Beryl

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Introduction

Beryl has had many names, but is basically a fork of Compiz with additional features and plugins. Beryl used to be Compiz-Quinnstorm. Beryl does not depend on gconf and gtk like its Compiz counterpart does.

Beryl uses its own settings manager and its own window decorator, where Compiz supports native metacity themes.

Beryl provides MIT-like Compiz licensed code with GPL.

The xeffects overlay is required for pre-release and SVN ebuilds. Information on setting that up can be found in the Overlay Checkout section of the HOWTO_XGL wiki article.

Please note that this document serves as a set of generic instructions. There may be a few tweaks to syntax depending on existing window manager, desktop environment, method of compositing support, and more. These solutions will potentially be covered by other wiki articles, especially running with a choice of XGL, AIGLX, or nVidia Desktop Effects.

Installation

Beryl can be installed either directly from portage or via the xeffects overlay. Currently only the overlay contains SVN builds such as Aquamarine, Heliodor, and the group plugin.

First, unmask the relevant packages:

#Beryl Core
=x11-wm/beryl-0.1*
=x11-wm/beryl-core-0.1*
=x11-plugins/beryl-plugins-0.1*
=x11-plugins/beryl-dbus-0.1*
=x11-misc/beryl-manager-0.1*
=x11-misc/beryl-settings-0.1*
=x11-apps/xlsclients-1.0*
=x11-apps/xvinfo-1.0*
=x11-libs/libwnck-2.16*

#Experimental Plugins
x11-plugins/beryl-group-plugin -*
x11-plugins/beryl-threed-plugin -*
x11-plugins/beryl-vidcap -*

#Window Decorators
=x11-wm/emerald-0.1*
=x11-misc/emerald-themes-0.1*
x11-wm/aquamarine -*
x11-wm/heliodor -*

#Window Decorators
x11-wm/aquamarine -*
x11-wm/heliodor -*

Then emerge it:

# emerge -va mesa-progs #Only if configure fails for beryl!!!
# emerge -va libwnck beryl

Optional for KDE users:

# emerge aquamarine

Optional for Gnome users:

# emerge heliodor

Configuring XOrg

Configuration is highly dependent on which method of compositing is used. Please see the following wiki articles for information on setting up a specific method:

• HOWTO XGL
• HOWTO AIGLX
• HOWTO nVidia GL Desktop Effects

Running Beryl

Manually (beryl-manager)

When inside an existing desktop environment, you can call beryl's GUI front end:

# beryl-manager

Beryl can be called to replace your existing window manager by right-clicking the diamond in the system notification area, pressing 'Select Window Manager', then pressing 'Beryl'.

Manually (no manager)

The following can be used as a script to start Beryl without it's manager component:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/opengl/xorg-x11/lib/ \
beryl --replace dbus settings &
emerald &

Using KDE

KDE's window manager can be defined in an environment variable. Modify:

KDEWM=/usr/bin/beryl-manager

Then, update your environment:

# env-update

Aquamarine

Aquamarine is a brand new and highly experimental window decorator for Beryl. It uses the same Control Center modules, themes, and plugins as KWin, and is therefore a drop-in replacement. To use it, Beryl-Manager cannot currently be utilized unless an SVN version is installed. A script must be used:

beryl --replace dbus settings &
aquamarine --replace &

This script can either be called from inside a running KDE session or used in a KDEWM environment variable to start it.

KDE Settings

Several things must be disabled for Beryl to take its full effect:

Control Center > Appearance & Themes > Style > Effects:
Enable GUI Effects should be checked, but Combobox, Tooltip, Menu, Menu tear-off handles, and Menu Drop Shadow should be disabled. These options interfere with Beryl's built-in effects.

Using GNOME

We are going to add beryl-manager to the gnome session manager to automatically execute it.

# mkdir -p ~/.config/autostart
# nano -w ~/.config/autostart/beryl-manager.desktop

The contents for beryl-manager.desktop are:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=No name
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Exec=beryl-manager
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true

Beryl will now start whenever you start Xgl, X.Org with AiGLX, or start X.Org with nVidia drivers.

Heliodor

Heliodor is to Gnome what Aquamarine is to KDE. It's a drop-in replacement window decorator for Beryl that uses Metacity themes and settings dialogs. A script must be used to start Beryl and Heliodor instead of beryl-manager unless you're using the SVN version:

beryl --replace dbus settings &
heliodor --replace &

This script can either be called from inside a running Gnome session or used in a gnome session manager entry to start it.

Links

• Beryl Homepage
• Beryl Release Roadmap

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