The Compiz Cube may seem like eye candy, but I have weaved it tightly
into my daily productivity. The Unity Workplace Switcher is basically
the Compiz Viewport Switcher, which requires some rounds of the screen
with your mouse pointer to change workspaces. The cube requires very
little hand movement and no keyboard use when set up optimally.
I thought, because Unity told me, that Unity depended on Compiz’ Desktop Wall. That is, until I stumbled on
this launchpad bug report where others like myself pushed hard to get the cube back. It turns out that Unity doesn’t
really
depend on the Desktop Wall, but on “largedesktop” which both the Cube
and Wall provide. In a wonderful response to user requests, the Unity
developers changed the explicit dependence in Unity from the Wall to
largedesktop. Although they still don’t officially support the Desktop
Cube in Unity, power users now have the flexibility.
After discovering this, I immediately opened the Compiz Configuration
Settings Manager (ccsm) and enabled the Desktop Cube. As I expected,
Compiz protested that the Desktop Wall conflicted with the Cube and
asked if I wanted to disable it. I said yes. Compiz then protested that
Unity depended on largedesktop in the Wall and asked if I really wanted
to disable the Wall. Again I said yes.
Holy screen tsunami, Batman! Unity and Natty crashed in a huge way,
rendering the desktop useless! If I didn’t have AWN running in the
corner, I have a feeling that would have been all she wrote.
Providentially, I was able to work through the system menu in AWN to get
the desktop back and proceed on to a fully operational cube.
After thinking about the firestorm, I came up with a sequence of
Compiz setting changes that will provide you the cube with very little
pain. So, here’s how I recommend proceeding based on my experience.
First, use Update Manager to bring your Natty system totally up to
date. Then change the desktop settings in ccsm -> General Settings as
shown (
NOTE: This has changed from the original post!):
Note that I changed the settings from the Unity default of 2/2/1 to
4/1/1. If you don’t change the settings, you’ll get a plane instead of a cube. This change shouldn’t crash Natty.
Next download any dock program that has menu and logout/shutdown
widgets. I like AWN, but you could use Docky, Cairo, whatever, as long
as you have a menu widget and logout/shutdown either as part of the menu
widget or separate. Place it at the bottom of the screen so that none
of the Unity panels lay over it. This is your life line. I have AWN with
only the sensor, places, and main menu applets. Actually, places and
main menu are the same applet, and main menu provides access to
logout/shutdown.
Now, go into ccsm and deselect Unity and Desktop Wall. Your Unity
panels will disappear, but don’t worry because you have your other dock
with the main menu applet if anything goes wrong. More than likely, this
will also clear all of your Compiz settings. So first, under General at
the top of ccsm, select Composite, Gnome Capability, and OpenGL. Next
select Desktop Cube and Viewport Switcher (if it isn’t already
selected), and I also selected Rotate Cube, 3D Windows, and Cube
Reflection and Deformation. Ensure that Composite, Gnome Compatibility,
OpenGL, and Window Decoration remain selected. That should to it.
I recommend doing the following in the order presented. Select the
Ubuntu Unity Plugin and then Unity MT Grab Handles all the way at the
bottom and and Regex Matching under Utility. When you select Unity, you
will be asked about Reveal Mode which conflicts with Rotate Cube. Enable
Reveal Mode anyway. I was also asked about the key to put
keyboard-focus on launcher. Again I chose to set it anyway. Same for
setting the key to execute a command.
Also select JPEG, Png, and Svg under Image Loading, Compiz Library
Toolbox, Bailer, and Workarounds under Utility. Select Move Window,
Resize Window, and Static Application Switcher as a minimum under Window
Management. Here are all the screens showing the settings that I use,
starting at the top of ccsm:
Now logout and log back in – and you’ll do so repeatedly if you want
to customize Compiz and the cube from here. Lots of Compiz changes cause
Unity to crash, losing the top panel and leaving screen relics behind.
This should work for you without any problems other than what I
listed. However, if you get total garbage on the screen and can’t find
your way back, open a terminal window from the main menu applet on your
safety dock. Type the following line:
unity –replace
That will restart Unity. You won’t have a clean screen, but you
should get the core functions back, including the top panel and most of
the launcher. Technically you can also reload Unity the same way using
Alt-F2, but when Unity crashes it takes that function with it. If that
fails, simply log out and log back in.
When you’re all done, you can uninstall the “safety” dock if you so desire.
I tried this process on my test system and it worked exactly as I
just described it. I now have perfectly working Desktop Cubes on both
Ubuntu 11.04 Natty systems with Unity. Cool (AWN is hiding):
If anyone knows how to get a decent screenshot of a cube in Natty,
let me know.
Good Luck guys...
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