011-04-26 01:01 fonts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17394 2010-02-19 01:02 rgb.txt
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 2011-09-27 16:10 X -> /usr/bin/Xorg
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2011-04-26 01:06 xinit
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2011-02-08 14:27 xkb
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 101 2011-09-29 14:57 xorg.conf <---
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 709 2010-11-02 22:17 Xreset
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2011-09-28 09:30 Xreset.d
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2011-09-28 09:30 Xresources
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3730 2010-12-02 04:34 Xsession
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2011-09-30 15:09 Xsession.d
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 265 2010-02-19 01:02 Xsession.options
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 601 2011-04-26 00:55 Xwrapper.config
ctest-System-Product-Name X11 #
If there's no file named like that, create one with
sudo touch /etc/X11/xorg.conf
After you have found the file or created a new one, open it with
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
If the file already existed, there should be a section called Device in it. Add the line Driver to it just like in the following example. If you created the file yourself, add the whole section to it:
Section "Device"
Identifier "Default Device"
Option "NoLogo" "True"
Driver "nvidia"
EndSection
Save the file afterwards.
