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Submitted by Xenoveritas on

A recent PC World article explains how to install Beryl via the command line, but since many Ubuntu users are probably more familiar with Windows, and it's possible to install it completely via a GUI, I'm going to explain how.

First, go to System, Administration, and open the Synaptic Package Manager. Your password will be requested since Synaptic requires administrative privileges. Go to Preferences and choose Repositories. The Software Sources dialog will open. (You can also open this dialog by going to System, Administration, Software Sources - but Synaptic will be required later, so I recommend just using Synaptic directly.)

Click on the Third Party Software tab and choose "Add" to add a new repository. Enter "deb http://ubuntu.beryl-project.org feisty main" into the dialog that appears and choose Add Source. The Beryl source will now be added.

Before you can use it, you'll need to add the Beryl authentication key, which checks to ensure that the packages are in fact from Beryl and haven't been modified by a third party. If you skip this step, you'll get "Authentication Failed!" error messages.

First, you'll need to download the GPG key for the repository that was just added. Save this some place where you can find it. Once it's downloaded, click on the Authentication tab and choose "Import Key File...". Select the file you just downloaded and import it. (After it's been imported, you can delete the copy you downloaded.)

Close the Software Sources window. You'll be notified that you need to reload the sources. Click Reload and wait for the reload to finish.

Since some of the packages don't appear to be installable through the Add/Remove application, you need to use Synaptic for this. If you've been following these instructions, you should have Synaptic already open. If not, you'll need to open it.

Click on the Search button and run a search for "beryl". Find the "beryl" package and right click on it and choose "Mark for Installation". This will require several other packages be installed, accept them and continue.

The PC World article also recommends installing the "emerald" and "heliodor" packages. Both these packages should have been found in the search for "beryl" so mark them for installation as well.

With all the packages marked for installation, click the Apply button to install the Beryl software manager.

Beryl won't be enabled by default after it's been installed. In order to enable it, you'll need to first disable the Desktop Effects if you've enabled them. With Desktop Effects disabled, you can start Beryl by going to Applications, System Tools, Beryl Manager. Beryl will then start and you'll be using Beryl.

From here, you can modify Beryl settings using the Beryl Settings Manager found in System Tools, and modify the window them using Emerald Settings found in System, Preferences. Enjoy!