Giving up on compiz

Posted October 9, 2007
Filed under: compiz, dell xps m1330, rant, vista, wireless | Tags: , , |

I’ve tried to get compiz fusion running on the m1330 but since this guy shipped with the Intel 965 graphics chipset, it looks like there will be no compiz for me for a while.  I’m hoping there is a fix for the next Ubuntu release in spring 2008, but I’m not holding my breath.  The eye candy would have been nice, but I’ll get over it.  After all, I just want an OS that boots fast, shuts down fast, and is generally stable.  Vista really isn’t any of those things.  I’ve found that booting up is not really faster than XP, shutting down is still horrendously slow, and stability is not its strong suit.  I’ve had all sorts of trouble playing video over my home network in Vista that magically do not happen in Ubuntu.  Chalk one up for the penguin.

6 comments so far

  1. Shivan Jaikaran on October 24, 2007

    I cant believe i found someone else having the same exact issue that I am having. I have a brand spanking new dell XPS m1330 and I immediately ripped out vista and put in Ubuntu 7.10. I also cant get compiz too work. If you get this figured out can you email me??

    You should check this link out:

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=585365&highlight=xps+m1330

    I also cannot get the fingerprint reader to work and also the integrated webcam :(

  2. Tommy on October 25, 2007

    Hi Shivan,

    So far the those are the big three issues with the m1330 and Ubuntu. I have gotten the webcam to turn on sort-of (I see the blinking blue light), but it never worked with the video conferencing software. I figure I can find a nice photobooth type app that it may work with just to validate that it does, in fact, work.

    As for the fingerprint reader, I haven’t really tried since I don’t have much use for it. I mean, I use it on the Vista side to login, but that’s about it. I’m not sure I’ll even bother with it in Ubuntu, but you never know…I may get really bored one day and try to figure it out.

  3. Tommy on October 25, 2007

    By the way, I looked up the link you had sent and it’s basically a workaround to get compiz to work, but at the expense of video either not working or crashing your system. Since I use my computer to catch up on TV shows, I don’t think I’ll be needing the compiz eye candy until it’s stable.

  4. OpenOffice2GoogleDocs a bust at the moment « SwitchBuntu on December 11, 2007

    [...] like myself.  Unfortunately, most of the tips are for those who are able to run compiz fusion (I am not able to do this)….sigh.  Oh well, they’re nice to know about for when I finally get an updated [...]

  5. February to Hardy? « SwitchBuntu on February 2, 2008

    [...] Hardy Heron has a fix for compiz fusion that allows it to work on our computers!  If you recall, I tried to get this working and eventually found out that it was busted deep down in the guts of yee old [...]

  6. NerdTool on February 9, 2008

    I had almost given up until I found this:

    http://www.searchmarked.com/ubuntu/how-to-enable-compiz-fusion-on-ubuntu-710-if-your-video-card-is-blacklisted.php

    Hope it works for you.

    - NerdTool


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