unity-2d

Howto configure the launcher?

Asked by Thierry Frenkel

At first, thank you for unity-qt. Finally a unity version which works on my old Thinkpad T42!

I looked around but found no way to change several settings for the launcher, it seems to have a fixed width, icon size and position. While it may make sense to have it at the left edge of the screen on 16:9 displays, it could be preferable (at least for me) to have it at the bottom of a 4:3 screen and with somewhat smaller icons/buttons.

I looked in the gconf-settings and the compiz-settings (I thought that there could perhaps be a plugin...) but I didn't find any unity-qt-launcher related entries. So I looked also in the System tools if there was a dedicated application for this, but nothing...

Could you please indicate me where I may change these settings?

Thank you in advance!

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Olivier Tilloy (osomon) said : 		#1

Thanks for the feedback Thierry.

The launcher’s position and icons’ size is not configurable, and I don’t think this is planned for implementation.

Note that unlike its "3D" counterpart, unity-2d is not implemented as a compiz plugin: the various UI elements (panel, launcher, places, spread) are standalone applications, which makes it easier to run with any window manager.

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Christian Schendel (doppelhelix) said : 		#2

The size of icons and grid is hardcoded in several qml files. Is it possible to enter percentages instead if pixels? With HDTV like 1920x1080 everything is quite small. A small configuration-tool would be very nice.

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Florian Boucault (fboucault) said : 		#3

Christian, making the values percentages is a very valid idea that I took to the design team. The idea is in the air to produce a scalable UI or to provide several sizes that would fit most cases though it's implementation is not planned for now.

Thanks a lot for your feedback.

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Newfie (mn-newfie) said : 		#4

I agree with Christian; excellent idea.

On the configuration topic, though, is there any way to rearrange launcher icons?

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Ugo Riboni (uriboni) said : 		#5

Newfie, you can check the bug report https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity-2d/+bug/631658 to see when the reordering of icons in the launcher will be implemented.

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anonymous815 (anonymous815-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#6

You can change the size, spacing and icon theme but it requires messing with the code in the Unity-2D qml files. I been working at it for three days now. I've managed to change all of the above, including the mandatory icons at the bottom which can also be removed completely (and considering Workspaces doesn't function i got rid of that).

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Ugo Riboni (uriboni) said : 		#7

Jamie White, if the workspaces icon doesn't do anything, can you please report bug about that ?

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anonymous815 (anonymous815-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#8

I think there already is one, I heard mention somewhere from someone else. I just meant that with compiz on maverick using the unity 2d workspaces feature doesn't show the other workspaces. They just aren't there and its just empty space instead and the background colour. Choosing the one visible workspace works as it should. Also come to think of it there's no drag and drop reordering of windows.

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Mike R (mike-fusebuilder) said : 		#9

The Workspaces icon works for me, I installed the Compiz Fusion Icon and in the tray icon it creates you can change the Window Manager. I changed it to "Metacity", and now the Workspaces shows four desktops with the different programs on each. You can click once on the desktops to make them almost full size but still be able to click the other desktops, and then click again to fully select the desktop, or you can simply double-click to go straight to a desktop.

It looks like there's more than one PPA for the Unity 2D shell now, which I wish I knew about before I installed it. I'm using "http://ppa.launchpad.net/unity-2d-team/unity-2d-daily/ubuntu"

Jamie White, can you post the location and filename(s), and steps you took to change the size of the launcher icons? It looks like the PPA I chose will not be getting the auto-hide feature that people are getting in Natty, but at least I can reduce their footprint a bit...

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