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Installing Beryl on Ubuntu Feisty with AIGLX.You’ll need to add the beryl-project repositories to your sources list. You can do that by adding the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org feisty main

You’ll also want to import the project GPG key for authentication

wget http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org/root@lupine.me.uk.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

Now that you’ve got these added you’ll want to make sure you’ve updated to the changes

sudo aptitude update

If you haven’t already you’ll need to make sure you have 3D acceleration setup with the Nvidia drivers.

sudo aptitude install nvidia-glx

The X.org 7.2 in Feisty includes AIGLX so it’s pretty simple to get it going. Below are a few things you’ll want to add, or verify are included in your xorg.conf file. As usual, before you make any changes to your xorg.conf you’ll want to make a backup!

Under the Section “Module” make sure that you’ve got the following:

Load “dri”
Load “dbe”
Load “glx”

Now check the Section “Device” and add:

Option “XAANoOffscreenPixmaps”

On my machine (Nvidia GeForce MX 440) I also needed to add this next line to the device section:

Option “AddARGBGLXVisuals” “True”

And lastly you’ll want to make sure that these options are included, normally at the end of the file:

Section “DRI”
Mode 0666
EndSection

Section “Extensions”
Option “Composite” “Enable”
EndSection

OK. At this point AIGLX should be setup and ready to run. You will need to restart X before the changes will take place. If you are reading these instructions on the machine you’re upgrading you’ll want to make sure this is bookmarked to come back to for the final steps. You can use one of the links below this post to save it to your favorite social bookmarking page.

To restart your desktop use one of the following (for ubuntu or kubuntu users):

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart (ubuntu)
sudo /etc/init.d/kdm restart (kubuntu)

…ok, and now you’re back. Now we’ll want to install a couple of packages. The beryl packages and the theme decorations:

sudo aptitude install beryl emerald-themes

After you’ve installed these packages you’re ready to go with Beryl! Hit ALT-F2 and run

beryl-manager

You should hopefully see a Beryl splash screen at this point. If not you there should be a new Beryl icon in your notification tray. You can make sure it is running by right-clicking the icon and making sure that Beryl is selected in the desktop manager options.

Enjoy! If you’ve never used Beryl before be sure to check out some of the basic usage commands such as:

CTRL-ALT-right / left arrow : switch to next cube side
CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-right / left arrow : switch to next cube and bring current window
CTRL-ALT-left-click (drag) : move cube with mouse movement

…you might be interested in seeing more at the Beryl FAQ page.