How do I disable compiz and enable metacity with the command-line?

Solution 1:

Running metacity --replace from a virtual console doesn't work because it doesn't know which X11 display to attach to. The default behavior is to attach to the display it runs in...and a shell running in a virtual console isn't on any X11 display.

Instead, you must manually specify the display. It will be :0 unless you've configured your X11 display differently. (Even if you have multiple monitors, it will still be :0 unless you've changed your X11 configuration.)

To do that, use this command:

metacity --display=:0 --replace

If that does't work, then try manually killing the compiz process first. To do that:

1. Run killall compiz. Wait a few seconds. Perhaps compiz will respond to this signal and terminate.

2. Run killall -KILL compiz. This almost always ensures that compiz will be immediately terminated.

Step 1 is optional, but can help processes free some resources and finish up some kinds of important actions (like writing buffered data to files).