g’nōō-bûr

My Ubuntu experience keeps getting better.

This month, I finally moved my main dual-core AMD64 machine to Ubuntu, because I realized I was going to want to buy 4GB or more of RAM. (The currently prevalent RAM, DDR2 is so cheap it makes it more worth upgrading your whole rig than buying more of the old DDR (”DDR1″) RAM; that’s the only reason I now have a dual-core machine). But, to use 4GB or more, you need a 64 bit kernel, which means you have to get Vista, or move to Linux.

Of course, I didn’t want to go through the trouble of pirating Vista, so I finally updated the install of Linux on this machine so I could start using it again. I installed Ubuntu.

In 2 nights, with the help of Google and Ubuntu forums, I got my dual-screens working, World of Warcraft working (on Wine), virtual machines running XP and others (for my virtual LAN–multiple VMs is why I wanted so much RAM in the first place), and of course Urban Terror and Unreal Tournament 2004. And it would have only taken one night if I hadn’t been waiting for Warcraft updates.

But the coolest part was Compiz in Ubuntu. I had seen this before on my laptop, which is amazing, because my laptop only has shared memory video, based on the Intel 830M chipset. By default, Ubuntu has 3 Visual Effect setings: None, Normal, and Extra. The Extra setting is all well and good, but I found out later there were many more cool effects availaible if I installed the full control panel for Compiz. Check out just some of them.

I took my rig to a LAN party last weekend, and every Mac and Vista person there had to admit that my GUI 3d effects were not only superior, but totally un-called for. We’re talking running 3 games and 2 movies, and throwing them around the screen while they’re moving like so many live-texture-mapped frisbees.

Heres how to do it:

1. Have the right video card:

This is weird. As I said, the onboard Intel shared memory video solution on my 1.2Ghz laptop actually works. I don’t know about anything prior to i830M, but i830M works, which means anything higher should also work. That by itself means Compiz will work on a lot of computers that Aero will consider unacceptable. Don’t ask me to explain it. I heard a couple of Xorg guys give a talk, that was mostly over my head, where they mentioned some really convenient things that the Intel shared mem designs open up for them; maybe that’s why it works. As far as Aero not working, Microsoft just sucks.

Also, I know that many, but not all Nvidia chipsets work. Some of the heatsink-less mobile solutions don’t have enough oomph. I have it running on an old TNT2 Ultra 64MB, 5200FX, as well as 6200LE and 8400GS cards.

As far as ATI, I hear you need something better than or equal to the first original Radeon.

2. Install Ubuntu 7.10 (or 8.04. It’ll be out in 2 weeks!)

3. If you’re using ATI or Nvidia you may have to install “Restricted Drivers” (look for it in the menus). Intel video hardware won’t need this, because Intel is cool.

4. Now if you have the right drivers, you can go to System-> Preferences-> Appearance-> Visual Effects and enable the Extra effects. Some of the cool effects and their hotkeys installed by default are:

- zoom in and out with Windows+ScrollWheel,
- zoom out to see all workspaces with Windows+E,
- do the Aero-like window switcher with Windows+Tab, etc.

To do more, install the full Compiz configurator.