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Here's how to get XGL working on Ubuntu Dapper. It won't ever be working on earlier versions without massive recompiling and manually installing a whole lot of things. So don't try

Many thanks to Matthew Garrett for packaging XGL so quickly and writing the e-mail that's the base of this page.

XGL is still highly experimental and not recommended for casual use.

1. Make sure that you have the latest mesa, libglitz1 and libglitz-glx1 installed as well as xserver-xgl

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install libgl1-mesa libglitz1 libglitz-glx1 xserver-xgl

2. Replace /etc/X11/X with a symlink to /usr/bin/Xgl

   sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/Xgl /etc/X11/X

3. Close all applications and restart gdm (This will log you out!)

   sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

4. In a terminal start compiz and the Gnome window decorator (do NOT use sudo here)

   compiz --replace gconf place move decoration resize minimize wobbly fade cube rotate zoom
   gnome-window-decorator

5. Add these commands to ~/.gnomerc if you want this on every login (which you probably do)

To get back to sanity (normal X):

1. If you edited ~/.gnomerc in the last step of the previous part, remove the commands again

2. Replace /etc/X11/X with a symlink to /usr/bin/Xorg

   sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/Xorg /etc/X11/X

3. Close all applications and restart gdm (This will log you out!)

   sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

As noted before, these are highly experimental packages. If it crashes, this is unsurprising. Please do feel free to file bugs, but right now they'll probably just be forwarded upstream. Please do not be surprised if it doesn't work. If you're running binary drivers, things get even more complicated and there's a reasonable chance that things will fail to work in strange and unexpected ways.

Have fun, and start thinking of ways that this technology can be used for the force of good.

CategoryDocumentation