Compiz Fusion Help for complete newbie please ?????

I have the 120Gb Aspireone and, following a few issues I installed Ubuntu 8.10 which I think is far better than the Windows derivatives Ive been using for what feels now like the last 100 years....... I was messing about with the applications and came across the Compiz Fusion 3d desktop and thought "Ill have a bit of that!" now wishing I hadnt.....Loaded the app then was clicking on several of the options in there when the screen went black.......sorry - not sure which elements I had checked or unchecked....

It boots OK with no errors and I get to the desktop that loads but when Compiz tries to load the new desktop, I get a black screen with a few coloured pixels here and there and a mouse cursor. Desktop is still there under the blackness as when I run the cursor over the top menus, more pixels appear, indicating the desription is being displayed.

I have tried to open the menus quickly before Compiz starts but they are not functioning until Compiz loads.

I think I need to stop compiz from starting at boot but I am VERY new to Linux derivatives so not sure where to start. Cant even get the terminal to open....well it does but you cant see it !!!

Any help appreciated as I am loath to boot from the USB and reinstall........

 

If the terminal opens, but you can't see it, that doesn't mean you can't use it - but you'll have to be careful as you can't see what you're typing.

Start the terminal and type

Code:

killall compiz

That should kill compiz - but may well leave you with a desktop with no window decorations (which means title bars, buttons etc) so not very friendly, though with a bit of luck you can now see things! Can you see the compiz-fusion icon? If so, right-click and select the Xfwm4 window manager - and you're back to a compiz-less system.

Now you just have to work out how to stop compiz doing whatever it's doing before you start it again!

 

Here's something else you can try:

Hit Alt-F2 (or open a terminal, if that works) and type (without quotes) "metacity --replace" that should tell compiz to bugger off and have the default compositing manager use by Gnome (called metacity) do its job.

If you're running Kubuntu instead of the standard Ubuntu, the command would be "kwin --replace"

 

Daldred, you are a genius !!!! saved me the pain or reinstall and saved my data.

Thanks for your help.