Unity
Related articles
Unity is a desktop shell for the GNOME desktop environment developed by Canonical Ltd for Ubuntu. Unity is implemented as a plugin of the Compiz window manager.
Contents
- 1 Installation
-
2 Troubleshooting
- 2.1 GTK3 applications consistently crash after GNOME 3.14 update
- 2.2 Unity notifications don't work
- 2.3 Screenlocking doesn't work
- 2.4 Online Accounts doesn't work
- 2.5 ssh keys aren't remembered by keyring
- 2.6 KDE apps aren't integrated into the HUD and menubar
- 2.7 Files and Folder lens not working
- 2.8 Cannot right click on desktop
- 2.9 Unity stops working after update
- 2.10 Window decoration doesn't work properly
- 2.11 Window decoration can't use certain theme
- 2.12 Some GTK+ themes look ugly after update to GNOME 3.6
- 2.13 Workspace switcher widget dissappeared
- 2.14 Newly opened window is always placed at (0,0) on the screen
- 2.15 Window's titlebar still exists when maximized
- 3 Known Issues
- 4 Tips and Tricks
- 5 See also
Installation
There are three ways to install Unity on Arch Linux: from an unofficial repository, from the AUR or from source.
From the unofficial repository
The unofficial Unity repository is hosted on Dropbox:
/etc/pacman.conf
[Unity-for-Arch] SigLevel = Optional TrustAll Server = http://dl.dropbox.com/u/486665/Repos/$repo/$arch [Unity-for-Arch-Extra] SigLevel = Optional TrustAll Server = http://dl.dropbox.com/u/486665/Repos/$repo/$arch
The core packages are available in Unity-for-Arch:
# pacman -Syu # pacman -S $(pacman -Slq Unity-for-Arch)
# pacman -S $(pacman -Slq Unity-for-Arch | grep -v 'conflicting-pkg1' | grep -v 'conflicting-pkg2')
To list all extra packages from Unity-for-Arch-Extras:
# pacman -Slq Unity-for-Arch-Extra
From the AUR
The main AUR package is called unity. Its optional dependencies list a number of packages that should be installed for the complete environment.
Some of these are directly based on the packages available in the Unity-for-Arch GitHub repository.
From source
All of the PKGBUILDs can be browsed on the GitHub repository, where Unity-For-Arch provides a minimal working Unity shell, and Unity-For-Arch-Extra provides some additional applications, including lightdm-ubuntu (LightDM with Ubuntu patches), ubuntu-themes, unity-tweak-tool (a popular Unity configuration tool) and more.
Install git and navigate to a directory in which the sources can be built, then do:
$ git clone https://github.com/chenxiaolong/Unity-for-Arch.git
Open the README
and build the packages according to the ordered list (see: Makepkg#Usage):
$ cd <package name> $ makepkg -sci
Updating
Navigate to the original directory and pull all changes:
$ git pull
Then, check, if any packages need updating:
$ ./"What_can_I_update?.py"
Troubleshooting
GTK3 applications consistently crash after GNOME 3.14 update
Try removing overlay-scrollbar, liboverlay-scrollbar, and liboverlay-scrollbar3.
Unity notifications don't work
Install: notify-osd.
Screenlocking doesn't work
Install: gnome-screensaver-ubuntu (AUR).
Online Accounts doesn't work
Install: signon-keyring-extension (AUR), gnome-keyring and telepathy (group)
ssh keys aren't remembered by keyring
Install: gnome-keyring.
Install: appmenu-qt.
Files and Folder lens not working
Install: zeitgeist-ubuntu (AUR).
Cannot right click on desktop
Other issues that this fix addresses:
- Title bar at the top doesn't display 'Arch Linux Desktop'
- Shortcut keys, such as
Super
andAlt
don't work when there are no active windows
Install gnome-tweak-tool. Open gnome-tweak-tool
, navigate to Desktop and set Icons on Desktop to ON.
Alternatively, this can be enabled by using: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons true
Unity stops working after update
Run:
$ compiz.reset
Then log out and log back into the Unity session.
If Unity still isn't working, report an issue on github or discuss it in this forum thread on the Arch Linux Forums.
Window decoration doesn't work properly
Try changing the theme using gnome-tweak-tool. Also, ensure that the gtk-window-decorator
is started correctly in Compiz. See: Compiz#Window decorator.
Window decoration can't use certain theme
Install: metacity-ubuntu (AUR).
For more information on selecting gtk-window-decorator
themes, see this section of the Compiz Configuration article.
Some GTK+ themes look ugly after update to GNOME 3.6
This affects the unity default theme and light themes. Use:
~/.config/gtk3.0/gtk.css
GtkLabel { background-color: @transparent; }
Workspace switcher widget dissappeared
In the Compiz Configuration Settings Manager ccsm
, ensure that the following option is checked: Settings > Appearance > Behaviour > Enable workspaces.
Newly opened window is always placed at (0,0) on the screen
Install: metacity-ubuntu (AUR).
Window's titlebar still exists when maximized
Install: metacity-ubuntu (AUR).
Known Issues
Indicator-messages doesn't work properly
Pidgin and a number of other applications can not be integrated into indicator-messages due to its API changes. Users will have to wait for upstream to release software updates for the affected applications.
Pidgin-libnotify-ubuntu has unresolvable dependency
As of February 2015, the required package perlxml is unavailable, try pidgin-indicator.
Tips and Tricks
Editing LightDM Appearance
LightDM-Ubuntu reads configuration details from both /etc/lightdm/
and /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/
Appearance settings are stored in /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/com.canonical.unity-greeter.gschema.xml
, so edit this file with a text editor to change themes, icons, wallpapers, the dot overlay, etc.
To apply changes made in the schemas directory, you must run
$ glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/
Autostart programs on login
Install gnome-session-properties for a GUI, or manually add .desktop files to ~/.config/autostart
Displaying user wallpapers in LightDM
A common issue with this is that selected wallpapers are in the users home directory, which lightdm doesn't have read access to. Copy/move the desired wallpaper to a shared directory such as /usr/share/backgrounds
.