Desktop effects don't work on current (updated) Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon). They worked well on Ubuntu 7.04 stable.
Full terminal output:
ptomes@ptomes-laptop:~$ desktop-effects
nvidia hardware not available
***MEMORY-WARNING***: desktop-effects[19130]: GSlice: g_thread_init() must be called before all other GLib functions; memory corruption due to late invocation of g_thread_init() has been detected; this program is likely to crash, leak or unexpectedly abort soon...
gtk-window-decorator: Screen 0 on display ":0.0" already has a decoration manager; try using the --replace option to replace the current decoration manager.
GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap is available with direct rendering.
/usr/bin/compiz.real (core) - Fatal: No GLXFBConfig for default depth, this isn't going to work.
/usr/bin/compiz.real (core) - Error: Failed to manage screen: 0
/usr/bin/compiz.real (core) - Fatal: No manageable screens found on display :0.0
***MEMORY-WARNING***: metacity[19177]: GSlice: g_thread_init() must be called before all other GLib functions; memory corruption due to late invocation of g_thread_init() has been detected; this program is likely to crash, leak or unexpectedly abort soon...
***MEMORY-WARNING***: metacity[19190]: GSlice: g_thread_init() must be called before all other GLib functions; memory corruption due to late invocation of g_thread_init() has been detected; this program is likely to crash, leak or unexpectedly abort soon...
ptomes@ptomes-laptop:~$
Better to write I haven't done upgrade from 7.04. I installed Gutsy Tribe 1 and updated to the newest through update-manager.