Useful Compiz Fusion setup and shortcuts

Default Compiz Fusion setup is pretty bare, compared to what we might seen on those YouTube videos or got used to using Compiz QuinnStorm. Let me share the setup I got used to, and find extremely useful and productive. On the other hand, if you’re looking for a way to put your eye-candy to the limit, you will not find it here.

NOTE: This guide is for compiz 0.7.2. If you have other version YMMV.

First, you need CompizConfig Settings Manager and more plugins:

ubuntu# apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager compiz-fusion-plugins-main compiz-fusion-plugins-extra
fedora# yum install ccsm compiz-fusion-gnome compiz-fusion-extras-gnome

Then, you need to enable plugins and set the options. Launch System -> Preferences -> Advanced Desktop Effects Settings

Desktop Cube

To enable mapping of virtual desktops to virtual cube, you need to enable multiple desktops first. Open General Options and at the Desktop Size set your desired number at Horizontal Virtual Size (I usually use 3 to 5). Leave Number of Desktops at 1. Go Back to the main screen.

Then you actually need to mapvirtual desktops to cube. Enable Desktop Cube plugin by checking a mark by it. You do not need to setup it. Default settings are good.

But the mapping is not enough. You would like to be able to switch virtual desktops by rotating the cube. To do it enable the Rotate Cube plugin. That would be all if you’re cool with rotating using keayboard. Holding Ctrl+Alt and pressing left/right cursor arrows rotates the cube. If you aditionally hold Shift with Ctrl+Alt, you will take the current window to another desktop during rotation. To have similiar ability without taking the hand of the mouse, it’s very useful to map rotation shortcuts to the mouse. In the Rotate Cube options go to the Bindings tab, unfold Rotate cube section, find Rotate Left mouse shortcut (the one with the mouse icon on the left) and press the “Disabled” button on the right. The popup window to edit the shortcut will pop-up. Check the Enabled box. Mouse shortcuts configurator appears. Let me explain how it works - you will use it several times yet. The red items at the screen corners are corner activators. You activate them by hitting a corner wit a mouse cursor. The red bars at the screen picture borders, are… border activators. You activate them by touching a border with a mouse cursor. So, let’s map cube rotation to screen borders and mouse wheel. Mouse wheel rotation is mapped to 4th and 5th mouse button. So, hilight green all screen edges by clicking them, do not hilight any modifier key and select Button4 at the dropdown. Press OK.

Repeat this procedure for Rotate Right mouse shortcut, selecting Button5 this time. You may test the shortcuts immediately - touch any screen border with a mouse and rotate the mouse wheel. If you want to take a window to the other desktop… just grab it by the window bar and drag it to the other desktop.

Window Selection and Management

Once you get used to many virtual desktops, you will notice that you open so many windows, that it gets difficult to quickly switch to the desired one. The Scale plugin is the solution. It should be anebled. If not enable it. Go to the Scale plugin settings and then to Bindings tab. The default shortcut is Shift+Alt+Up cursor key to initiate window picker for current desktop. You want to bind Initiate Window Picker For All Windows (with the keyboard icon on the left). I like to map it to Ctrl+Alt+Up. But here agai, the mouse is your friend. Most of the time you pick up the windows by mouse clicking on it. So lets bind the Initiate action to the mouse action. This time we bind the screen border activator, not the shortcut. You don’t need to press anything to activate the activator - just hit the screen corner or border. Press the None button on the right of the Initiate Window Picker For All Windows with the little screen icon on the left. On the pop-up window hilight the top-right corner.

You may try it after pressing OK. Hit the top-right corner with the mouse. Then select the window by clicking the miniature or deactivate picker by hitting the corner again.

Another usefull way of managing the windows is to use the Expo plugin. It shows all desktop at once and enables you to drag windows between them. Enable Expo plugin and at Bindings pane, bind Expo activation to bottom-left corner activator.

Show the Desktop

Every now and then, you want to access the desktop. I have enabled desktop_is_home_dir Nautilus setting, so need a quick desktop access even more. To get visual feedback enable the Show Desktop plugin. You may test it immediately by pressing Ctrl+Alt+D. But to make it realy useful, I bind it to a bottom-right screen corner activator, so I can hit a corner with a mouse cursor and directly manipulate desktop icons, and bring back the windows by hitting the bottom-right corner again. It’s not obvious where to enable the activator though. Go to… System -> Preferences -> Advanced Desktop Effects -> General options. There you will find Show Desktop activator configuration. Select BottomRight corner and try it.

There is one more tweak to window management worth making too. Enter Application Switcher settings (the plugin should be enabled) and check Minimized to have minimized windows under Alt-Tab and check Auto Rotate to rotate the cube to the window the desktop is on while Ctrl-Alt-Tab all window switching.

Window Transparency Blur

If you use transparent or semi-transparent windows, it’s a good idea to enable Blur plugin to make the transparency blurry. It makes the window content more readable. Once you enable it, enter Blur plugin settings and change Blur Filter to Mipmap. You will hardly notice a difference to Bilinear, but it’s much easier to the GPU, thus making windows feel more responsive.

But you will not notice the blur in the transparent gnome-terminal yet. At the Blur plugin setting copy the “toolbar | menu | utility | normal | dialog | modaldialog” entry from Focus blur windows entry to Alpha blur windows. This will make the transparent windows blury.

If you use Emerald window decorator, you will not see any blurs on the window decoration yet too. You need to configure the Emerald. Launch System -> Preferences -> Emerald Theme Manager. At the Emerald Settings pane set Decoration blur type to All decorations.

Snapping Wobbly Windows

Windows snapping to each other and screen borders, makes arranging windows easier. There are two ways to achieve it. Enable Snapping Windows plugin or the Wobbly Windows plugins. I prefer Wobbly Windows for two reasons: I actually like the wobbly windows and it has very nice visual beep feature. Enable the Wobbly Windows plugin and at its settings make sure the Snap Inverted setting is checked on and Shiver option is checked too. Test the snapping by dragging any window near screen edges. Test visual bell by pressing Tab twice in any terminal window and watch the niftywindow shiver.

P.S.

I hope these hints will make your Compiz desktop more pleasureful and productive.

If you have own hints you want to share, please use comments.