Upgrade to the Latest Compiz Fusion Release July 25, 2008

Since the release of Ubuntu 8.04, Compiz Fusion has been updated to version 0.7.6. Been eying the new cylinder and sphere deformations effects or other new plugins? It’s not hard to upgrade Ubuntu 8.04’s version of Compiz to get the latest and greatest desktop effects.

You’ll need to add a new repository that contains recent Compiz packages. Open System->Administration->Software Sources . Select the Third-Party Software tab and click Add . Paste in the line below and click Add Source .

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/compiz/ubuntu hardy main

Close Software Sources and when prompted, choose to reload the repositories.

A number of software updates related to Compiz should become available now; install them using Update Manager. Log out and back in to Ubuntu or restart Compiz manually. You should now be up-to-date.

To take full advantage of the new version of Compiz, you need to configure the new effects from Compiz’s settings manager. If you had it installed previously, Advanced Desktop Effects Settings is now labeled as CompizConfig Settings Manager in the System->Preferences menu.

If it’s not there, install CompizConfig Settings Manager from the package compizconfig-settings-manager (click the link to install), or by running the command below in your terminal:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Be sure that your visual effects level is set to Custom in System->Preferences->Appearance->Visual Effects as to not override the advanced settings manager.