My final theme will differ only slightly in wallpaper and Emerald theme chosen, but the end result will have the same effect. So, without further adieu, let’s get to the theming.

RGBA support

You can read the full article “Enable RGBA support in Ubuntu 10.04“, but here are the steps for enabling this effect.

Installation:

1. Open up a terminal window.
2. Enter the command sudo add-apt-repository ppa:erik-b-andersen/rgba-gtk
3. Enter the command sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
4. Enter the command sudo apt-get gnome-color-chooser gtk2-module-rgba
5. Enter the command sudo apt-get install murrine-them

Configuration:

1. Click on System > Preferences > GNOME Color Chooserand, in the Engines tab, check the Global check box and select Murrine from the drop down.
2. click on the Preferences button and (in the new window) scroll down until you see Configure of Enable/Disable RGBA support.
3. Make sure both check boxes are checked and click OK.
4. Click Apply back in the main GNOME Color Chooser window to dismiss that window.

Choose a theme:

1. Right click on your desktop and select Change Desktop Background.
2. Click on the Themes tab.
3. Click the Customize button.
4. From the Controls tab scroll down until you find a Murrine them.
5. Select a Murrine them and click Close.
6. Close the Appearance Preferences window.

Emerald

You now have to install and use Emerald. To install emerald follow these steps:

1. Open up a terminal.
2. Issue the command sudo apt-get install emerald
3. Enter your sudo password.
4. When complete close the terminal.

Before you open up the emerald themes manager, let’s locate a good theme to use. The best place to find Emerald themes is the Compiz Community. Look around until you find a theme you like. For it to go with the RGBA look you should make sure it’s a glassy theme. Once you have found a theme you like, download it and save it to your ~/Downloads directory.

Now, follow these steps to add the new Emerald theme:

1. Click <Alt>F2 and enter emerald-theme-manager.
2. When the emerald theme manager opens click the Import button.
3. Navigate to the ~/Downloads directory.
4. Select the theme you downloaded (it will have a .emerald extension).
5. Click Open.
6. Once the theme is imported, select the theme.

If the window decorations do not change immediately that means you need to start Emerald. To do this follow these steps:

Click <Alt>F2 and enter emerald --replace

Now the window decorations should change. If not, go back to the Emerald Theme Manager and select your theme again. Once the decorations have changed you can close the theme manager.

Figure 1

Last bits

You will want to make sure you have enabled Extra in the Visual Effects tab of the Appearance Preferences window to get the full effect of the RGBA/Compiz/Emerald desktop. Figure 1 shows an example of what this can look like.

I understand that there have been issues with the full transparency on my desktop screenshots. This will change for future articles. But in this case, it was necessary. ;-) For those that do want to enjoy a full-on transparent desktop – ENJOY!

With the latest releases (I am actually upgrading to 4.4 as I pen this intro) KDE and Compiz play together quite nicely. And although KDE/Compiz has not quite reached the level of familiarity that GNOME/Compiz has, it’s certainly now a viable option. In this article I am going to show you how to get KDE and Compiz working together so you can enjoy the additional features.

What you will need to install

I am going to assume you already have Compiz and KDE both installed. So what is left? In order to get KDE and Compiz working together this is one more package you have to install. Open up a terminal window and issue the command sudo apt-get install compiz-kde. This package will install the bindings for KDE and Compiz. And if you haven’t already, install CCSM with the command sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager. You now have everything you need to configure KDE and Compiz together.

Enabling Compiz

The first thing to do is to open up the Compiz Config Settings Manger (click <Alt>F2 and enter ccsm in the run dialog) and enable KDE. You will find this in the General section labeled KDE Compatibility. Make sure that check box is checked. You should already be able to see that Compiz is running. You can test this by minimizing a window. If the window minimizes with no effect, Compiz might not be running.

To start Compiz click <Alt>F2 and enter compiz –replace which will start up the compositor. Now minimize that window and see if there are any effects. There should be. Now you can move on to configuration.

Go back to CCSM and enable all of the Compiz settings you want to use.  You might find, however, that some of the settings in CCSM do not work. This is because some of these settings, for KDE, are found in the KDE system settings panel.

“Hidden” settings

Figure 1

Open up the System Settings tool by clicking Start > Computer > System Settings. In this new window click on Desktop. Here (see Figure 1) you will find a few hidden gems that allow you to add Compiz features to the KDE window manager.

Under the Various animations section you will see drop downs for three effects:

Effect for window switching: When you hit the configure key combination for switching windows (default is <Alt>Tab) which animation will be used.

Effect for desktop switching: Here you can enable the “famous” desktop cube.

Animation speed: The speed at which animations happen.

If you REALLY want to get into the heart of the matter, click on the Advanced tab. This is where you can go hog wild with animations.  In each section you will see an enable checkbox, a description, a configure button, and an information button. For all features you want to enable, click the checkbox and then the configure button to configure the feature to your heart’s content.

Final thoughts

KDE is now on par with GNOME in both stability and integration with Compiz. Although the GNOME desktop is, in some ways, easier to integrate with Compiz, it is not the only player in the game. Give the latest iteration of KDE and Compiz a try and see what you think. I believe you will be impressed.

It is a software that can produce a variety of desktop effects and even comes with an editor to create new effects. The default application comes with about 15 desktop effects that range from snow to stars and more unique effects like northern lights, an aquarium or beer.

The effects take place on part or all of the screen and several additional visual effects can be added to make them more interesting. Three main effects can be added: Water Drops, Pixelate and Inverse.

All three effects will add effects directly to open windows which will stick for as long as the application is running. There are options to apply the effects in screensaver mode or rest mode. Screensaver mode acts like a normal screensaver while rest mode will start the effect after a given time.