Just a small Ubuntu tip. The Compiz settings on Ubuntu hardy are stored in /etc/xdg/compiz/compiz-manager. This file is parsed by /usr/bin/compiz (which is just a regular shell script). For example, if you wish to enable indirect rendering for whatever reason, add a line like:

INDIRECT=”yes”

to the /etc/xdg/compiz/compiz-manager file and log out and in.