Check Compiz will run on your ubuntu desktop or not

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Compiz-Check is a script to test if Compiz is able to run on your system/setup and if not, it will tell you the reason why.

The script is suitable for GNOME, KDE and Xfce users and is not limited to a specific Linux distribution – in fact, the script lists those infos for you.


The test consists mainly of three parts

  • List relevant system information
  • Run several Compiz related checks
  • Check for problematic hardware and problems with the setup in use.

Install Compiz-Check in Ubuntu

Method 1

Download .deb package from here

wget http://blogage.de/files/3448/download?compiz-check_0.1-1_all.deb

Now you have compiz-check_0.1-1_all.deb package install this using the following command

sudo dpkg -i compiz-check_0.1-1_all.deb

This will complete the installation

run Compiz-Check using the following command

compiz-check

Method 2

You can use this command to download it to your home directory

wget http://blogage.de/files/3729/download -O compiz-check

Afterwards, you have to make it executable

chmod +x compiz-check

And finally run it like this

./compiz-check

Keep in mind that you have to be in the directory the script is located at to make it work.

In case you want to use it anywhere (and by any user), you have to store it in your $PATH environment variable (like /usr/local/bin).

compiz-check Output

If everything is ok you should see similar to the following screen

Gathering information about your system...

Distribution: Ubuntu 8.04
Desktop environment: GNOME
Graphics chip: ATI Technologies Inc RV350 AR [Radeon 9600]
Driver in use: radeon
Rendering method: AIGLX

Checking if it's possible to run Compiz on your system...

Checking for texture_from_pixmap... [ OK ]
Checking for non power of two support... [ OK ]
Checking for composite extension... [ OK ]
Checking for FBConfig... [ OK ]
Checking for hardware/setup problems... [ OK ]

You can find out what version you are using by running the following command

compiz-check --version

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6 Responses

  1. jj says:

    Method 1 didn’t work for me but when I went to http://forlong.blogage.de/article/pages/Compiz-Check and the recommended site wget http://blogage.de/files/3729/download -O compiz-check things went fine thereafter.

    The author changes his file to reflect the most recent changes/fixes. The file above references 3557 and he is up to 3729 as of today. Hope this help’s someone.

    Thanks for the howto!

  2. admin says:

    thanks for your help.I have updated the article with correct file name

  3. froglet says:

    this is a great method, thanks.

  4. mrphoenix says:

    “run Compiz-Check using the following command

    compiz-check”

    maybe ./compiz-check

  5. scraze says:

    Nice! I could’ve used this one week ago ;D I had been playing with settings for hours. Seems I needed to recompile the fglrx driver for ATI – it has just been released with AIGLX support! In other words, ATI is finally living up to its linux potential, so it seems! Nice timing ;D

  6. Justin says:

    There is obviously a lot to know about this. I think you made some good points in Features also.

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