07 Dec '06 - 290 W, 2 D - + 4 - 5 Using latest Beryl in Debian

Most GNU/Linux desktop users today are aware of the new 3D enhancements brought to the desktop. Namely Compiz and Beryl.

Compiz is already present in Debian but Beryl isn't and will not be included until Etch is released, which probably is expected to be released in another 3 months. Beryl looks to be primarily focused on Ubuntu which IMO is not good but I can't comment much because I haven't contributed to it. In fact, as per the recent announcement on the Beryl blog, their release too seems to be focused on Ubuntu.

Anyway, This small HOWTO is about how to use the latest Beryl snapshot on Debian based systems. We'll be using the latest code from Beryl SVN and with a good source install management utility called stow. Let's begin....

• Make sure stow is installed. If installed you should be having a folder named /usr/local/stow/
  
• Check out the latest code from Beryl SVN. svn co svn://svn.beryl-project.org/beryl/trunk/ beryl
  
• You'll notice a new folder in your current working directory named beryl. Under it would be present a shell-script named makeall
• Replace that particular shel-script with the one provided here. This is a slightly modified script which automates the installation using stow.
• Once the installation is done you should have the latest Beryl working on your Debian box.

Safety Tips:

After the installation is complete, cd to the /usr/local/stow/ directory and make a backup copy of the beryl-svn folder. This way, when, the next time you do an update and Beryl is broken you can revert back to your older working Beryl installation. 

Trackback link: