Linux Desktop Hacks

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Chapter 4, Related to X

#33 Add Depth to Your Desktop

HACK

# cvs -d :pserver:[e-mail]:/cvs/xorg login

CVS password: (press Enter)

# cvs -d :pserver:[e-mail]:/cvs/xapps co xcompmgr

# cd xcompmgr

# sh autogen.sh

# ./configure

# make

# make install

Start Your Desktop or Window Manager

The xcompmgr program doesn’t play well with every desktop or window

manager. In my experience, it does not work well with Metacity, the default

window manager for GNOME. Metacity is supposed to have some of the

xcompmgr capabilities already built-in, but I have not been able to tap into

them. Regardless, you can’t invoke xcompmgr until you have started your

favorite desktop or window manager, so do that now.

The manpage for xcompmgr explains the various tricks you can do with the

program. However, the following combination of command-line switches

should please nearly everyone. Open an X terminal and type this command:

$ xcompmgr -cCfF -l 0 -t 0 -r 5 -o .6 &

If everything works the way it should, the screen should go mostly blank for

a moment, after which any open windows will reappear with drop shadows.

You should also notice that things such as menus have drop shadows and

fade in and out. See Figure 4-3 for an example of this effect.

Here’s what the command-line switches do. The

-l 0 and –t 0 switches tell

xcompmgr that 0 pixels (no shadow at all) should appear to the left of the

window ...