Installing Compiz On The Unity Desktop On Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin)

Compiz is a tool to create various Desktop effects in various Linux distros. Desktop cube, Water effect, Wobbly windows are some of the effects. It uses OpenGl library as an interface to the graphics hardware.

Installing compiz

   Open your terminal(ctrl+alt+t in Ubuntu) and type in the following command - 

sudo apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-fusion-plugins-extra compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-plugins

Configuring CompizConfig settings manager

   Open CompizConfig settings manager by searching for ccsm on Dash.

Scroll down to Desktop section. Click on Ubuntu Unity Plugin.

Note : If you are not able to launch ConpizConfig Settings Manager from Dash you can simply type ccsm in terminal to open it.

Next click on the Ubuntu Unity Plugin. Inside it make sure Enable Ubuntu Unity Plugin check-box is ticked.

Click Back to go to the main menu. Now you can choose which ever effects and plugins you wish to enable/Disable.

Enabling Desktop Cube

   By default you will have Desktop Wall enabled. In your CompizConfig Settings manager tick the Desktop Cube and Rotate Cube options under Desktop section.

Now go to General section and click General Options.

In it go to Desktop Size Tab and select what sizes you prefer. By default a cube will have 4 vertical side, you can change it to the value you want.

Now go back to main menu by clicking Back button. You are now all set for Desktop Cube now. Check it's working by clicking combination ctrl+alt+left/right. You can also use ctrl+alt and rotate using mouse.

Following is a screen shot from my Ubuntu 12.04. 

Enabling Wobbly Windows Effect

    This is again very simple. In the main menu go to Effects section. Here tick the Wobbly Windows check box and you are all set. 

Drag some windows to see the effect. Following is again a screen shot of Wobbly Windows effect.

Note : You may get some notifications to disable some features while enabling some. As i mentioned previously for example you wish to enable Desktop Cube Compiz will ask you to Disable Desktop Wall first. So act accordingly.

How to disable Pidgin Notifications in Ubuntu?

After installing Pidgin most users complaint about the constant notification pop-ups. Yes they may become irritating at some point of time.There is an very easy way to disable these notifications.

To see how to install Pidgin refer the earlier post on How to Configure Pidgin on Ubuntu?

Notifications look something like below -

To remove these constant notification pop-ups do the following -
 In Pidgin go to Tools -> Plugin or just press crtl+u

 Plugins window must now open. Select the plug in shown in the following picture and select configure plugin

Now just Un-check the check box corresponding to Buddy signs on.
Picture for the same is as follows -

And you are Done :)

How to configure Pidgin for Google Talk in Ubuntu?

A lot of beginners face this problem. Specially people using GTalk on Windows find themselves with no chat client on Linux. Let me explain how to configure your Pidgin with Google account -

To install Pidgin open the terminal and type in the following Command -
sudo apt-get install pidgin

After you install it you can directly launch it from your Dash Home by searching for pidgin or just type the following command in the terminal -
pidgin &

Note :  & after the pidgin command is just to inform the terminal to run the process in background. This can be used for any process you wish to tun in the background.

Once you launch Pidgin go to
Accounts ->Manage Accounts -> Add

In Basic tab set the settings as shown in the following image -

 

Note :  If you are using Google's 2 Step Verification you need to generate password for this application. If you don't know about this or haven't set it up you can proceed.

Next in the Advanced tab set the fields as show in below image -

You can set proxy in the Proxy tab if you are using any proxy. Inside it you will have many options like manually setting your proxy or using Gnome Proxy or No proxy at all.

Just click on Add button and you are done.

Note : Above images are from modify account rather that Add new Account but the settings remain the same. Only difference being you will see a Add button instead of Save button at the bottom.

Note : Sometimes buddy list may not show up. This is a bug. Just Exit pidgin and restart again.
What i would recommend is do as follows -
Open the terminal and type
killall pidgin
and then start it again using -f flag
pidgin -f

How to check your Ubuntu and Unity version?

There are two ways to check your Ubuntu version -

1. Through System settings
2. Command Line(Terminal)

Using System settings

     You can check Ubuntu version by going to -

     System settings -> System ->Details

You can see below screen - 

From here you can change default applications, view removable media etc.

Using Command Line(Terminal)

  Just open your terminal and type in command -

  lsb_release -a

You can see output as follows

Checking Unity version

    Checking unity version is again fairly simple. Just open the terminal and type in the command  

unity --version . 

You will then see output as follows - 

What are the Meta, Super, and Hyper keys in Linux/Unix?

Meta, Super and Hyper keys are referenced most often in various Linux Distros but many users are unaware what these really are.So let me explain each -

•  Meta :
  The Meta key is not found on modern keyboard, it's use is sometimes emulated with AltGr (on some international layouts) or the right Alt key on the others. In addition:
  1. Sun keyboards have a meta key (◆) as well
  2. Emacs calls Esc the Meta key
•  Super :
  The Super key is equivalent to or the ⌘ (command) key. In Ubuntu, it's just another name for .
• Hyper :
  Hyper is the fourth (counting Ctrl) and last modifier on the Space cadet keyboard. In Ubuntu, its function is undefined (I think), but it can be mapped, as in the screen shot above, to , should it be needed

Though above are default setting you can change the mappings.
I am using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and in this we can change this mapping from

System Settings -> Keyboard Layout -> options -> Alt/Win key behavior.