A guide to installing XGL and Compiz on OpenSUSE or SUSE 10.
First off, this should not be attempted on production systems. XGL is experimental and far from stable. That said I had everything working first time without hassle. If you are not sure what XGL is have a look at these videos.
This guide assumes that you have some experience with the command line.
Alright with that out of the way lets get going. Lets install our dependencies first. Grab the rpms here and install them either with YAST or rpm itself.
libdrm-2.0-5.i586.rpm
libsvg-0.1.4-5.i586.rpm
libsvg-cairo-0.1.6-5.i586.rpm
Excelent, now you will need to install a compatibility rpm to get 3 shared libraries required by XGL
xgl-compat100-1-2.i586.rpm
Great, with that done its time to install XGL, grab the rpm and install
xgl-cvs_060214-2.i586.rpm
Once this is all done its time to make a config change, fire up your favorite editor and open this file “/etc/sysconfig/displaymanager” Look for
this line “DISPLAYMANAGER_XSERVER” and change the value to “Xgl”
The above-mentioned section for setting Xgl as your main Xserver does not work when using kdm/KDE. Instead, you will need to edit the configuration file for kdm to make it start Xgl instead of X. You need to edit /etc/opt/kde3/share/config/kdm/kdmrc and change ServerCmd=/usr/X11R6/bin/X -br to ServerCmd=/usr/X11R6/bin/Xgl -br
To get SUSE in the picture run this “SuSEconfig –module xdm”
Great, lets restart your X session (restart your box if you are unsure)
Okay, so you are up and running again (now with XGL), dissapointed? Well you need a composite window manager to see any benifit, time to install
Compiz
compiz-0.0.3-2.i586.rpm
Right, time to test things and see if your hard work has paid off. Run this command.
“compiz –replace gconf decoration wobbly fade minimize cube rotate zoom scale move resize place switcher”
No Errors? (lucky you). The only thing left to do is get some window decorations, unfortunately the KDE decorator does not compile cleaning at this
poing so you will need to use the gnome decorator, run this command
“gnome-window-decorator”
Here are some commands for you to play with once you have everything running.
CTRL + ALT + Left/right arrow key. Switches to the new side of the cube for me.
CTRL + ALT + SHIFT + Left/Right arrow key- Takes the in focused app around cube.
CTRL + ALT + Left Click on Desktop – allows you to use the mouse to rotate cube.
F12 – uses the Expose like trick
Alt- Tab – switcher Vista-style
Great, with a bit of luck you will be staring at your new found love for Linux, ofcourse things might not go as smoothly for you, try these links;