How to enable window snapping in Trisquel (How to install compiz)
Hi all,
I'm a language teacher, so I'm not highly technical and fluent with GNU/Linux. I'm mostly just very enthusiastic about libre computing, so I learn as I go. Though I'd been using Ubuntu/Linux Mint for years, I recently (earlier this week) switched over to Trisquel for reasons of freedom; I'm just trying to get my feet under me and configure things to my liking.
One of the functionalities I'd most like to enable is window snapping. I've found three pages on this website that are relevant to my goal, but none of them are working for me. I'm wondering if that's because they're all older; it could also be that I'm just not doing things properly. That's always a possibility.
Here are the three pages and the issues I've been having with them:
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/time-settings-and-window-snapping (not enough blow-by-blow steps laid out for me to attempt)
https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/compiz (I tried this and ended up, I believe, with metacity simply messed up, either partially or fully disabled, and compiz not working properly)
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/trisquel-7-how-install-compiz (not enough blow-by-blow steps for me to attempt without worrying about having to just do a fresh reinstall)
Is there anyone here who could lay out a working, blow-by-blow way for me to fully install compiz and make it permanently the new window manager? That would be great for me since I know compiz has window snapping as an option. If there's a way to modify metacity to enable window snapping that'd be perfect, but based on what I've found in my digging, it seems that installing compiz is the best, or at least the most popular way to go.
Cheers,
Kyle
Is "window snapping" the resistance encountered when the border of a dragged window is aligned with that of another window (or with the border of the screen)? Or is it the ability to maximize a window by dragging it to the top of the screen, or to make it occupy half of the screen by dragging it to the left/right border of the screen?
Either way, you can get those features with GNOME Shell. If you are willing to try it, just install the "gnome-shell" package (e.g., from the "Synaptic package manager" in the "System settings"), logout, choose the GNOME session (an icon at the right of your user name in the default login manager) and login again. You can install "gdm" as well for additional features (such as screen lock and, if you want, notifications while the screen is locked).
It is worth reading http://wiki.gnome.org/GnomeShell/CheatSheet to discover useful keybindings.
GNOME Shell is highly extensible: http://extensions.gnome.org
You can even get a "classic" interface by installing the related extensions. I believe all those extensions are conveniently packaged in "gnome-shell-extensions" (that you can install from the "Synaptic package manager"). I am not sure because I use the (now not so) new interface that I like.
If you want the default desktop with compiz as a separate session, following this text should be cool for you.
https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/gnome-flashback-compiz-dedicated-session
Banana and Slacker, thanks for your very clearly-communicated help! I was able to install both of the sessions as you outlined, and both options have given me window-snapping (Banana, you correctly supposed I was referring to making a window fill half the screen by dragging to a side/corner, or the whole screen by dragging to the top, etc). While I appreciate the modern look of the GNOME shell, I prefer the simpler style of Compiz, so I think I'll be going with that.
I have two notes to mention:
(1) Slacker, your Gnome Flashback page is fantastic, but there may be a typo. In the second yellow box under "Using the Script," I had to change
$ tar xvf trisquel-compiz.sh.tar.gz
to
$ tar xvf trisquel-compiz.tar.gz
It couldn't find the file when I used the first one, but the second one worked like a charm.
(2) I wish I'd realized early on was that NOTHING comes pre-loaded, so to speak, when you install Compiz. You have to enable EVERYTHING. I think I'm going to make an edit to the Compiz page to say as much, and to put a link to Slacker's Gnome Flashback page. If that had been on the Compiz page two days ago, this all would've been much quicker!
First of all, thank you so much for finding my manual valuable :), I've corrected the typo to evade future problems, thank you so much for the feedback.
I didn't edit the compiz page because creating a new session is a different thing. Yes, you are right, a link in the compiz page would help a newcomers so please do. The original author of the compiz instalation is a well-known documentation contributor and I think he will appreciate your changes :-)
Please, take care good sir (^_^)
If you have same problem as mine (not loading window manager when running "compiz --replace"), try this, but this is in spanish.