Ubuntu
unity package

Missing or damaged setup after installing Compiz?

Asked by Ivan Ratoyevsky

Hello,

I had a perfect installation of Ubuntu 11.10 but after I installed the application "compiz" now Ubuntu has lost the unity launch bar down the left side of the screen, no dash, no log-in/out menu at the top right corner of the screen. No! access to system settings such as the software centre,etc. (note: I made no major changes with compiz after it installed but this program seems to have rogered the setup some way and I have no idea how or why this should have happened).

**Additional information: On startup I have x2 login options a) Ubuntu which should include unity,dash etc i.e. standard user login and b) Ubuntu unity 2D. The unity 2D is working OK but a) is missing unity?

**Machine is a DELL Studio PC 64bit OS installed, CPU = intel core 2 duo, 8GB DDR2 RAM, HDD=750 with 8GB swap partition.

Question is it possible to repair this problem & if so how ??

**actionparsnip, Hello I successfully managed to install Opera without any difficulties this time, still dont know why I had such problem previously.

Any help much appreciated, Ivan

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Ivan Ratoyevsky
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Chris (fabricator4) said : 		#1

How to reset Unity; icons, panel settings, compiz etc:

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/04/how-to-reset-unity-launcher-icons-or.html

Chris

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Ivan Ratoyevsky (ivan-cyteck) said : 		#2

Hi Chris,

WOW!! this is a great and VERY very much appreciated too I can tell you.

However, please can you advise me a little further, because I quickly un-installed the compiz app I was so alarmed by what happened to my setup. A further question is:

 a) will I need compiz actually installed to make the reset (change) to get things back again? or

b) can the re-set of unity etc still be completed without needing for compiz to be installed? hope this isn't a totally daft question.

Much appreciated, Thanks in anticipation! Ivan

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Unknown (sw-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#3

You said that you were originally using Unity but then installed compiz - compiz would have already been installed due to Unity being a compiz module.

Due to the lack of details and inconsistencies I'm not sure of to what extend your desktop is broken but doing '$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop' and '$ unity --reset' in a Terminal should help.

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Ivan Ratoyevsky (ivan-cyteck) said : 		#4

YES! I know what I said sounds a bit odd but I installed the "compiz gnome settings manager" tool (downloaded & installed) via the Ubuntu 11.10 software center. I just wanted to see what visual settings could potentially be changed with this tool. I hadn't expected at all what happened just installing the tool changed the entire desktop layout much to my horror. So, its as if the entire user desktop settings got radically changed. This is something I was unprepared for & had not expected.

**By contrast if I logged out of my machine, restarted the system at login screen, logged in using the option that said Ubuntu 2D unity then this user profile was unchanged i.e. the settings were only changed in the original login option of Ubuntu (i.e. unity being the standard or default desktop).

**I wasn't aware that unity was a compiz module & that is something I didn't know. So you can understand a novice users confusion here. I'm still learning about Ubuntu even though I love it more as time goes bye.

Your help is much appreciated. Thanks once again regards Ivan

**I will have a go via the terminal to se-set unity & launcher, & icons back to their defaults next Saturday all being well. Will keep you posted.

Revision history for this message
Ivan Ratoyevsky (ivan-cyteck) said : 		#5

The software which has damaged my Ubuntu 11.10 installation is the "Compiz Config Settings manager" which was installed via the software center in Ubuntu. I have since looked again at this software and found comments like mine from several other annoyed users.

Please Note for OTHER USERS =====> DONT, REPEAT DO NOT INSTALL COMPIZ CONFIG SETTINGS MANAGER!!! WARNING this software will screw up Ubuntu 11.10 badly.

FOOT NOTE:- I have also tried to run the commands Unity reset & Icons reset and neither make any difference compiz config settings manager wrecked the desktop setup.

CONCLUSION:- will have to wipe the whole rig and re-install the whole thing now its messed up. Such a pain in the A** and so annoying as the whole machine was so nicely set up prior to this software.