In this article I am going to introduce you to the KDE Desktop Effects manager and how to use it to make your KDE desktop experience as sleek as it can be.

Installation

Fortunately there will be no installation. So long as you are using one of the more recent iterations of KDE (such as 4.4 or 4.5 – though I highly recommend you upgrade to 4.5) you will have this feature available to you.

Launch the settings tool and begin your journey

Figure 1

In order to launch the KDE Desktop Effects tool click Start > Computer > System Settings to open up the System Settings tool. Once you have that open look in the Workspace Appearance and Behavior section and click the Desktop Effects button. With that window open (see Figure 1), you are ready to go.

The first step is to enable the effects. To enable the effects all  you have to do is click the Enable desktop effects check box and then click Apply. This will immediate enable the effects. You are now ready to begin configuring.

General

On the General tab you can configure some important effects. You will want to leave the Common setting check boxes all checked and then you can set your effect for Window and Desktop Switching as well as animation speed. The Desktop Switching is comparable to how you switch in Compiz. If you select Desktop Cube Animation, as you would expect, you have an effect similar to the Compiz Cube.

All Effects

Figure 2

This is where you can really get granular with your effects (see Figure 2) . What you will want to do is scroll around until you see an effect you want to enable. To enable the effect check the check box to the left of the effect name. To configure the effect click on the “wrench” button to the right of the effect name.

Let’s take a look at the Desktop Cube configuration. To configure this click on the “wrench” button associated with Desktop Cube. In this new window (see Figure 3) you can configure the Appearance, Opacity, and Activation (short cut key combination) from the Basic tab and Caps, Additional Options, Zoom, and Sphere Cap Deformation from the Advanced tab.

One issue you might find is that, although you can set an image for the background (think Skydome from Compiz), you can not set an image for the caps. The only option you have is to set a Cap color. I’m not sure if this is just missing from the configuration window or an oversight on the part of the developers.

Final thoughts

For some, the difference between the built-in KDE effects and Compiz are minimal. To others, however, those differences are enough to keep them using Compiz. My experience has shown me that Compiz still seems a bit more stable than the newer KDE desktop effects. But there are some KDE desktop effects that might very well make you switch. I personally have switched my KDE 4.5 desktop over to using the built-in effects. The only drawback, from my perspective, is the inability to use Emerald as the window decorator. So if you are happy with the KDE window decorator then you should certainly make the switch from Compiz to the KDE Desktop Effects.

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 that said, in this entry to the Xfce4 series I am going to show you how to run Compiz (and, if you like, Emerald) along with Xfce 4. With this combination you can enjoy a snappy desktop filled with extra features.

What you need

Obviously you are going to need the hardware that will run Compiz. This isn’t such a big deal these days. You will also need both Compiz and (obviously) Xfce4 installed. If you want to add Emerald into the mixture you can install that as well. All three of these components can be found in your Add/Remove Software tool.

Once you have them all installed do yourself a favor and first log into Xfce4 just to make sure everything is working as you would expect it to. Once you have that up and running you are ready to go.

Compiz

The first thing we are going to do is add Compiz into the mix. This will give you features like the Cube, animation effects, window effects, etc. Once you have Compiz installed you will have everything you need to pull this off. But let’s first make sure everything is in working order before we set this up to autorun at start (which we’ll do in a moment).

Open up a terminal window and issue the command:

compiz –replace ccp &

What should happen now is Compiz will start leaving Xfce4 running as well. More than likely you won’t get your bash prompt back. If you hit <Ctrl>c (within the terminal window you started Compiz with) Compiz will stop and you will have your bash prompt back.

Now, with Compiz working properly, let’s set this up to auto start. Here are the steps:

1. Click Start > Preferences > Xfce 4 Settings Manager
2. Click on the Application Autostart tab.
3. Click the Add button.
4. Enter Compiz for the name, Compiz Startup, for the description, and the same command you entered above, minus the “&” (compiz –replace ccp) in the Command section.
5. Click OK.

Now log out of Xfce4 and log back in. You should notice Compiz starting up fairly quickly (after Xfce4 starts).

Emerald

Let’s add Emerald to the mix. I will warn you though, if you use Emerald you will lose all of the settings available to the Xfce4 window manager. So if you prefer the Xfce4 window manager, don’t use Emerald. If you want to use Emerald first test it to make sure it works by doing the following:

1. Open up a terminal window.
2. Issue the command emerald –replace &.

Emerald should start now. To get your terminal back click <Ctrl>c in the same window you started Emerald with. Once you know Emerald is working properly you can add it to the startup in the same manner as you did Compiz. The only difference will be what you enter in the Add application window. Here you will add:

• Name: Emerald
• Description: Emerald Startup
• Command: emerald –replace

Now log out and log in. Both Compiz and Emerald should start. You now have an Xfce4 desktop with Compiz and Emerald added goodness.

Final thoughts

The Xfce4 desktop environment isn’t looking so shabby now is it? I am really impressed with all of the progress this desktop environment has made since its early days. I hope you are enjoying Xfce4, much in the same way I am. And, of course, there are further adventures to come.

Why RGBA? If you are a fan of good old Transparency (like me) then you understand this is something Linux has needed for a long time. Yes it can sort of be done through Compiz with some tweaking…but not GTK+-wide. That’s what RGBA support is all about, allowing a themable transparency throughout the GTK+ widget set. The only problem I have found (outside of non-GTK+ apps not playing well with RGBA) is that certain features don’t want to accept the transparency as well as others. That and a need to give the desktop some finishing touches. And that is just what we are going to do here.

First things first

One of the things you are going to want to do, upon completion of adding RGBA support, is to install the Emerald decorator. Why would you want to do this? Because Emerald will give you the feeling of continuing that RGBA support into the window decorations, whereas the default decorator will not. I’ve covered Emerald before (see my article “Add Emerald for slick window decorations“) so installation shouldn’t be a problem. Once installed you want to use the right theme. For the Murrine themes I have found the Glassified Mac theme to work best. You can browse through the entire Emerald Themes page to find the one that matches your desktop perfectly.

One of the issues you might find is that you have to replace your window decorator every time you log out and log in. This can be a hassel. Instead open up the CompizConfig Settings Manager (click System > Preferences > Compiz Config Settings Manager), do a search for “decorations” (no quotes), select Window Decoration, and replace the command with /usr/bin/emerald. Now your default window decorator is Emerald.

The panel

Probably one of the biggest glitches is portions of the GNOME panel just don’t seem to want to work with RGBA. It took me a while but I figured out a “way” around it.

Figure 1

The biggest issue are the three main menus. No matter what you try you can not get them to work with the transparency. So what I found is to get rid of that applet (it’s actually one applet called Menu Bar) and replace it with the Main Menu Applet. Once you have done that you can then set the panel to transparent. You can’t set it to complete transparency, however, or you will have a bit of a disconnect with the notification area. There are still issues with some of the applets in the notification area…but they don’t stand out as much as the Menu Bar. Figure 1 shows the changes I have made. It’s not perfect, but it fits much better with the new desktop.

Figure 2

What does that new Main Menu applet look like when used with RGBA support? Take a look at Figure 2 for a sample.

Final thoughts

The addiction to eye candy is a rough one. You find yourself tweaking and tweaking until you think you can tweak nor more…until you find yet another tiny customization that looks better. The RGBA-enabled desktop is a fairly slick one. I hope you find it to be as eye-candy-tastic as I have.

To really push the limits of transparency you will need to have Compiz working. For more information on Compiz check out my articles: “Enabling the Cube in Compiz” and “Configuring the appearance of the Compiz Cube“. You might also want to check out my article “Add Emerald for slick window decorations” to get the full effect of transparent titlebars and window decorations. As well you can check out my article “Avant Window Navigator: OS X-like dock on Linux desktop” if you’re wanting to mimic my personal desktop.

The big picture

Figure 1

I thought I would start out by showing you the desktop I am working with so you can decide if this is something you want to achieve. Figure 1 shows the end result of the configurations (Click on the image to see the full-size version).

The tools to will use

In order to get the transparency you see in the image the following configuration tools will be used:

Compiz Settings

Panel properties

The following themes will be used:

GNOME: Dust Sand

Avant Window Navigator: Glass 3D

Emerald: Gabriel

Wallpaper: Awesome Wallpapers Ubuntu Charcoal

I am going to assume you know how to install the various themes and wallpaper used, so I won’t go over those topics.

Configurations

Figure 2

The first thing to take care of happens to be the easiest – the GNOME panel. You will notice I removed the bottom panel on my desktop and replaced it with the Avant Window Navigator. So the only GNOME panel to deal with is the upper panel. To set the transparency on this right click an empty spot in the panel and select “Properties”. When the Properties window opens (see Figure 2) click on the “Background” tab and do the following:

• Check the Solid Color radio button.
• Slide the Style bar to the left until it is as transparent as you like.
• Click Close.

Your panel should now be transparent.

Compiz

Figure 3

Now that your panel is transparent you don’t want to ruin the over all look by having solid menus and/or drop downs. So let’s take care of these pieces.  The first thing to do is open up the Compiz Settings tool. You will find this in the Preferences sub-menu of the System menu.  When the settings window is open you will want to click on the Opacity Brightness and Saturation section (see Figure 3).

What you need to do is add new Window specific settings. When you click the New button a small window will open where you add the type of “window” you want to set transparency for. When the window opens you want to add the following line to get Menus, Drop down windows, and popups set for transparency:

(type=Menu) || (type=PopupMenu) || (type=DropDownMenu)

Once you have that entered, set the transparency level to 67 (to match what you see in this article) or to whatever level you desire.

And that’s it. You should now have full-on transparency on your desktop.

Final thoughts

Of course you can take this farther. You can even set application windows as transparent as you like. The only problem with that is you need to be able to clearly see your work.

One of those ways is using the Compiz “3D” desktop. But using Compiz is not enough for me. I want my windows decorated far more than the average window manager can handle. That’s where Emerald comes in. Emerald is a window decorator that usually ships with Compiz but does not always include everything you need. And in some instances, Compiz doesn’t include Emerald. That’s an easiest enough problem to figure out and solve.

What is Emerald?

As stated earlier, Emerald is a theme-able window decorator. But Emerald takes window decorating one step further by also allowing for full-composite window decorations. By adding composite to the decoration Emerald can include such features as transparency and drop shadow. And Emerald does this without taking any more of a hit on your resources than a normal window manager. That is, assuming you have the hardware that supports compositing. The main issue is that your graphics chip must support 3D/Direct Rendering. If your hardware can support that, your hardware will work with Emerald. You will also need to have Compiz installed (this article will assume you have Compiz up and running).

Getting and installing

The good news is that Emerald will be in your repository. Here are the steps to install Emerald:

• Open up your Add/Remove Software utility.
• Do a search for “emerald” (no quotes)
• Mark Emerald for installation.
• Click Apply to install.

Now, the bad news is that Emerald will only install with one theme. You will have to find new themes on line. There are plenty of places to find Emerald themes. The best location I have found is the Compiz Community. Search through those themes and download the ones you like. Download those files to a single directory (let’s say ~/THEMES) We’ll talk about adding them in a moment.

Running Emerald

In order to start Emerald you have to run it such that it will replace your current window decorator. To do this open up the Run Command dialog (in GNOME you’ll hit <Alt>F2) and enter the command:

emerald –replace

You will immediately see your window decorations change. The default theme is a transparent red-ish theme.

Figure 1

Now you will want to open up the theme manager. You will find the Emerald Theme manager in the Preferences sub-menu of the System menu. When the theme manager opens (see Figure 1) you will see no themes listed. In Figure 1 you can see a theme (Overglass) which has been added. All themes you have added to Emerald will be listed here.

Adding themes

The themes you download will be in .emerald format. All you need to do to add a theme is click on the Import button, navigate to the theme you want to add and click OK. The theme will change to the new theme, you actually have to select that new theme for it to take affect. To switch to the newly added them just select the theme from the listing in the Themes tab of the manager.

Start Emerald at login

One issue you will find is that Emerald doesn’t automatically start at login. Without setting it up to automatically start, you will have to start it via command line every time you log into your account. Fortunately you can set this up easily. To do so you open up the Startup Applications Preferences. Locate this tool in the Preferences sub-menu of the System menu.

Figure 2

When it opens up you will see a simple window with two tabs and a few buttons. Click on the Add button to open up the Add Startup Program window (see Figure 2). You can see, in Figure 2, the details you need to add for this to work. Once you have added the information click the Add button and then click the Close button.

Now the next time you log in to your desktop Emerald will be your window decorator.

Final thoughts

Of all the window decorators out there you will find Emerald to be the best of the best. Not only does it offer numerous attractive themes, it won’t take as much of a hit on your performance as you might think it would. Give Emerald a try and you will see just how far the desktop can go.