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.

In modern GNOME desktops (I am using 2.24.3) setting up autostart applications is much easier than it once was. In early releases you would have had to write a script to tell GNOME to launch a specific app once the desktop was loaded. Now, like nearly every aspect of the Linux desktop experience, there is “an app for that”.

To create an autostart application you need to visit the System menu in the top panel of the GNOME desktop. In that menu you will find the Preferences sub menu. Within the Preferences sub menu you will see the Personal menu which is where the Sessions tool. The Sessions tool is where you add applications for auto start.

GNOME Sessions Window

Once in the Sessions window (see the image to the left) you will want to click the Add button. When the new window opens for adding the application you won’t find a list of applications to choose from…you actually have to fill out the necessary information manually. What you have to fill out is simple:

Name: This doesn’t effect the actual startup of the application, but it does help you locate your new application in the long list of startup applications.

Command: This is the actual command the new application uses to execute. The application should be in your PATH, if not use the full path to the executable (i.e. /usr/bin/firefox instead of just firefox).

Comment: This will be the descriptive text underneath the name of the startup program.

Startup Application

As you can see (in the image to the right) the configuration is quite simple. Once you have your application configured, click the Save button and your start up application is ready to start up the next time you log in.

Faster Route

If you do not want to take the time to create a new start up application entry or you’re not sure what the commands are for the applications you want to auto start, there is an easier way.

If you click on the Options tab from the Sessions window you will notice a button labeled “Remember Currently Running Application”. What this allows you to do is to open up the application you want to autostart and click this button. When you do this an entry for that application will be automatically created in the Sessions window.

WARNING: There is a bug haunting GNOME >= 2.24.1 that doesn’t allow the “Remember Currently Running Applications” feature to work. If you are working within a GNOME earlier than 2.24.1 you shouldn’t have any problem. Anything later than 2.24.1 this will not work. The GNOME development team is aware of the problem and is working to fix it.

Final Thougths

If you are like me there are certain applications that might as well start up as soon as the desktop is loaded. And fortunately the Linux desktop allows for such features.