I have opensuse 11.2 64 bit with the latest Nvidia drivers on a Gnome desktop; out of the box compiz 7.8 worked great. I had no intention of upgrading but I did with the upgrade to 8.4. Everything upgraded fine except I lost my menu bars on all screens when they were opened. I downgraded back down to 7.8 and still the same issue. Right now I have no compiz on so I can have have my menu bars. There is something I must be missing when I installed or reinstalled or upgraded compiz. I would like to get an original compiz setup that a fresh install gives.
Hi,
Just to be sure, when you say “menu bars” are you referring to the window title bars? If so, it might be a problem with the windows decorator setup. If you’re referring to the actual menus, then I have no idea whatsoever what it might be…
Start Compiz Config (ccsm) and check the window decoration plugin. It should be enabled. There’s a command box that should have the following command if you’re using regular Metacity themes: gtk-window-decorator --replace
If you want to use Emerald as window decorator, then the command should be: emerald --replace. As far as I know, you’ll need to have the compiz-emerald package installed for this to work. That package is available in the XGL repo: http://software.opensuse.org/ymp/X11:XGL/openSUSE_11.2/compiz-emerald.ymp
Hi
Sounds like the config got messed up. If you open CompizConfig Settings
manager, look for the item ‘Window Decoration’ under Effects. Is this
checked (if not check it)? There are probably others you need to add…
Another way is via Control Center -> Desktop Effects and in the
dropdown select something other than default and see what happens.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.45-0.1-default
up 4 days 14:26, 4 users, load average: 0.15, 0.19, 0.18
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - CUDA Driver Version: 190.53
Sorry I wasn’t clear enough, when I say window menu bar, I mean the top of any window you open, which gives you the ability to minimize and maximize and close out the window.
I tried as the both of you suggested, the Window Decoration was enabled and I tried changing the command line and adjusting different effects, restart etc. even with no effects enabled I still get the issue
One thing I notice, if I remove simple ccms the problem goes away and I get my window menu bar back and if I reinstall simple ccms the issue comes back I lose the window menu bar.
Is there a dependency I may be missing that is making the ccms work improperly.
Hi
In YaST (I use the qt interface, you can set via the /etc/sysconfig
editor -> Yast -> wanted GUI) and search on ccsm and check the version
tab does it match you compiz selection? If it doesn’t select the
appropriate check box (radio button).
Another way is to select the repositories and select the @system one,
here you can scroll through the list and look for the compiz ones and
change so it all matches up via the versions tab.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.45-0.1-default
up 4 days 17:10, 4 users, load average: 0.57, 0.22, 0.12
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - CUDA Driver Version: 190.53
I worked around a bit. When starting a new session if I have the desktop effects enabled to ultimate I don’t have my menu bars on my windows as stated earlier. If I un-enable the desktop effects, for the current session, until I logout, I get the desktop effects and my menu bars on my windows (they magically appear). When I log back in to start a new session the desktop effects are off as expected and I have no menu bars on my windows.
Have you looked at you repositories?
Post
zypper lr -d
Possibly incompatible libs from different repos
Hi
Create a test user and login, does the problem follow?
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.45-0.1-default
up 4 days 20:00, 4 users, load average: 0.20, 0.16, 0.16
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - CUDA Driver Version: 190.53
The test user works perfectly with the desktop settings. No issues.
So looks like something is messed up in your Gnome config files.
If you upgraded from a previous version of the OS all sorts of junk can get left over.
I did a fresh install with 11.2. The trouble happened after I upgraded compiz from 7.8 to 8.4. For whatever reason 8.4 didn’t work or there was some issue so I downgraded back to 7.8, and since then I’ve had these issues.
So you are trying to run 8.4 configuration files with 7.8. Can you see why that might not work out?
More likely since you started with 7.8 the problems with 8.4 might have been caused by the older configs and you could have some configurations from both. 
Silly question but how do I get a fresh start with compiz and get rid of the previous configurations? That’s the direction I’ve been trying to go.
Hi
Disable compiz via the control center, then open a terminal
(gnome-terminal)
cd ~/.config/
mv compiz old_compiz
Logout/login then re-enable compiz and see how that goes.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.45-0.1-default
up 5 days 1:40, 4 users, load average: 0.26, 0.25, 0.36
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - CUDA Driver Version: 190.53
Hi,
Have you tried following my guide here:
Installing and Configuring Compiz - openSUSE Forums
As stated in there, the one-click installer does not carry the emerald package although the package is in the repository. You just have to manually download it. Even with an upgrade your basic functionality should still be there. If starting clean doesn’t do the job, could you please open a terminal and post the output of:
rpm -qa --last "*compiz*"
Take Care,
Ian
malcolmlewis I did as you suggested:
Disable compiz via the control center
then open a terminal (gnome-terminal)
Code:
cd ~/.config/
mv compiz old_compiz
Logout/login
then re-enable compiz
Worked perfect, I have a working effects environment that looks great.
ijbreakey I bookmarked your tutorial Installing and Configuring Compiz - openSUSE Forums for later reference. Good job.
gogalthorp thanks for spotting the issue.
malcolmlewis thank you for the simple fix.
rotfl!
Hi
Glad you have it sorted 
You can go and delete the old directory if you want. Open Nautilus and
in the location area (you might have to toggle the text box on the
left to allow text entry) that shows the current location, then
enter .config <enter> and just delete the old_compiz folder.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.45-0.1-default
up 5 days 12:55, 4 users, load average: 0.25, 0.30, 0.36
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - CUDA Driver Version: 190.53
I had the same issue on 11.2 and 11.1 anytime I attempted to “upgrade” compiz … so long as I didn’t attempt to install, upgrade, or delete anything for compiz it worked fine. If I attempted to “update” or “upgrade” compiz to higher version other than anything that came with the distro I would have the exact same issue.