beryl manager does not start beryl window manager. SOLVED
I have upgraded from mepis 6.0 to mepis 6.5 and added beryl. Works great, but when I start beryl-manager it does not automatically start the beryl window manager. I then must go into the beryl manager and "select" beryl as the window manager. Is this intentional? How can I set it up to automatically start the beryl window manager when the beryl-manager is started? Or is there something I'm missing? If I decide to have beryl auto start when I boot will this create a problem? In the past I have auto started beryl-manager and the beryl window manager is started automatically which is how it should be.
I have found mepis 6.5 to be superb.!!!! 
It is the only distro that I have tried that has been able to add nvida drivers, set up dual monitors, setup beryl with xorg config, easily add the audio/video codecs and just work. All of this without manually editing config files, adding repositories, finding out which programs to add, downloading and installing nvidia driver and all those other things that take time and knowledge in most distros. Those things that I might not have problem with but that a newbie would'nt know where to begin. Of course I should have expected this since I have always found mepis to be a cut above the rest since version 2003.10 ( my first experience with mepis). It also works well on some older machines I have. PII, AMDs, in the 350 -500mhz range with 256mb-512mb memory.
The latest beryl seems to almost have it right. The past efforts have been lacking but I am still not sure it increases productivity. It does WOW everyone that sees it. Who needs or wants Vista?
Some minor problems I have encountered with beryl. I think these are beryl problems not problems with mepis.
XMMs shuts down if you try to double the display size.
The transparency of active and inactive windows is inconsistent, ie sometimes it does sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it leaves the active window transparent (seems to happen most with menus).
If you set up (using kde) more than one desktop you will get a cube on each desktop. This is fine but sometimes it doesn't handle programs correctly. I've had it open the same program on two desktops. I think this is "speed" thing. Seems to happen when I open a program on one desktop then switch to another before it is fully opened. I'm not sure why you need more than the one desktop since you multiply the number of cubes by the number of desktops and end up with a lot of faces. But it is wild 
I wish I knew how if it is even possible to put different backgrounds on each cube face, actually hexagon in my case. I can put a different background on each screen of my dual monitors which I like.
This has been a too long of a post to basically say that Warren and crew deserve a big, big pat on the back for a job well done.
The startup characteristics
The startup characteristics of Beryl work the same for me. I do not know how to change that,and since it is beta I would rather start manually.
How do you get a hexagon? I only get a cube no matter how many desktops I have.
Rich
Settings -> General Options
Settings -> General Options tab -> Horizontal Virtual Size
Have fun!
--
Check out MEPIS Wiki: www.mepis.org/docs
Never would have guessed
Never would have guessed that! Not very intuitive terminology. I wonder what else I am missing.
Rich
starting beryl
I have always preferred starting beryl manually also, because of the beta status. However, this is the first time it has been a two step process to manually start. First starting beryl-manager and then starting the beryl window manager by selecting window manager> beryl. Always before when I started beryl-manager everything started.
I'm not sure that I made this clear in the first post or for that matter in this post. It's the two step process that is a minor pain when starting manually and I suspect would be a real problem when and if you want beryl to autostart.
I was wondering if others needed to do this or if it was something peculiar to my system that I could correct?
I agree about many of the settings in beryl not being very intuitive.
Sorry I was not clear.Yes it
Sorry I was not clear.Yes it is also a two step process for me. In his release notes for 6,5, Warren stated that he was going to do more integration of Beryl with KDE. Perhaps that will address this issue. You may want to send your concern to .
Rich
hey richb I must be richa
hey richb I must be richa
I hope your right about the integration. I just installed 6.5 on my laptop and it works just as well with the radeon driver. A bit slower but both the processor and video card are not as capable as on my desktop.
I have followed your advice about
thanks
Autostart Beryl
Autostart Beryl with one of these commands without the brackets.
*Set Beryl to automatically start for all users
[sudo cp /usr/share/applications/beryl-manager.desktop /usr/share/autostart/beryl-manager.desktop]
*Single User
[cp /usr/share/applications/beryl-manager.desktop ~/.kde/Autostart/beryl-manager.desktop]
WARNING: Beryl Manager will start up automaticaly but you still have to right click the Manager and Select Window Manager = Beryl.
Source of this code is http://wiki.beryl-project.org/wiki/Autostart_for_Kubuntu
Thanks to the guys at irc.freenode.net #beryl
If you have a problem with Beryl try them; they are usually really helpful.
Well, whenever I open the
Well, whenever I open the Beryl manager and select Beryl to be the window manager, I get the Beryl splash screen and then my Xsession restarts with KDE as the window manager.
(this is more or less "out of the box" 6.5 beta 5, although it now calls itself beta 6... maybe I should try again after changing my video driver from nv to nvidia?)
When Beryl crashes it
When Beryl crashes it reverts to the default which is KDE. Try the other driver and see what happens.
Rich
How to enable beryl desktop with one click or none
Apparently beryl-manager defaults to the Kwin window manager instead of beryl.
I could not discover how to change this but it should be easy.
This is how I enabled one click activation of beryl in all its glory and then set it up to automatically start when I log in as a regular user.
I created a menu item that runs this command
beryl-manager --no-force-window-manager && beryl
To have this auto start when I log in you need to put the command in your .kde/Autostart file -like in the previous post. I only did this for one user since beryl is still beta.
I did this by
1:opening konqueror file manager
2:Navigate to the /home/YOUR-USERNAME/.KDE3/Autostart file
Note this is a hidden fille
3:Right click>Create New> Link to Application
4:under the general tab- call it anything you like
5:under the application tab in the command line section enter the above command
UPDATE: this is easier if you drag and drop the menu item you created into the .kde/Autostart file of the user you want to have auto-start beryl. When you "drop" into the .kde/Autostart file, tell it you want to link here.
Note: When you go to the "Select Window Manager" menu item in Beryl Manager that Kwin is still selected. If you "Reload Window Manager" without changing this to Beryl it WILL reload the Kwin window manager.
Have fun
rich
mepis beryl
the administrators might want to consider deleting this thread to avoid confusion.
Mepis-beryl solves all this.
Beta 7 has a kdm login
Beta 7 has a kdm login option now KDE-3D. Beryl is integrated with KDE and start automatically. If you go this way follow warrens instructions in his release note on the forum. You will hav eto eliminate your special startup procedure.
Sorry did not see your last sentence. You know this already.
Rich