When I turn my 'puter on, I get a message bar in the upper left corner of the screen saying:

Error: Screen isn't composited. Please run compiz { -fusion} or another compositing manager.

I've tried runnin compiz, but it doesn't do anything.

Any help. Thank you

I got this and found that the order in which some applications are started isn't fixed in stone. AWN needs Compiz to be running otherwise it puts out this error message. Goggling for the error produced masses of results, and it appears to be a known bug.

I got around it by sticking the call to AWN is a small script with a 5 sec sleep just before it. The I altered the Sessions entry for AWN to point to the script. That way Compiz has time to start before AWN and the message 'should' go away.

Umm, I'm really new at all of this, so I don't think that I know exactly what you're talking about....can you dummy-proof what you just said?

If you select 'Sessions' from the 'Control Centre' on the 'System' menu, you'll see a load of applications that get started when you login. On previous versions of Ubuntu, each session entry had a number associated with it (its position in the startup sequence) - the only snag was that the number was totally ignored and all the applications got started at once so it was pure luck that Compiz was started before AWN (Avant Window Navigator).

In an ideal startup, Compiz should get started before AWN so that the 'screen is composited'...

After my EeePC was installed these applications did start in the correct sequence, but after I'd added a new application to the Sessions list the sequence changed an I started to get the 'screen is not composited...' error requestor appearing.

The delay that I mentioned before is achieved by using a small script to sleep for 5 secs and then startup AWN..



On the Sessions panel click on the entry for AWN then the 'edit' button, and replace the command '/usr/bin/avant-window-navigator' by the name of the small script file..

5 secs is a guess, and you may need to increase/decrease it on your system..

so then that small script: where do I store it? what do I write it in? and thanks for your help.

BUMP

I would like to know the answers to the above questions. Where to store such file, etc as I am facing the same problem and it is very annoying.

Basically, you can put the file wherever you want ..

I have a directory hanging of my $HOME directory called bin where I put scripts like that.

As to what to create it with - its a simple text file - use whatever text editor takes your fancy...

Another option is to deselect the Sessions entry to start AWN (Avant Window Navigator), and only start the AWN manually if you really need it. I personally do without AWN nowadays, as its too slow in operation and a poor imitation of the OSX Dock program and on a netbook it takes up too much valuable screen space.

A further option is Get a Mac.

Get a Mac? Sure, if you like being stuck in expensive proprietry hardware with an inferior system.... to me, anything I can't configure as I like it will always be inferior....

I use Cairo dock with both my 701 and 901... I highly recommend it. Better than OSX's dock, and great for the eeepc. Mine hides under windows when not in use, and pops up when I need it. Go here to check out more:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CairoDock