3 Compiz Fusion

3.1 Installing Compiz Fusion

Compiz Fusion isn't available in the official Fedora 7 repositories, therefore we must use a third-party repository to install it (repo.kagesenshi.org).

To install it, we open a terminal (Applications > System Tools > Terminal) and become root by typing:

su

Then we install the third-party repository like this:

cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
wget http://devel.foss.org.my/~kagesenshi/repo/pub/kagesenshi.repo

Afterwards, we can install Compiz Fusion:

yum install compiz compiz-gnome compiz-fusion-plugins-extra

After the installation, we don't need root privileges anymore, so we go back to our normal user account in the terminal by typing:

exit

We can now start Compiz Fusion by typing:

compiz-manager &

You should now have 3D desktop effects:

3.2 Creating A Menu Entry For Compiz Fusion

Of course, you don't want to open a terminal each time you want to start Compiz Fusion. Therefore we will now create a menu entry for it (just like we had for the Beryl Manager in chapter two).

Right-click on Applications and select Edit Menus. In the menu editor, select System Tools and click on the New Item button:

A small Create Launcher window comes up. Fill in Compiz-Manager in the Name field and compiz-manager & (make sure you write it exactly as I do!) in the Command field. Leave the Type field as is; if you like, you can type in a comment in the Comment field. Click on OK afterwards:

Then close the menu editor. You should now have a launcher for Compiz Fusion in your menu (Applications > System Tools > Compiz-Manager).

3.3 Make Compiz Fusion Start Automatically

Of course, you don't want to start Compiz Fusion manually each time you log in to your desktop. Fortunately, there's a way to make it start automatically. Open a terminal (Applications > System Tools > Terminal) and become root by typing:

su

First, we create the file /usr/bin/startcompizfusion.sh:

gedit /usr/bin/startcompizfusion.sh

#!/bin/sh
compiz-manager &
sleep 4
exec gnome-session

Then we make it executable:

chmod a+x /usr/bin/startcompizfusion.sh

Afterwards, we create the file /usr/share/xsessions/Compizfusion.desktop:

gedit /usr/share/xsessions/Compizfusion.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Compiz Fusion
Exec=/usr/bin/startcompizfusion.sh
Icon=
Type=Application

Then we log out of our current desktop session. On the login screen, go to Options > Select Session..., choose Compiz Fusion and click on the Change Session button. Then log in with your username and password. You will then be asked:

Do you wish to make Compiz Fusion the default for future sessions?

You can choose between Just For This Session and Make Default. If this is your first try, I recommend to select Just For This Session to see if Compiz Fusion really starts automatically. If it works, you can select Make Default at the next login.

3.4 Customize Compiz Fusion Behaviour

If you like to modify Compiz Fusion's behaviour and effects, you can go to System > Preferences > CompizConfig Settings Manager. You can then customize Compiz Fusion:

4 Links

• Fedora: http://fedoraproject.org
• Beryl: http://www.beryl-project.org
• Compiz Fusion: http://www.opencompositing.org
• Compiz Fusion repository for Fedora 7: http://blog.kagesenshi.org/2007/06/compiz-fusion-repository-for-fedora-7.html