Compiz instead of flux

bjd · Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 7:57 am Post subject: Compiz instead of flux

I'm currently running fluxbox and Xorg7.0 on a Nvidia 6800, and want to check out XGL/Compiz. I've tried the Kororaa LiveCD and liked what I saw

I don't want to install KDE, Gnome or XFCE, so thought I could install just Compiz and use that on its own as a WM; instead of flux.

I ran through the wiki guide up until installing xgl & compiz. Compiz-vanilla pulls in a whole bunch of Gnome deps, such as gnome-themes and nautilus. This is because the Gnome flag is set, which the wiki says is *mandatory*. Why? Seems strange to me that if the deps are required why are they set as a USE flag? Does the gnome-window-decorator need all the deps too? Is running Compiz by itself going to be a bit silly, i.e. not very useful. I've only ever seen people using it under a DE.

I hear the 9xxx series of Nvidia drivers are just around the corner, and will provide extra functionality for XGL that Mesa currently does in software. Is it worth waiting for these or is XGL running ok as it is? The wiki says that the vanilla 6800 doesn't do direct rendering (but the other 6800 series will?), I take it thats only going to hurt stuff that I run on the underlying X-server?

Apologies for any silly questions or if I have the terminology all wrong, been trying to get my head around this stuff all weekend

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Archangel1 · Veteran Joined: 21 Apr 2004 Posts: 1212 Location: Work

The GNOME deps are for gnome-window-decorator. It's mandatory in the sense that it's the only way you're getting window decorations in Compiz at the moment.
I feel your pain, I didn't want to sully this system with GNOME - especially the silly levels the dependency chain gets to, pulling in media libraries and whatnot to build a window manager.

You could run it without a DE over the top. The main issue I see is you'd have no way to start applications, which could be a little difficult - it's not really designed as a standalone WM like fluxbox is. You could work around that sort of thing if you really wanted I suppose...
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bjd · Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2006 4:07 pm Post subject:

I guess I can wait a little longer, maybe with the kde window decorator the deps will be more in my favour

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Top Tips in life, #7
"Olympic athletes. Disguise the fact that you've taken steroids by running a bit slower."