kulturloseramerikaner

OK so I've got Ubuntu running on my desktop and PCLinuxOS 2007 running on the laptop now. I've gotten Beryl running beautifully on the desktop; all efffects are available, though it does sometimes cause a system freeze (damn ATi drivers). I configured it on the laptop exactly as it's set on the desktop; the settings that give me all the effects on the desktop have been faithfully duplicated on the lappy, but I don't get them all. On the lappy, I can rotate the cube just fine, window effects work, nice tinted glass Emerald theme, wobbly windows, etc, but I can't get the cube to zoom back, nor do I have skydome, transparency effects, or 3D windows during rotate. So I essentially have 90% of Beryl on the laptop.
Funny thing is, I logged into root the other day to install a couple of things, and wouldn't you know, it's all there - cube zoom, skydome, transparency. Not a driver or hardware issue. I know it's risky to always log in as root, so I don't; the user account should be able to do this w/ Beryl as well, so I'm thinking there's an issue somewhere w/ permissions. What should I check for that could be causing this difference in the capabilities of Beryl when in root vs. user? Are there any other ideas as to what could be causing this?
Thanks in advance.