How do I enable desktop visual effects?

I have lenovo g460 with VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GT218 [GeForce 310M] (rev a2) grapics card

I have install the driver using gksudo jockey-gtk command, but when I change the visual effects to extra its give me 'Desktop effects could not be enabled'. I am new to Ubuntu.

Solution 1:

First go to console (ALT+F2 then type gnome-terminal). Inside the console type nvidia and press the TAB button. If you have the nvidia drivers correctly install there should appear several nvidia files (Like nvidia-settings, nvidia-xconfig, etc..)

Type nvidia-xconfig so it edits the xorg.conf file with the nvidia configs. Reboot the PC.

If you can not still have special effects then do the following: nvidia-current

1. Install mesa-utils (sudo aptitude install mesa-utils or sudo apt-get install mesa-utils)

2. Type glxinfo | grep "direct rendering". If a NO appears then there is some problem with your nvidia installs. If a YES appears then typing compiz --replace after pressing ALT+F2 should give you the 3D effects.

3. If the NO appeared just try to reinstall the drivers with sudo aptitude reinstall nvidia-current

4. Lastly type dmesg | grep "nvidia" in console to see if there is an output regarding nvidia. Normally the output will say how to fix it.