In an earlier post I described how to install compiz on LMDE, Linux Mint Debian Edition, MATE desktop using the Sid repositories. Well things have changed. Currently compiz is not maintained in any of the Debian repos.
Here, in 4 easy steps, I will walk you through the installation of compiz using an archived snapshot of Debian's Sid repositories.
The snapshot archive is a wayback machine that allows access to old packages based on dates and version numbers. It consists of all past and current packages the Debian archive provides.
I have accomplished this on an updated virtual machine, as well as on actual hardware.
Compiz was removed from Sid and experimental on 8/16/2013, so we will select a snapshot from 8/15/2013.
Step 1: We will open up a terminal and edit the sources.list using this command:
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
At the bottom, paste in this snapshot repository:
deb http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20130815T034749Z/ sid main
Save and exit the text editor.
Step 2: We will now update the package repositories.
When we update the repos we'll need to add '-o Acquire::Check-Valid-Until=false' to the `apt-get update` command, otherwise it will complain about the snapshot repo's expired release file.
sudo apt-get -o Acquire::Check-Valid-Until=false update
Warning! Do not upgrade or dist-upgrade your system while this snapshot is active or you will really mess up your system.
Step 3: Open up the Synaptic Package Manager, reload, and search for "compiz".
I selected the following for a full compiz install:
compiz
compiz-fuzion-plugins-extra
compiz-fuzion-plugins-main
compiz-fuzion-plugins-unsupported
compizconfig-settings-manager
fusion-icon
Package dependencies will get pulled in as well.
Hit apply and there you go! You now have compiz installed!
Step: 4: We will now disable/remove the snapshot repo so we don't unintentionally upgrade/dist-upgrade our Testing install to sid.
Open up the sources.list again
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
Either comment out the line we inserted earlier or simply delete it. I chose the latter.
Save and exit.
Now update your repositories again:
sudo apt-get update
And we're done! You may update and upgrade your system as you normally would.
If tyou happen to open the compizconfig settings manager and there are no icons or text for the plugins here is the fix:
sudo nano /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/ccm/Utils.py
Changing line:
ret = super (PrettyButton, self).do_expose_event (self, event)
to:
ret = gtk.Button.do_expose_event (self, event)
See the comments if this doesn't work for you.
If you want to install Emerald as well, use the debs provided at the bottom of this post:
http://simplylinuxtutorials.blogspot.com/2013/06/easily-install-compiz-emerald-on-lmde.html
Thanks for looking!
(Sources):
http://snapshot.debian.org/
http://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/?year=2013&month=8
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=106705&start=15
(Other Sources):
http://pkgs.org/debian-squeeze/debian-main-amd64/compizconfig-settings-manager_0.8.4-2_amd64.deb.html
http://shame.tuxfamily.org/repo/?cat=11
