💻 How to install XFCE + Compiz + Emerald on Debian 8 (Jessie) and 9 (Stretch)

02 Mar 2017

There is no doubt about the power of the command line, though sometimes it is good to have a nice desktop at hand. Here comes XFCE in the picture, since it is a well proven lightweight desktop environment, my favorite. Ofcourse a lean desktop is a bit sour nowadays, effects and feedback is expected from a decent system. The compositor named Compiz meant to help that with tons of flashy effect plugins. These plugins range from simple actions to incredible effects like exposing all the windows on the screen or blow a window to particles at closing. When it is properly configured to use the hardware acceleration of the VGA, then these effects have no impact on performance or cpu time. Emerald is the windows decorator, because Compiz not working well together with the default xfwm4 (the default window-manager of XFCE). Installation should be straightforward, but since Debian 9 the Compiz packages have been updated to the much subdued 0.9 version which (by the time) lacks the flashy effect plugins. Fortunately there were people who took the efforts and made the good-old 0.8 version of the compiz with all of it’s plugins available as repository for Debian. Let’s see how to setup them in order:

XFCE:

1. The meta-package task-xfce-desktop will install a base XFCE desktop along with the LightDM display (& graphical login) manager:

   sudo apt-get install task-xfce-desktop

2. Restart the computer and make sure desktop is installed fine:

   sudo reboot

Optional steps

• Get Themes:

  The basic theme-packs are available from the official repositories:

  apt-cache search gtk-theme

• Get Icons:

  The basic icon-packs are available from the official repositories:

  apt-cache search icon-theme

• Disable LightDM:

  In case the graphical login manager not needed, it can be disabled with:

  sudo systemctl disable lightdm.service

• Re-Enable LightDM:

  To re-enable the graphical login manager:

  sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

Emerald

1. It should install automatically with the Compiz in the next section. In case it's not, than it can be installed with the following line:

   sudo apt-get install emerald emerald-themes

Optional steps

• Themes

  Greybird theme is a good choice available on many platforms (gtk-2/3,metacity,emerald,etc).

  sudo apt-get install greybird-gtk-theme

  It needs to be imported manually into Emerald from /usr/share/themes/Greybird/Greybird.emerald

  emerald-theme-manager

Compiz

Debian 8 (Jessie):

1. Add the repository to the apt sources-list:

   echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/stevenpusser:/compiz-reloaded/Debian_8.0/ /' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/compiz-reloaded.list

2. Authenticate the source:

   wget -nv http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:stevenpusser:compiz-reloaded/Debian_8.0/Release.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -

3. Install Compiz-Reloaded with this command:

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install compiz

Debian 9 (Stretch):

1. Add the repository to the apt sources-list:

   echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/stevenpusser:/compiz-reloaded/Debian_9.0/ /' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/compiz-reloaded.list

2. Authenticate the source:

   wget -nv http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:stevenpusser:compiz-reloaded/Debian_9.0/Release.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -

3. Install Compiz-Reloaded with this command:

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install compiz

Test & Configure Compiz

• Test

  Compiz along with all the plugins and dependencies should be installed now, but not yet running or set as default. To test it out press ALT+F2 and run this command:

  compiz --replace

  There will be no window-decorator, but the desktop should look like as it was. To test the windows decorator, run the following command:

  emerald --replace

 

• Configuration

  It can be done with a simple and an advanced interface, it depends on which you prefer. Though for the nicest custom effects the advanced config is recommended :)   Simple configuration:

  simple-ccsm

    Advanced Configuration:

  ccsm

    If everything looks fine, than it can be set as default from next boot.

• Setting as default

  First the window-decorator should be set on the advanced compiz configuration to launch on startup. The start of the compositor can be set per user session or system-wide, it's up to you which one you prefer!

  Set Window-decorator:

  1. Launch the Compiz-Config-Settings-Manager:

     ccsm

  2. Navigate to Effects > Window Decoration, enable it and replace Command with:

     emerald --replace

     Next time it is going to launch with Compiz.

  Set Compiz as User session default:

  cp /etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/

  Then replace Client0_Command value with compiz --replace to look something like as below:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <channel name="xfce4-session" version="1.0">
    <property name="general" type="empty">
      <property name="FailsafeSessionName" type="string" value="Failsafe"/>
    </property>
    <property name="sessions" type="empty">
      <property name="Failsafe" type="empty">
        <property name="IsFailsafe" type="bool" value="true"/>
        <property name="Count" type="int" value="5"/>
        <property name="Client0_Command" type="array">
          <value type="string" value="compiz --replace"/>
        </property>
        <property name="Client0_PerScreen" type="bool" value="false"/>
        <property name="Client1_Command" type="array">
          <value type="string" value="xfsettingsd"/>
        </property>
        <property name="Client1_PerScreen" type="bool" value="false"/>
        <property name="Client2_Command" type="array">
          <value type="string" value="xfce4-panel"/>
        </property>
        <property name="Client2_PerScreen" type="bool" value="false"/>
        <property name="Client3_Command" type="array">
          <value type="string" value="Thunar"/>
          <value type="string" value="--daemon"/>
        </property>
        <property name="Client3_PerScreen" type="bool" value="false"/>
        <property name="Client4_Command" type="array">
          <value type="string" value="xfdesktop"/>
        </property>
        <property name="Client4_PerScreen" type="bool" value="false"/>
      </property>
    </property>
    <property name="splash" type="empty">
      <property name="Engine" type="string" value=""/>
    </property>
  </channel>

• Set Compiz as System-wide default:

  Edit the file /etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml just like above at the per user session process:

  sudo nano /etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml

    Now you should have a decent desktop with lot of customization options. If there is any question i’m happy to answer below in the comments.     Resources: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=133561