How do I enable compiz in Gnome Classic?

Solution 1:

To solve this problem edit this file:

sudo nano /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/gnome-classic.session

and replace this line:

RequiredProviders=windowmanager;notifications;

with this one:

RequiredProviders=windowmanager;

Then just logout and log back in and it should work fine. This solved the problem in my case.

EDIT 1:

1) to access the gnome panel menu now you need to use "windows key + alt + right click" on panels instead of "alt + right click"

2) another issue might be "alt + tab" but you just need to reassign it in Applications -> System Tools -> System Settings -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts

EDIT 2:

3) after system updates related to GTK or gnome you might need to reinstall any "custom" drivers for your graphics card, for e.g. NVIDIA linux driver

Solution 2:

Gnome Classic should run compiz if you have acceleration enabled (you can try to run /usr/lib/gnome-session/gnome-session-check-accelerated; echo $? and it should return 0), if it returns something else, it's probably that you don't have harware acceleration and so fallback to GNOME classic (No effects).

If no, is running /usr/bin/gnome-wm --replace replace your current environment with compiz ?

Solution 3:

Just for completeness,

another solution that works for me is to add "/usr/bin/compiz --replace" to the GNOME startup applications via:

gnome-session-properties

I lost the Alt-RightClick functionality too (Windows+Alt-Rightclick is necessary) but Alt+Tab is still working.

kind regards

Solution 4:

Compiz effects frequently fail to load at startup in Ubuntu 10.04. To enable Compiz, I have to logout then login again. This usually does the trick.