# 3D Desktop

Note: 3d-desktop has not been in development for some time. Latest version is from mid 2005. Compiz or KDE's Kwin are probably a better idea at this point.

3D Desktop is an older piece of eye-candy similar in functionality to the Cube plugin in Compiz. Simply put it is a pager which remains in the background until needed and allows the user to switch between desktops while viewing them in 3D. While not as robust as Compiz it provides the same sort of functionality to people using otherwise lightweight window-managers such as Fluxbox. In the same vein as the Xcompmgr alternative to composite management in *box WMs, 3ddesk offers a nice slice of eye-candy to those who do not wish to run Compiz.

## Prerequisites

The following need to be installed before 3D Desktop

- Xorg

You should have most other dependencies once these are installed and if you are using Fluxbox. Otherwise other dependencies will need to be installed by pacman as well.

## Installation

3ddesktop can be found on the AUR.

## Configuration

After installation running:

    $ 3ddeskd&

will set the daemon running in the background. Further invocation of:

    $ 3ddesk

results in the screen 'zooming out' to reveal all of the virtual desktops, though unconfigured they will appear grey rectangles until 'zoomed in' on and subsquently zoomed out from once more. You can add 3ddeskd to Daemons in /etc/rc.conf if you like but just using the 3ddesk command will start the daemon in the background.

In `/etc/3ddesktop/3ddesktop.conf` you will find instructions on configuring the pager's various basic functions, which I find most useful when tied to a hotkey of some kind. A great deal about 3ddesk can be tweaked, including the background used, the frequency of desktop acquisition(which fixes the grey rectangle problem), the mode, the zoomspeed and others. An arbitrary number of views can be defined as well, carrying out any number of tasks that the program offers.

For Fluxbox users adding the line

     Mod4 z :exec 3ddesk

to .fluxbox/keys, for instance, will enable the WindowsKey-Z combination to execute 3ddesk.

## Troubleshooting

For information on some of the problems refer to the FAQ. Some hardware has been known to have issues capturing desktops so it is good to consult the FAQ for any help it might give.

Most important is telling 3ddesk specifically which Window-Manager you are using. In the configuration file, in every view you use in that WM specify that manager with the line:

    wm fluxbox

## Additional Resources

- Xcompmgr
- Compiz
- 3DDesk Website

Category:

- Eye candy