Compiz and Emerald
Overview
Compiz Fusion is a compositing manager that allows you to easily add a wide variety of fancy effects and animations to your desktop environment. Some of the more well known - and popular - examples include:
- Turning the desktop into a 3D cube, cylinder, or sphere to switch between workspaces / virtual desktops
- Wobbly and stretchy windows
- Zooming in on the desktop
Emerald is a window decorator that allows for a wide variety new looks to be added to appplication windows. It also allows for decorations to be edited or even created from scratch. For now, there are plenty of existing Emerald themes that can be downloaded and used first.
Using Compiz Fusion and Emerald together can produce some genuinely stunning-looking desktop environments. However, even if you choose to download and install them together, you can still very easily choose to use just one or the other with your desktop environment at any time. For more information about Compiz Fusion and Emerald, the Compiz wiki can be found here.
Install Compiz Fusion and Emerald
Although it is possible to download and install them via the Add/Remove Software application provided with Manjaro, it is actually faster and easier to use the terminal, which will be used in this tutorial.
As illustrated, entering the command to install both Compiz Fusion and Emerald together for XFCE has resulted in pacman automatically pulling a few extra packages as dependencies of the ones specified (i.e. seven packages have been listed, but eleven are being downloaded in this instance).
Once installed, it will not be necessary to reboot your machine; you can start setting them up straight away!
Installation for XFCE
- To install both Compiz Fusion and Emerald:
sudo pacman -S ccsm compiz-core fusion-icon emerald-themes compiz-fusion-plugins-extra libcompizconfig compiz-manager
Installation for KDE
- To install both Compiz Fusion and Emerald:
sudo pacman -S ccsm compiz-core fusion-icon emerald-themes compiz-fusion-plugins-extra libcompizconfig compiz-manager compiz-decorator-kde
Set up Compiz Fusion and Emerald
Compiz Fusion
This guide will provide you with the very basics to get up and running with Compiz Fusion. This includes setting it up as your default windows manager so that it will automatically activate upon starting your desktop, rather than having to manually start it each time.
There are many Compiz tutorials available on the 'net, including video tutorials on websites such as Youtube.
The Compiz Configuration Settings Manager (ccsm)
This is where you can activate and tweak any and all of the special effects and animations you want. Although they are quite easy and straightforward to set up, there are a wide variety of options available, and an even wider variety of tweaks that can be done to them.
As illustrated, the Compiz Configuration Settings Manager itself can be found in the Settings section of your desktop menu. Alternatively, typing ccsm in XFCE's Application Finder or KDE's built-in search bar will also bring it up.
A note about 3D Cubes, Cylinders, and Spheres
There are two very important things to know if you want to access this feature:
1. Make sure you have enough workspaces / virtual desktops to form the 3D shape(s) you want. For the cube and sphere, you should have at least four workspaces - try them with less and see what happens! For the cylinder, you should have at least three workspaces.
2. The number of workspaces set in the Compiz Configuration Manager MUST match the number of workspaces set in your XFCE or KDE desktop. For example, as illustrated, if you set three workspaces in Compiz, you must also set three workspaces in your desktop environment, and vice-versa. If there is a mismatch, applications placed on different workspaces may seem to disappear and/or there may be problems switching between the workspaces themselves.
The workspace settings of your desktop can be found in the Settings section of your desktop menu. Alternatively, typing workspace in XFCE's Application Finder or KDE's built-in search bar will also bring it up.
The workspace settings of the Compiz Configuration Manager can be found by first going to General Options, and then selecting the Desktop Size tab.
As illustrated, the horizontal virtual size setting is 3. This means that there are three virtual desktops sitting side by side (i.e. horizontally). This matches both the number and position of the three virtual desktops set in the XFCE desktop, as shown in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. You can click on the image to enlarge it to see this; there are three squares representing the workspaces sitting side by side (i.e. horizontally) adjacent the time.
The remaining two options can just be set to 1, as they will multiply the number of desktops (e.g. if the vertical desktop size was also set to 2, then the total number of desktops would be 6 in this instance: 3 * 2 = 6)
A Note about Key Bindings
Key Bindings are also a very important element of Compiz. In fact, they will literally affect the way you use and enjoy the features provided. In essence, they are used to determine how certain effects are activated, such as by pressing certain keys together or by placing the mouse at a certain edge or corner of the screen.
For example, as illustrated, the initiate key binding to activate the ability to turn the desktop into a cube/cylinder/sphere and rotate it has been changed. Whereas before a certain combination of keys had to be pressed, now all that needs to be done is to click in the top-right corner of the screen. The cube/cylinder/sphere can be rotated by just holding down the mouse button and moving the mouse. Only this key binding needs to be looked at. All the rest can be completely ignored!
Using the Fusion Icon to Start Compiz
Once you have set the effects and animations you want in the Compiz Configuration Manager, they are activated through the Compiz Fusion Icon. This can be found in the System section of your desktop menu. Alternatively, typing fusion in XFCE's Application Finder or KDE's built-in search bar will also bring it up.
Upon being selected, your screen will momentarily flicker as Compiz is activated, and the red and black Fusion icon itself will appear in your desktop's taskbar.
Compiz itself can also be turned on or off at will by first right-clicking the Compiz Fusion icon to bring up its menu, and then going to the Select Window Manager option. As illustrated, compiz is currently active. However, it can be de-activated by simply selecting your own desktop's window manager, in this case xfwm4. The screen will again flicker for a moment as the native window manager takes back over.
To set Compiz as your default window manager, the fusion icon must be added to the desktop's Application Autostart in the Session and Startup Settings. This determines what programs and applications are automatically activated when the desktop starts. The Session and Startup settings of your desktop can be found in the Settings section of your desktop menu. Alternatively, typing session in XFCE's Application Finder or KDE's built-in search bar will also bring it up. Once open, select the Application Autostart tab, and click the Add button.
1. In the name field type fusion-icon
2. In the command field type: fusion-icon
3. Click OK
The Fusion Icon should now appear near the bottom of the list. Ensure that the check-box next to it is activated, and then close the application window. Compiz will now start automatically every time!
Emerald
The Emerald Theme Manager
Thanks to having downloaded the emerald-themes package, there will be plenty of themes available to choose from. As Emerald is automatically activated as the window decorator upon activating the Fusion Icon, clicking on any of the themes will instantly change your window decoration. As illustrated, selecting Scaled_Black_Mod theme has changed Emerald's own window.
You can also download many new Emerald themes from the internet, such as from Compiz-Themes.org. Once downloaded, they are very easy to import and use. To do so, once you've downloaded a theme:
1. Select the import button in the Emerald Theme Manager 2. Find the location of your downloaded theme and click to highlight it 3. Select Open
Now your selected theme has been imported in Emerald and is ready to use!
Using the Fusion Icon to Start Emerald
Again, if you have downloaded Compiz Fusion, then Emerald will be automatically activated. Alternatively, it can also be turned on or off at will by first right-clicking the Compiz Fusion icon to bring up its menu, and then going to the Select Window Decorator option. Emerald will be listed with any other Window Decorators on your system (e.g. the GTK Window Decorator used by XFCE).
Otherwise, Emerald can be activated by first opening your terminal, and then entering the following command