Make Compiz(Beryl) Work on Ubuntu on Inspiron 8200 with Nvidia GeForce2 GO Video Card

Submitted by kai on Sat, 2007-10-27 10:49. ::

My co-workers run Compiz(Beryl) on Ubuntu. I was so impressed by the visual desktop effect that I wanted to try it on my old Inspiron 8200 laptop. It turned out not to be a easy task.

Installation

I installed Xubuntu first because it's less resource demanding than Ubuntu. But it turned out that it's not straightforward to install Compiz on Xubuntu.

I had to install ubuntu-desktop to simplify the Compiz setup first.

Go to System => Preferences => Synaptic Package Manager, install "ubuntu-desktop", “xserver-xgl”, then reboot. on the login screen, click session, pick gnome as the window manager login

Go to System => Preferences => Synaptic Package Manager, search for NVIDIA, install nvidia-glx(this is the propritery driver provided by NVIDIA. note: driver nvidia-glx-legacy doesn't work with GeForce2 GO), remove xserver-xorg-video-nv(this is the open source NVIDIA driver which you don't need).

open a terminal window to create a new X windows configuration file:


sudo nvidia-xconfig

reboot

You should see NVIDIA logo splash screen during the laptop startup. If not, the wrong driver is in use. See next.

Go to System => Administration => Restricted Driver Manager, ensure that NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver is enabled and in use. If the driver is not in use, you get the wrong driver! You'd need to go to System => Administration => Screen and Graphics => Graphics Card, ensure that "nvidia" is selected as the driver( as opposed to "nv" in most of the case)

Go to System => Preferences => Synaptic Package Manager, search for compiz. Pick gnome-compiz-manager, compizconfig-setttings-manager, compiz-gnome for installation.

Reboot. Login. Go to System => Preferences => Appearance => Visual Effects. Select normal or extra setting. Close it. Open two windows. Hit the magic key combination Tab + Windows keys to bring up some nice effects. You can customize effects by selecting System => Preferences => Appearance => Visual Effects => Custom, then tweak your preferences.

Please read this nice blog on using keyboard shortcuts for different visual effects.

Troubleshoot

Wrong Driver


"aaaa@ubuntu:~$ glxinfo | grep rendering
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Error: couldn't find RGB GLX visual
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0".
Xlib: extension "GLX" missing on display ":0.0"."

This means you have the wrong driver.