Some Fedora 14 nitpicks
Marko Vojinovic
vvmarko at gmail.com
Fri Jan 14 15:57:45 UTC 2011
On Wednesday 12 January 2011 18:13:58 William Case wrote:
> Compiz
> 1) make it one package
yum list compiz*
[snip]
Installed Packages
compiz.x86_64
compiz-fusion.x86_64
compiz-fusion-extras.x86_64
compiz-fusion-unsupported.x86_64
compiz-kde.x86_64
compiz-manager.noarch
compizconfig-backend-kconfig4.x86_64
compizconfig-python.x86_64
Available Packages
compiz-bcop.noarch
compiz-devel.x86_64
compiz-fusion-devel.x86_64
compiz-fusion-extras-devel.x86_64
compiz-fusion-extras-gnome.x86_64
compiz-fusion-gnome.x86_64
compiz-fusion-unsupported-devel.x86_64
compiz-fusion-unsupported-gnome.x86_64
compiz-gnome.x86_64
compizconfig-backend-gconf.x86_64
compizconfig-backend-kconfig.x86_64
What exactly do you propose to merge here?
> 2) fix compiz so that 'place' works with Firefox.
> 3) mesa-dri-drivers should be more explicit about what driver to use for
> what. I wasted over an hour before discovering I needed
> mesa-dri-drivers-experimental to run compiz.
yum list mesa-dri-*
[snip]
Installed Packages
mesa-dri-drivers.i686
mesa-dri-drivers.x86_64
Available Packages
mesa-dri-drivers-experimental.i686
mesa-dri-drivers-experimental.x86_64
So I run compiz without the experimental drivers, and it works. So in general
I'd say you *do not* need them. But I guess that depends on the graphics card
you are using, and open/closed source driver for it. I use intel over here,
and don't need experimental drivers.
> Emerald
> 1) give me a menu dialogue so with one check mark I can install 'emerald
> --replace' wherever it is needed - like the 'Desktop Effects' menu icon
> in Preferences.
Not sure exactly what you mean since I don't use Gnome, but AFAIK the best way
to start both compiz and emerald is to start fusion-icon. There you have a
simple option in the menu to use emerald or some other decorator. That is the
only place I click, and emerald starts automatically. Is that what you want?
N.B. Starting compiz with fusion-icon is (afaik) *different* than starting it
via "desktop effects" button or whatever is meant by gnome-compiz
"integration". You are not required to use that integrated environment, you
can just run compiz natively.
I don't know what are all the differences in the two approaches. But for
example, IIRC, configuring compiz is done from the gnome preferences when
compiz iz run integrated, while it is done from ccsm when not integrated. And
such differences. The best way to try it out and see what is actually different.
Create a new user with default gnome system, no desktop effects or anything.
Then yum install fusion-icon and start it from the menu. Compiz will
automatically get loaded, and you'll get the fusion-icon in the system tray,
from where you can access ccsm, set up emerald or some other decorator, tweak
some options, and so on. Then compare and contrast that environment to the
usual one where you start compiz from the Gnome "desktop effects" button (or
whatever it is in the preferences).
With the caveat that I use KDE and not Gnome, I found the fusion-icon method
to be the most convenient way of setting up and running compiz and emerald,
with minimum hassle. Everything Just Works (tm) as I expect it to. I set up
the fusion-icon to load at startup when I create the user, and forget about it
until I reinstall Fedora in one year. It really cannot get any simpler, IMHO.
:-)
> Sessions manager.
> 1) It has taken me well over an hour to chase down what some of the more
> obscure programs and names are starting.
> 2) I found a site that gave me a description and suggestions of which
> services I should automatically start on boot or login. Everybody's
> need is different, but release notes or some Fedora Documentation should
> outline the use of session manager and services.
As far as boot services go, you can use system-config-services. It has a
reasonable GUI, where you can click on every service and read its description
and purpose in the appropriate part of the window. Then decide whether you
need it or not, and start/stop/enable/disable.
As for the session services that start after you login into Gnome, that's a
completely different question. :-)
HTH, :-)
Marko
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