Just been playing around with"xcompmgr" in antiX, and it works REALLY well, so i thought i'd put a small"HowTo" here in case anyone else wants to try it out. Remember though, your mileage may vary! __{{emoticon}}__

Before i start, here's a screenshot of my system with xcompmgr running, so that you can get an idea of what it'll do, so you can better decide if it's worth it or not for you.




Step One

First, you need to add the debian experimental repos to your /etc/apt/sources.list and the best way to do that, is to go
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://packages.debian.org/experimental/i386/xcompmgr/download"
linktext was:"here"
====================================
and copy & paste the relevant line into your list. (I have also included it below for those that are foolhardy and dare to experiment blindly!)

You can also read a little more about xcompmgr and decide while you're doing so, whether you really want to"Dig in this Deep" or not!! __{{emoticon}}__

In a terminal, become root (su then your root password) then type (or copy & paste) the following:
Once you have the apt sources list up, add the following then save the file & exit:
You can leave this line"as is" or replace the de. for a server that's nearer to your physical location. Works fine for me just as it is.


Step Two
Once that's done, do the following:
followed by an Apt will throw up a few warnings asking you if you're"Of sound mind & Body" and if you really want to be doing this.... (You do though - don't you?) __{{emoticon}}__

Step Three

Once the above is completed, and xcompmgr is installed, su to root and do the following:
That will bring up your xorg.conf file, where you can scroll down to the bottom and you should find this:
Underneath the Option"Composite""Enable" (on a new line) add the following:
So that it ends up being like this......
Then SAVE the file & exit.

Step Four (We're almost there..... promise)

Then (as a normal user, not root) it's to the fluxbox startup file, so in a terminal window type the following:
and then this
Halfway (ish) down, where it has the lines about ivman, idesk, conky etc, add the following underneath the last of those entries but BEFORE the part where it says "And last but not least we start fluxbox."

THAT's IT!! Now all you need to do is logout (CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE) and then log back in again, and you should have some funky shadows and"Compiz-Like" eye-candy!! __{{emoticon}}__

IMPORTANT!! Once you have this working it's probably a good idea to DISABLE the debian experimental repos that you have just added, so that there's no confusion next time you run an update through either apt-get or synaptic. The easiest way to do this, is to just do the following......

In a termminal, type the following (as root) This will bring up the apt sources.list that you first added the extra repo line to. Either remove the line completely then"Save & Exit" or just place a hash symbol"#" in front of the line. That will disable it.

I've tried it on 2 (very different) machines here, both on antiX of course, and it works fine. If you want to take this further and get some transparency going on as well, then have a look
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://fluxbox-wiki.org/index.php/Transparency"
linktext was:"here"
====================================
. Basically you'll have to get another file (transset) which you'll then compile, install, and play about with etc. There are also quite a few dependencies that will need installing if you decide to go along this path (xrender,xfixes etc) so it's not going to be for everyone.

The reason i didn't include it in this little"HowTo" was mainly because i assumed that (like me) many people running antiX will be doing so on older hardware, and although xcompmgr works well enough and isn't"too" heavy, the same cannot be said about transset, which really eats yer cycles.

Anyway, hope this has been helpful, have fun, and please let me know if you have any problems and i'll most certainly do my best to help. __{{emoticon}}__

DJiNN

Please post a screen shot.

eriefisher

eriefisher wrote:Please post a screen shot.

eriefisher

Your wish is my command. __{{emoticon}}__

Real nice!!!

I love the look with conky.

eriefisher

Thanks eeriefisher.

Yeah, it really makes conky standout..... It's very quick to get working, and as long as your hardware can cope, you should get the same or similar results.

I've got it running on 3 machines here, all with excellent results, even on this old PIII with built in graphics (16mb sis chip) and it's great.

I might try it on my celeron 466 that I have been playing with. Don't know if it will handle it though.

eriefisher

eriefisher wrote:I might try it on my celeron 466 that I have been playing with. Don't know if it will handle it though.

eriefisher

It all depends on the Graphics card i guess. If you do try, post a screenie if you can because i'd love to see it. __{{emoticon}}__

I will get back to you.

eriefisher

Well it's working on this old Celeron 466 with an i810 video chip. But, I think it's messing up idesk. I will try and play some more.



eriefisher

Nice!

You know, what I really like seeing from posted desktops, is the low level of RAM that is used when using antiX.
antiX, as an up-to-date distro has a very low RAM eating rate comparable and even better than other low end distros such as Puppy, fluxbuntu, Tinyme, DSL.

That looks really good. Is everything moving fairly smoothly?

Strange that you should mention idesk, because after you sent me the files (idesk & pypanel) i put them away in a folder and i've only just got around to having a play. Pypanel seems to work OK but i can't get idesk to do much at all, and it could well be xcompmgr that's causing that..... i'll have to investigate further i think. __{{emoticon}}__

If you come up with anything please let me know, and i'll do the same.

anticapitalista wrote:Nice!

You know, what I really like seeing from posted desktops, is the low level of RAM that is used when using antiX.
antiX, as an up-to-date distro has a very low RAM eating rate comparable and even better than other low end distros such as Puppy, fluxbuntu, Tinyme, DSL.

What do you think is the main reason for this? (I know there are probably lots of variables involved)

Just looking at the ram on this machine (has 2gb available) and i'm using about 240mb, BUT.... i do have IceWeasel running with about 27 tabs! LOL!!

On a related note, i tried about 7 distros this weekend (Installed & tried them all) mainly to try and get just ONE of them to compare with antiX, and i just couldn't. NONE of them were as fast or came even close. I wont bore you with the details, but they ranged from small distros (even a Ubuntu server install) all the way up to Linux Mint (Which i have found to be a really slick distro and quite snappy) ....... and NONE of them measure up to what antiX can do.

It feels good to be using"arguably" the best distro out there...! ;D

DJiNN wrote:That looks really good. Is everything moving fairly smoothly?

Strange that you should mention idesk, because after you sent me the files (idesk & pypanel) i put them away in a folder and i've only just got around to having a play. Pypanel seems to work OK but i can't get idesk to do much at all, and it could well be xcompmgr that's causing that..... i'll have to investigate further i think. __{{emoticon}}__

If you come up with anything please let me know, and i'll do the same.

It works good now. I went into ideskrc and changes Shadow: true to false. I think this was the conflict.

What issue are you having?

eriefisher

eriefisher wrote: It works good now. I went into ideskrc and changes Shadow: true to false. I think this was the conflict.

What issue are you having?

eriefisher

Now that you have supplied the answer, i don't have any more problems. __{{emoticon}}__ Apart from the fact that i'm still new to idesk & haven't really got to grips with how it all works yet! But i'll get there. I really like the look of idesk though and what you've done with your desktop (in your screenshot) looks great.

I'm slowly going through the stuff that you sent me to get a better idea of how it all ties together. I'm getting there.... slowly! LOL!

EDIT: Hmmm, pypanel seems to be acting strangely and whenever i run it from the flux startup file, it flashes away continuously. I'm using fbpanel at the moment which seems to be working fine.

Thanks Djinn for the info. Gave it a try but something messed with fluxbox. menu's only partially visible. Probably just not quite enough"poop" in this old box.