Words by Eric Mesa [Thu, Apr 03, 2008 at 11:17:09PM -0400]:
I'm going nuts trying to keep compiz from running every time I launch Gnome, KDE or XFCE. In Gnome, enable desktop effects is NOT set as enabled. However in Gnome Compiz Preferences "Enable GL Desktop" is checked. If I uncheck it, compiz is turned off for this session. If I log out and log back in, it's checked again! I tried uninstalling all of the compiz-related RPMs and then Gnome refused to go back to using Metacity. I don't want it coming on all the time. I don't want it coming on automatically in KDE and I ESPECIALLY don't want it coming on in XFCE. If I'm using XFCE it means I want a low impact desktop.
Yet not matter what I do, I'm not the master of my desktop. This is annoying the heck out of me. And when I go into gconf-editor and go to apps->gnome-session-rh for window_manager it says metacity, not compiz!
On gconf-editor disable
apps->metacity->general->compositing_manager