Making Ubuntu Look Better On The Samsung NC10

The Samsung NC10 may only be a netbook, but that’s no reason why you can’t improve how your Ubuntu desktop looks. To do so, we need to get compiz enabled.

Even if you think eye candy isn’t for you, it’s still worth switching to compiz. In the next few articles, we’ll be looking at how to take advantage of compiz to make the most of your netbook’s tiny screen.

Just be aware that compiz doesn’t work with the Ubuntu Netbook Remix desktop. If you’ve installed UNR, you’ll need to switch to the Classic Desktop first.

Enabling Compiz

By default, Ubuntu 9.04 (known as the Jaunty Jackalope release) comes with compiz pre-installed, but switched off. To switch it on, follow these simple steps:

1. Install the Simple CompizConfig Settings Manager
2. Replace your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.
3. Log out, and then log back in.
4. Go to System -> Preferences -> Appearance, and then choose your preferred level of visual effects.

Installing simple-ccsm

The Simple CompizConfig Settings Manager (simple-ccsm) is a useful control panel for quickly picking and choosing which compiz visual effects you want to use.

To install it, open up a terminal and run the following command:

sudo apt-get install simple-ccsm

Replacing xorg.conf

/etc/X11/xorg.conf is the configuration file for your X Windows server. X Windows is the display technology that the Gnome Desktop is built on top of. X Windows is normally called X11 in articles and help pages.

In the past, this file had to be very prescriptive in telling X11 exactly how to work with your graphics card, monitor, keyboard and mouse, but thankfully things have gotten much easier in that department over the years. But we need to make some tweaks to tell X11 that your graphics card is capable of running compiz.

To do so, edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:

sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

… and then replace the contents with the following:

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# Note that some configuration settings that could be done previously
# in this file, now are automatically configured by the server and settings
# here are ignored.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
#   sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Module"
        Load "glx"
        Load "dri"
        Load "dbe"
        Load "extmod"
        Load "synaptics"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier      "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Default Screen"
        Monitor         "Configured Monitor"
        Device          "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Mode    0666
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
        Option          "Composite"     "Enable"
EndSection

Once you’ve saved your changes, log out of the desktop, and then log back in again.

Next, go to the Appearance Preferences (you’ll find it in your menu, under System -> Preferences). When it loads, you’ll see a choice of available themes:

Appearance Prefereces

Click the Visual Effects tab to bring up the visual effects settings:

Visual Effects Preferences

Here, you can choose how many effects you want enabled. Both the Normal and Extra settings appear to work just fine on the NC10.

Or (if you installed simple-ccsm as mentioned earlier) you can click on Custom and control which effects are enabled with more fine-grained precision.

Deeper Customisation With The Simple CompizConfig Settings Manager

The Simple CompizConfig Settings Manager (simple-ccsm for short) is a simple control panel where you can tailor the most popular visual effects. compiz can do a lot more than this, but you’ll need to use the full version of the CompizConfig Settings Manager (ccsm) to get at those.

Simple CompizConfig Settings Manager

Settings To Avoid

Finally, it’s worth mentioning here that some of the settings will cause your desktop to crash. We haven’t tried all of the settings yet, but as we find problems, we’ll update this list.

Settings to avoid are:

• Blur windows

As well as providing eye-pleasing visual effects which can make your Ubuntu desktop look better, compiz also has some useful features which allow us to make the most of the netbook’s tiny screen size. We’ll look at some of those features in future articles.

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~ by Stuart on June 26, 2009.