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‘Project Looking Glass’ is the name given to a 3D desktop based around java. Also known as LG3D and Looking Glass, the project was created by Sun Microsystems and released open source as an advanced experiment exploring new ways for us to interact with our desktop environment. What follows is a quick and simple guide detailing how to install it from .deb files to Ubuntu.

According to Sun, you require the following hardware to run LG3D.

• 1.4 GHz Processor
• 512 MB RAM
• 32 MB 3D Card
• Driver support for OpenGL 1.3

To check if you currently support OpenGL 1.3 run glxinfo

glxinfo | grep "GLX version"

This should return GLX version: 1.3 or later. If it returns less than 1.3 you’ll need to update your graphics drivers.

First of all, you’ll need to add the LG3D repositories to apt so open up your sources list:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Then copy and paste these lines into it. As you can see, you can choose from stable, testing or unstable but unless you’re feeling particularly adventurous, I’d stay with stable:

## LG3D repsoitories
deb http://javadesktop.org/lg3d/debian stable contrib
# deb http://javadesktop.org/lg3d/debian testing contrib
# deb http://javadesktop.org/lg3d/debian unstable contrib

Save by pressing CTRL and O and then update your list of packages.

sudo apt-get update

You can now begin the install:

sudo apt-get install lg3d-core

You will need to agree to some of Sun’s licensing terms during the installation.

Change directory to your LG3D installation:

cd /usr/share/lg3d/bin

Run LG3D:

./lg3d-app

Hopefully a window should open with a ‘mini’ desktop in it. Have a play, if you see it it’s working. To terminate the app click on the skull and crossbones in the bottom right corner.

You should now be able to close your current x session CTRL ALT BCKSPC and select looking glass as a desktop session. Have fun!