HOW TO: Get Freewins working on Gutsy's default compiz

[scottDkoDer]

Well, finally, for those that are using Gutsy and would like to have the additional eyecandy plug-in 'Freewins' working with Gutsy's default compiz-fusion, I'm presenting this guide. This tutorial assumes that:

1) You have a fresh install of Gutsy.
2) You already have Gutsy's default compiz working.
3) You are running as user and not root.

NOTE: compiz-fusion is installed by default in Ubuntu Gutsy and will work as long as you have a video card with appropriate drivers and proper configuration. This is beyond the scope of this tutorial, but there are a plethora of guides to configure your graphics card on Gutsy. Also, many thanks to SmSpillaz of forum.opencompositing.org for patching this plug-in.

sudo apt-get install compiz-bcop compiz-dev build-essential libxcomposite-dev libpng12-dev libsm-dev libxrandr-dev libxdamage-dev libxinerama-dev libstartup-notification0-dev libgconf2-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa-dev libmetacity-dev librsvg2-dev libdbus-1-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libgnome-desktop-dev libgnome-window-settings-dev gitweb curl autoconf automake automake1.9 libtool intltool libxslt1-dev xsltproc
wget -O /tmp/freewins.zip http://smspillaz.googlepages.com/freewins-0.3-0.6.zip
mkdir -p  ~/compiz/ && cd ~/compiz
unzip /tmp/freewins.zip
cd ~/compiz/freewins-0.3-0.6
make clean
make
make install

Then restart ccsm and compiz.

If there are any problems, please check the prerequisites first, then ensure you have followed all instructions and typed all commands correctly. Each should return without errors. If all is in order and there are still issues, then post any problems or suggested changes here.

Enjoy,

Scott

[gafner]

for a clean install you could create a deb packet and install it like this:

dh_make -c gpl -e your@mail.address -m --createorig sudo dpkg-buildpackage cd .. sudo dpkg -i freewins-0.3_0.6-1_amd64.deb

[giri1985]

There were no porblems with installation. But there are no buttons assigned for freewins in ccsm and it is not accepting any new values. So i am not able use the plugin. Please help.

[lnogueir]

Originally Posted by giri1985 There were no porblems with installation. But there are no buttons assigned for freewins in ccsm and it is not accepting any new values. So i am not able use the plugin. Please help.

+1

[jimerickso]

Originally Posted by lnogueir +1

with all due rspect what exactly do you mean?

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

Be nice to know what freewins is and what effects it provides e.g. screenshot

[SomeGuyDude]

Originally Posted by Jose Catre-Vandis Be nice to know what freewins is and what effects it provides e.g. screenshot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16Qz_Ov3FuU

Very cool looking, but I'd imagine it has little practical use unless there's a quick shortcut to make it snap back to normal orientation. Otherwise I'd keep finding myself with windows at wonky angles and trying to "fix" them.

Plus I can't think of a reason I'd want to rotate a window sideways. Still, pretty darn neat.

[grnqrtr]

@giri1985 & lnogueir

Originally Posted by giri1985 View Post There were no porblems with installation. But there are no buttons assigned for freewins in ccsm and it is not accepting any new values. So i am not able use the plugin. Please help.

I think you guys probably had the same problem I had. I followed the instructions at the top but it would give me one error, something about not being able to copy the freewins.xml file over. So I created a folder called "metadata" in the ~/.compiz directory and then re-followed the instructions and it was able to copy the freewins.xml file into the new directory I created. Then I was able to set the controls for freewins in cssm. For some reason it didn't make the metadata folder itself and therefore wasn't able to copy a file into that directory that didn't exist.

Hopefully that will work for you too.

[lnogueir]

Originally Posted by grnqrtr @giri1985 & lnogueir I think you guys probably had the same problem I had. I followed the instructions at the top but it would give me one error, something about not being able to copy the freewins.xml file over. So I created a folder called "metadata" in the ~/.compiz directory and then re-followed the instructions and it was able to copy the freewins.xml file into the new directory I created. Then I was able to set the controls for freewins in cssm. For some reason it didn't make the metadata folder itself and therefore wasn't able to copy a file into that directory that didn't exist. Hopefully that will work for you too.

I have the metadata folder. I re-followed the instructions again and didn't work! I will keep looking for a solution!

Thanks for the help!

[Jose Catre-Vandis]

Originally Posted by SomeGuyDude http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16Qz_Ov3FuU Very cool looking, but I'd imagine it has little practical use unless there's a quick shortcut to make it snap back to normal orientation. Otherwise I'd keep finding myself with windows at wonky angles and trying to "fix" them. Plus I can't think of a reason I'd want to rotate a window sideways. Still, pretty darn neat.

Thanks, agreed cool looking with little practical use. Best part on Youtube was the guy in the comments section asking if it was for XP or Vista

Can get windows to spin round but have not option to rotate them in and out of the screen at an angle. what do i need to do this (as in the youtube video)?

[EDIT] Don't worry, it started working after reboot