compiz fails to start

[Gene Caldwell]

on fresh installs of 32/64 bit (hardy heron) final release compiz fails to start. This is also a problem when upgrading to hardy 8.04 from 7.10, the path gets changed. I had a fully functional 7.10 with all compiz effects enabled and working like a champ. after the upgrade compiz failed to start due to the below errors in the compiz file. I proceeded to do a fresh install of the final release of 8.04 and the same path problem prevented compiz from starting. editing the compiz file to reflect the correct path as shown below corrects the problem per alberto milone of Envy. can't believe no one else is seeing this problem.

Look for these lines in /usr/bin/compiz:

COMPIZ_BIN_PATH="/usr/local/bin/" # For window decorators and compiz
PLUGIN_PATH="/usr/local/lib/compiz/"
GLXINFO="/usr/bin/glxinfo"
KWIN="/usr/bin/kwin"
METACITY="/usr/bin/metacity"
COMPIZ_NAME="compiz" # Final name for compiz (compiz.real)

and make them look like these ones (you will have to edit the file with sudo):

COMPIZ_BIN_PATH="/usr/bin/" # For window decorators and compiz
PLUGIN_PATH="/usr/lib/compiz/"
GLXINFO="/usr/bin/glxinfo"
KWIN="/usr/bin/kwin"
METACITY="/usr/bin/metacity"
COMPIZ_NAME="compiz.real" # Final name for compiz (compiz.real)

Then launch compiz again and see if it works.

[trollord (trollenlord)]

That is most interesting. I did fresh install, allowed the restricted drivers manager to enable the nvidia drivers and... Compiz. Did not have such problem at all.

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

@trollord
funny, your reaction is close to alberto milone's of Envy who thought it was weird....
what is more interesting to me is that on a fourth computer, a lap-top, this problem DID NOT happen. that lap-top did not have nvidia card, it was intel I945gml video. On my 3 computers where the problem occured, all three were Nvidia cards. However I did not use Envy to install Nvidia drivers for fresh install of hardy final, I wanted to see if Envy was causing the issue, turns out that it was not. I used only Ubuntu repo's for source and 8.04 ISO directly from Ubuntu yesterday to make sure the bug was coming from clean install and Ubuntu repo's.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

Read this: http://www.realistanew.com/2008/04/23/fglrx-breaking-upgrades-to-804/

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

There is only one problem with that article......it does not apply to this bug and you changed the status to invalid ???? I did 2 fresh installs and one upgrade, all 3 had the same result. the article specifically says UPGRADES.

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

oh, and one other thing, I don't use fglrx, I use nvidia. I stated that in my bug report.

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

opps, looks like I stated Nvidia in a follow-up reply above, not the OP.

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

The article also says: "Remember, this is why you should only install such drivers from Ubuntu." and I did install my Nvidia drivers using Ubuntu restricted drivers manger!

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

Alright, in that case /etc/xdg/compiz/compiz-manager should exist and set the correct paths. Do you have this file? If so, what is in it?

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

ok, this is the contents of that file:

# Ubuntu specifc compiz-manager configuration file
# goes into /etc/xdg/compiz/compiz-manager
# works with git://anongit.compiz-fusion.org/fusion/misc/compiz-manager
COMPIZ_BIN_PATH="/usr/bin/"
PLUGIN_PATH="/usr/lib/compiz/"
COMPIZ_NAME="compiz.real"

please remember that I did get compiz working flawlessly by making the changes to each new fresh install of the file mentioned in the OP. I am running just fine, I just wanted to report this so that other less detirmined users don't have the same trouble with the eye candy in the new release.

I'd also like to just say that I am not doing anything fancy during the initial setup, I'm installing 8.04 the way it should be installed (the way you would want me to I believe) then getting any/all updates, then just simply enabling the nvidia driver using restricted driver manager. then bam, its broke, so I edit the file make the changes to the path, reboot, and its all good. I got my ISO image from the ubuntu web site, not from some other web site. its both the 64 bit and the 32 bit versions.

[Jayson Rowe (jayson.rowe)]

Since it's been a very long time since any additional info was added to this bug, I'm just checking to see if this is still an issue, and find out what additional work should be done on this bug.

[Gene Caldwell (gene-caldwell)]

I'm not experiencing this problem on ANY install or upgrade of intrepid 8.10.

[Jayson Rowe (jayson.rowe)]

Closing per the reporters last comment - no problems with 8.10

[Rami Al-Rfou' (rmyeid)]

I upgraded from 8.10 to 9.04 and Compiz failed to start ! with similar error message

compiz --replace
Checking for Xgl: not present.
Detected PCI ID for VGA: 01:00.0 0300: 10de:0193 (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
Checking for texture_from_pixmap: present.
Checking for non power of two support: present.
Checking for Composite extension: present.
Comparing resolution (2704x1050) to maximum 3D texture size (8192): Passed.
Checking for nVidia: present.
Checking for FBConfig: present.
Checking for Xgl: not present.
/usr/bin/compiz: 378: /usr/local/bin/compiz: not found

Making the mentioned above changes solved the problem.

[Brad Davis (champamp)]

I have this same problem in Jaunty....disappeared in Intrepid...back in Jaunty....had to fix the file twice now....I amusing official everything, and Jaunty has been a fresh install from day one. Thanks.

[Chris Halse Rogers (raof)]

What does your /etc/xdg/compiz/compiz-manager file contain? If it looks like this:
"""
# Ubuntu specifc compiz-manager configuration file
# goes into /etc/xdg/compiz/compiz-manager
# works with git://anongit.compiz-fusion.org/fusion/misc/compiz-manager
COMPIZ_BIN_PATH="/usr/bin/"
PLUGIN_PATH="/usr/lib/compiz/"
COMPIZ_NAME="compiz.real"
"""
what does running "echo $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS" print?

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.