Beryl running on Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy)

I have Beryl running on my Ubuntu installation now. It’s kinda’ freakin’ awesome. I guess Windows Vista is similar, with Aero, but whatever. This is free, fast, and it rocks.

Read on for what I had to do to get Beryl working.

First of all, here are the relevant components of my setup:

• Ubuntu 6.10 (Edgy)
• GeForce 7600 PCI-Express (256MB RAM)
• 20.1″ ViewSonic vx2025wm
• 2GB RAM

First off, there’s a great guide posted on the Beryl Project wiki. Follow those instructions as best you can.

A few things I had to do to get things working, though:

1. Get the latest Nvidia drivers: `sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx`.
2. Drop to the command line: [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[F1].
3. Enable the Nvidia drivers: `sudu nvidia-glx-config enable`.
4. Configure X: sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg.
5. Go through all the questions on xserver configuration.
6. My monitor’s max resolution is 1680×1050@60Hz. I had to edit my Xserver configuration to respect that maximum refresh for that resolution.
   1. `sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf`.
   2. Look for `Section “Screen”`.
   3. In each `SubSection “Display”`, change “1680×1050″ to “1680×1050_60″.
   4. Save the file.
7. Restart the GNOME display manage: `sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart`.
8. You can now go back to the GDM: [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[F7].
9. Create a script to start XGL on login. Open a terminal window and enter: `gksudo gedit /usr/local/bin/startxgl.sh`
10. Put the following in the file and save it:

    #!/bin/sh
    
    /usr/bin/Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -br -accel xv:pbuffer -accel glx:pbuffer &
    
    sleep 4
    
    export DISPLAY=:1
    
    cookie="$(xauth -i nextract - :0 | cut -d ' ' -f 9)"
    
    xauth -i add :1 . "$cookie"
    
    exec /etc/X11/Xsession gnome-session

11. Now create the entry on login page:
    1. `sudo mkdir /etc/X11/sessions`
    2. `sudo gedit /etc/X11/sessions/xgl.dekstop`
    3. Paste this into the file:

       [Desktop Entry]
       
       Encoding=UTF-8
       
       Name=Xgl
       
       Exec=/usr/local/bin/startxgl.sh
       
       Icon=
       
       Type=Application

    4. Save the file.
12. Reboot
13. On startup, click Options then Sessions, and you should see “XGL” in the list. Use that session. Beryl should be working for you!
14. You should have a Beryl Manager application in your Applications / System Tools menu. Use that to start Beryl.