Desktop Cube

[JacobRogers]

I can't figure out how to use the Desktop Cube, or at least I don't think it's being used right.

When I press ctrl + alt + left or right it will "flip" over to the left or right. But I can't see a "cube" like the name implies. This feature is really confusing me.

[NikoC]

And if you press ctrl + alt and hold the left mouse button thereby moving your mouse?

[useResa]

You can see the "cube" if you keep <ctrl> and <alt> pressed and move your mouse (forward to zoom out, backward to zoom in, left and right to rotate).

Success and enjoy

[JacobRogers]

Is the fact that I'm using a laptop somehow stopping me from doing this? Because I'm using a laptop.

[eentonig]

No, I have it running with a laptop.

As said. Normally <ctrl>+<Alt>+ <Left mousebutton> should show you the cube. Does that doesn't work for you?

If that doesn't work, are the other beryl effects working? Did you verify if the keyboard shortcuts in beryl-manager are still assigned to this effect?

[JacobRogers]

I tried pluggin in a real mouse and trying the ctrl alt thing, that didn't work either. darn. Any help guys?

[useResa]

Originally Posted by JacobRogers I tried pluggin in a real mouse and trying the ctrl alt thing, that didn't work either. darn. Any help guys?

Oops, sorry
I indeed forgot to indicate that you have to also keep your left mouse button pressed in order for the cube to appear.

Whether or not you are using a laptop should not make a difference, I also use a laptop (Dell Latitude D620) and it works fine.
Where have you indicated that you would like to have the cube?
In System --> Preferences --> Desktop Effects?

[JacobRogers]

Originally Posted by useResa Oops, sorry I indeed forgot to indicate that you have to also keep your left mouse button pressed in order for the cube to appear. Whether or not you are using a laptop should not make a difference, I also use a laptop (Dell Latitude D620) and it works fine. Where have you indicated that you would like to have the cube? In System --> Preferences --> Desktop Effects?

Yes. At first I could get it to "flip" in a kind of 2d way, but now it won't even do that. Lol computers.
I'm gonna keep playing with it.


Does the thing in the panel that says how many desktops you have, have anything to do with this? Should I set it to a certain number or delete it or something?

The wobbly windows will work for me, but I think they're stupid.

[useResa]

Originally Posted by JacobRogers Yes. At first I could get it to "flip" in a kind of 2d way, but now it won't even do that. Lol computers. I'm gonna keep playing with it. Does the thing in the panel that says how many desktops you have, have anything to do with this? Should I set it to a certain number or delete it or something? The wobbly windows will work for me, but I think they're stupid.

I have to confirm that it now also stopped working for me.
It seems indeed that when I enable "Workspaces on a cube" I also have only one workspace left (can be seen in bottom right corner).

Searching the "net" I came across this post (in Dutch) on the Dutch UF which pointed me towards this link

Compiz It should be noted up front before I get started that Compiz stability issues are known to be a problem even by Mark Shuttleworth. But I still like to tinker with it anyway, if for no other reason that it works well under Suse. In any event I found a work-around for getting the cube effect to work again, and it involves these steps: Bring up Desktop Effects and enable it if it isn't enabled already. Disable the 'Workspaces on a Cube' check box. The workspace switcher has shrunken down to one desktop. Right-click on it and configure it to have four workspaces again. Re-enable the 'Workspaces on a Cube' check box. Enjoy the cube effect. I tried this on both my regular login and with a test login that I created fresh for just this purpose.

However, for me it does not do the trick (yet). Guess something has changed.

EDIT:
Have been searching the bugs and it has been reported. The workaround that got it working for me again is to issue the following commands (one at a time) in the terminal

gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/compiz/general/screen0/options/hsize 4

 gconftool-2 --type int --set /apps/compiz/general/screen0/options/number_of_desktops 1

The reported related bugs I found were #82957 and #89786

I hope the workaround will also work for you

[JacobRogers]

That got it working for me too.

I'll play with this for a while, but I think I'm going to wind up turning it off, it's kind of hooky and doesn't seem to serve any real practical purpose. I'm used to have having two desktops and clicking on them to switch back and forth, This new things involves all this finger acrobatics!