Unity
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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.
Not to be confused with Unity3D.
Installation
PKGBUILDs for the Unity desktop are available on GitHub, where Unity-For-Arch provides a minimal working Unity shell, and Unity-For-Arch-Extra provides some additional applications, including lightdm-ubuntuAUR (LightDM with Ubuntu patches), ubuntu-themesAUR, 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"
Standard and extended functionality
The following section lists packages that, whilst not required for the Unity shell to function, do serve to enhance the user experience:
Functionality | Package(s) |
---|---|
Notifications | notify-osd |
Screen locking | gnome-screensaver-ubuntu |
Online accounts | signon-keyring-extensionAUR[broken link: archived in aur-mirror], gnome-keyring, telepathy |
SSH | gnome-keyring |
HUD & menubar integration | appmenu-qtAUR[broken link: replaced by appmenu-qt4], firefox-ubuntuAUR, thunderbird-ubuntuAUR |
File and Folder lens | zeitgeist-ubuntu |
Configuration | gnome-tweak-tool, unity-tweak-tool |
Pidgin integration | pidgin-indicator |
Tips and tricks
Customize LightDM wallpaper and appearance
See LightDM#Changing background images/colors.
Autostart programs on login
See GNOME#Startup applications.
Troubleshooting
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
do not work when there are no active windows
Execute the following: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons true
Unity stops working after update
Run compiz.reset
and then log out and log back into the Unity session.
If Unity still is not working, report an issue on github or discuss it in this forum thread on the Arch Linux Forums.
Some GTK+ themes look ugly since 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 disappeared
In ccsm (the Compiz Configuration Settings Manager), ensure that the following option is checked: Settings > Appearance > Behaviour > Enable workspaces.
No skype or other applications appear in indicator tray
Using Skype as an example;
Append Skype to the systray-whitelist
list in com.canonical.Unity.Panel
using dconf-editor or the gsettings command.
Reboot or logout afterwards.
Alternatively, replace the contents of systray-whitelist
with all.
Known issues
See Github Issues for known problems.
Indicator-messages does not 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.