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I really like the transparency effects in compiz with GNOME2 and wanted to know if there was any way (I'm assuming without using compizconfig) to have some kind of transparency in the windows. Is there something similar to compiz for Gnome Shell?

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    I haven't found anything yet, and I've been searching for a bit. But I'm going to fav this just in case some one else knows. Mar 23, 2012 at 14:43
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    Is what you are referring to as Gnome 3: Gnome Shell, or Unity?
    – RolandiXor
    Mar 23, 2012 at 14:49
  • I guess what I'm referring to is the Gnome shell, but what I'm more interested in is the actual window manager. I know that in Gnome2 the window manager was compiz so therefore one could use the transparency feature among others. Is my question still relevant?
    – RafLance
    Mar 23, 2012 at 16:10
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    One thing that comes somewhat close to doing what I want is this extension: extensions.gnome.org/extension/134/opacify Since there is an extension for making them transparent when unfocused, would there be a way to either create an extension or change a setting that would allow me to regulate the transparency of windows?
    – RafLance
    Mar 23, 2012 at 18:29
  • Have you seen this: extensions.gnome.org/extension/684/transparent-windows
    – Elder Geek
    Jan 31, 2015 at 2:37

3 Answers 3

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NOTE: This repository is dead and no longer usable, the link was left for historical purposes.

I made a simple extension for gnome-shell (3.8.2) Enjoy transparent windows https://github.com/saysilence/transparentwindows

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    A pity it's dead now...
    – krlmlr
    Jan 28, 2015 at 11:35
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You can install xcompmgr and transset. xcompmgr is a standalone cli window compositor that allows for drop-shadows and true transparency. Transset is a also a cli utility that allows different transparency for individual windows. They are both available from Ubuntu repos.

Or, if you don't mind compiling from source there is Compton, which is what I use. Compton is a fork and improvement on xcompmgr. I also think it's transparency options will better suit your request as far as applying transparency to all windows.

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    transset is now provided by the x11-apps package (at least in 14.10) and works in a default Ubuntu Gnome install without xcompmgr.
    – krlmlr
    Jan 28, 2015 at 11:38
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Just by looking at the extension file I'd say if you changed the value of

function setOpaque(window_actor) {
    setOpacity(window_actor, opacity_opaque);
}

To:

function setOpaque(window_actor) {
    setOpacity(window_actor, opacity_transparent);
}

It should work. Should being the operative word. The extension, once installed, can be found in ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/[email protected]/extension.js Give it a whirl, let me know if your computer blows up :)

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  • Surprisingly that didn't do much at all haha. It would be nice to just have all windows slightly transparent at all times but I'm assuming one would have to write a script just for that, right?
    – RafLance
    Apr 12, 2012 at 7:19

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