Dash launcher deactivated by mistake in Ubuntu 11.04

The easiest way for you to fix this would be to select "Ubuntu Classic" as the session type on the login screen (you can select a session type after specifying your username), then log in. You'll get a fully functional classic desktop and you can run gconf-editor and change it back.

Thank you for your response. My problem is that without the plugin activated, I can't open anything like Places, System, on/off etc.
Alt + F2 won't open. Any ideas?

Thanks

Dan

Yes, but since the problem is specific to Unity, you should still be able to log on with a Classic Desktop (which does not use Unity), and fix the problem. Have you attempted to do this?

Or is the issue that you cannot do this, because your Ubuntu system is not set up to show you a login screen when you turn on your computer (but instead to just log you in automatically and give you your desktop)?

If the issue is that you don't see a login screen after you start your computer, then you'll have to enable the login screen from the command line. (This is still easier than editing gconf settings from the command line.) To do this, once your computer is started up and your (nonfunctional) desktop is loaded, press Ctrl+Alt+F1. This should give you a text console. Enter your username and password as prompted. When entering your password, you won't see any placeholder characters (like *). That's OK, just type it in and press enter.

Now you'll be given a shell prompt, which will, among other things, show a $ character immediately followed by a _ cursor. You will run three commands, in order. To run a command, type it in exactly and press enter. Each of these three commands must complete (giving you another $ _) before you run the next one.

cd /etc/gdm
sudo mv custom.conf custom.conf.old
sudo reboot

When running commands that start with sudo, you may be prompted (again) for your password. As before, you won't see anything on the screen while you type it in, but that's OK.

The third command should make your computer shut down and reboot, and you should see a graphical login screen, which will give you the option to choose Ubuntu Classic as the session type, as explained in my first post. Please don't hesitate to reply if this doesn't work or you have any further problems. If this solves your problem, please come to https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/+question/154671 and mark this question as Solved.