Toggle Desktop Effects with Compiz-Switch
[update] You may also be interested in Fusion-icon, which is what I’ve been using lately.
Often you need to turn off Compiz desktop effects to play a game, run an
incompatible application, or even to watch video on some Intel chipsets.
Previously I used the
fusion-icon tray icon, which
was not updated for newer versions of Ubuntu and Compiz. Until today I used the
Visual Effects tab of the Appearance Preferences dialog in Ubuntu 7.10 to
start and stop Compiz. Now there’s a simpler solution.
Compiz-Switch does one of two things when it is run: When Compiz is running, it switches to Metacity (GNOME), Kwin (KDE), or Xfwm (Xfce). When Compiz is not running, it turns it on.
Update: packages for Ubuntu are now available for download. There’s no need to compile it yourself anymore.
There is no package available for Compiz-Switch currently, but it’s easy
to create your own using checkinstall. (Packages created with checkinstall
should not be distributed.) Open a terminal and run these commands:
Download the source and decompress it:
wget http://blogage.de/files/1382/download?compiz-switch-0.2.0~source.tar.gz -O- | tar -xzf -Change to the new folder:
cd compiz-switch-0.2.0~sourceIf you have not installed
checkinstall, you need to do so now:sudo apt-get install checkinstallRun checkinstall to create and install the package:
sudo checkinstall
You can remove the folder that was downloaded once the installation is complete. Compiz-Switch can be uninstalled using the Synaptic package manager.
Run Compiz-Switch from Applications->Accessories->Compiz-Switch. You can drag
the launcher from the menu to your panel or desktop for quick access.
Archived Comments
Tom
Using checkinstall is a quick way to create a package, but it doesn’t handle dependencies. It’s more difficult to create packages that follow proper policy.
Casidiablo
Is very great!
wahoomatt
Wow, I have been looking for something like this for a while. As someone who has been trying to play games on an Ubuntu box, this comes in very handy. Now all I need is a one click solution for toggling dual screen monitors and my linux machine will be convenient enough to actually play games regularly without fiddling with menus and settings every time.
Sam
Cool tool!
FYI, the wget link no longer works. There is a deb available at http://forlong.blogage.de/article/pages/Compiz-Switch which I was able to just double-click to install!
Tom
Thanks Sam, the post has been updated.
Lian
This is great! Is there something like this for screenlets also? When I turn compiz off, the screenlets look very ugly with black boxes around them and disappear if a window goes over it. A screelets-switch would be a perfect companion!
BrownieBoy
It turns Desktop Effects off okay, but doesn’t turn it back on again for me. So, not that useful.
I’m using Ubuntu Hardy.
Craig
I can’t seem to get the download website (http://forlong.blogage.de/article/pages/Compiz-Switch) to work. Does anyone know of another place where this is available?
George
I have that problem too, on Hardy. Does anyone have a fix?
Anonymous
Same problem…it disables compiz but will not re-enable it.
dineshrkg
some initial problem in installing but …best effeect on any os the user can enjoy
Czar
“Packages created with checkinstall should not be distributed.”
Why?