Compiz under Ubuntu

BobDaMenkey

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2005
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I've followed a couple guides to try and install Compiz on one of my systems, and everything seems to have gone swimmingly. I've got the nVidia drivers installed properly, because I get the splash screen if I restart X. I added packages and pre-configured the different files that the guides told me to.

But I always get a messaged that Compiz is like unavailable for install right now. A broken package or something like that. It's been this way for a couple weeks now, and it makes me very sad. Part of the reason I started to undertake my switch to Linux was to be able to play around with Compiz and enjoy the eye candy.

When I try the command 'thefuture' in the terminal I lose the bars on the tops of windows, so I can't move or close them anymore, and I have to restart X.

Is there any way to install Compiz outside of doing the apt-get? Did I not set up a package right? Is Compiz gone for good?
 

Nothinman

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Sep 14, 2001
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What release of Ubuntu and what is the exact output of 'apt-get install compiz'?
 

DaiShan

Diamond Member
Jul 5, 2001
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Are you on dapper or edgy? IIRC compiz won't install under Breezy. If you are running Breezy, the upgrade to Dapper is fairly straight-forward.

1) Edit /etc/apt/sources.list so that wherever Breezy currently appears, you should replace with Dapper
2) Apt-get update
3) Apt-get dist-upgrade

Then try again.
 

BobDaMenkey

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2005
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I'd been trying it under Dapper 6.06.1, 32bit, running on a Shuttle XPC with a 3400+ A64 and a 6200.

I'll post the exact output tonight, I'm at school right now and can't remember exactly what the output was.
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
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And DaiShan reminded me, make sure you do an 'apt-get update' before you try the install, you might have an outdated package list on your machine.
 

SleepWalkerX

Platinum Member
Jun 29, 2004
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Have you checked out Sabayon Linux? It sports aiglx with compiz off the livecd and is based off Gentoo so there are a ton of packages available, just like Ubuntu.

I need to personally check it out myself.
 

Nothinman

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Sep 14, 2001
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It sports aiglx with compiz off the livecd and is based off Gentoo so there are a ton of packages available, just like Ubuntu.

According to packages.gentoo.org it has about half as many as area available in Ubuntu+universe+multiverse. And since it's Gentoo you have to put up with portage and lack of QA, no thanks.
 

SleepWalkerX

Platinum Member
Jun 29, 2004
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Originally posted by: Nothinman
It sports aiglx with compiz off the livecd and is based off Gentoo so there are a ton of packages available, just like Ubuntu.

According to packages.gentoo.org it has about half as many as area available in Ubuntu+universe+multiverse.

I haven't experienced one package that I've run on Ubuntu that wasn't also available for Gentoo. I'm not saying you're wrong, but the chances of a package the OP wants on Gentoo not being there is slim. Every package I've had on Ubuntu, I've had for Gentoo.

Originally posted by: Nothinman
And since it's Gentoo you have to put up with portage and lack of QA, no thanks.

Quit ragging on portage. Portage is almost exactly the same thing as apt, but compiles from source (even though they've recently started adding binary packages like OpenOffice and Firefox). There is nothing wrong with Portage. It just takes a little longer.

And let's talk about quality assurance. I could say shipping binaries encourages sloppy coding. When someone installs a binary they won't really care if a few mistakes are included as long as their package runs. But a gentoo user is dependent on the source for their install so any small error could conflict with the compile process so higher standards are needed.

Why do you hate gentoo so much?

Anyway, I encourage the OP to just try out Sabayon Linux. I'm not sure what your experience level is with linux, but you can experience the environment at least while running off a livecd (or even install) and get a better understanding while running it. Ubuntu's good too, but you seem to be running into some issues and if all you want is to experience linux and run the 3d desktop then why not start with a livecd that can do both? I've heard great reviews and need to try it out myself.
 

BobDaMenkey

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2005
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Get the same thing before and after doing sudo apt-get update, everything was already current.
sudo apt-get install compiz
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.

Since you only requested a single operation it is extremely likely that
the package is simply not installable and a bug report against
that package should be filed.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
compiz: Depends: compiz-plugins (>= 0.2) but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages


sudo apt-get install compiz-plugins
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.

Since you only requested a single operation it is extremely likely that
the package is simply not installable and a bug report against
that package should be filed.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
compiz-plugins: Depends: compiz-core (>= 0.0.13.54) but 0.0.13.38-0ubuntu3 is to be installed
Depends: csm (>= 0.5) but it is not installable
E: Broken packages

sudo apt-get install compiz-core
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
compiz-core is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 6 not upgraded.

sudo apt-get install csm
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Package csm is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source
E: Package csm has no installation candidate

And don't turn this into a distro fight. I appriciate the suggestion, and might give it a whirl, but I'd like to get this working on my Ubuntu box.
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
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There is nothing wrong with Portage. It just takes a little longer.

It takes a lot longer with no real gains and portage had some huge bugs last I checked, like not checking dependencies on package removal. Pardon me if I'd like my package manager to make some effort to keep my system in a consistent working state.

I could say shipping binaries encourages sloppy coding. When someone installs a binary they won't really care if a few mistakes are included as long as their package runs. But a gentoo user is dependent on the source for their install so any small error could conflict with the compile process so higher standards are needed.

You've drawn some really bad conclusions from those two sources. The source code in use is nearly exactly the same in both cases, the fact that one is compiled on the client while the other is compiled on a dedicated box means almost nothing. The only difference I can think of right now is that the one compiled on the dedicated box will have a better chance of succeeding and be easier to debug because the environment will be consistent.

And there's no such thing as "conflicting with the compile process" unless you mean having the wrong version of a build dependency installed and then that would be a bug in the package because it requested the wrong one be installed before the building of the current package.

Why do you hate gentoo so much?

Because it's a huge waste of time. I know it's not as bad now, but in the beginning it was the holy grail of the Linux ricers looking to get 'OMG optimized' packages on their machines built just for their machine so they would magically go faster than if they were built on my machine. Sadly http://funroll-loops.org/ appears to be down right now.

Get the same thing before and after doing sudo apt-get update, everything was already current.

According to packages.ubuntu.com compiz-core is only available in Edgy right now, how did you get that installed if you're running Dapper?
 

BobDaMenkey

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2005
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BobDaMenkey

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2005
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Compiz-gnome actually seems to be installed already, because trying to install it with apt-get says it's already at the newest version.
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
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When I add the repositories (which were already there from my previous attempts)

Then that's how you got compiz-core installed, why did you leave that part out?

and hit reload in the package manager, it fails to download the repository indexes from those two sites.

Don't know what to tell you, I downloaded the Packages.gz file by hand since I'm not running Ubuntu and I got a copy just fine. Sometimes I have to update once or twice if a file doesn't download properly, maybe just hit it a few more times.
 

Nothinman

Elite Member
Sep 14, 2001
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Nothing, I just manually downloaded it to see if the webserver was working and it did. You might be able to put it in /var/lib/apt/lists and if named right apt might find it, but I've never done it and I wouldn't get my hopes up.