How to restore Unity Ubuntu 11.04 messed up with Compiz? [ SOLVED ]

Written by Baibhav Wednesday, 04 May 2011 20:50

Articles - Computer Tips & Tricks

OK, first of all, I think everyone is aware of the fact that Ubuntu (especially the Unity desktop) heavily depends on Compiz (one of the best window-manager that uses 3D hardware accelerations). So configuring Compiz in Ubuntu can be pretty handy, only if you know what you're doing, no disrespect intended.

Although you can easily do this by installing a well known front-end but still, even without having to install anything at all, you can change a lot of Compiz related settings in Ubuntu 11.04 using the Gnome configuration manager called "Gconfig-editor".

1. Open your Terminal and issue the below command.

gconf-editor

2. This should bring you the Gnome Configuration editor as shown below. From the left side choose:"apps" -> "compiz-1".

Now under "compiz-1", go to "plugins". There you'll see a hell lot of options :P that can be used to configure compiz pretty easily. But as I said before, even the most smallest change can have a significant effect on Ubuntu 11.04 because Unity desktop is actually a plug-in that runs on top of Compiz!.

Oh you can change a lot... but be careful!...

So, if you successfully messed up Compiz then you can actually reset all those value to the default ones by issuing the below commands in your Terminal.

gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/compiz-1
unity --reset 

It's advisable to log out of your desktop and to log in or do a reboot. Still this is not a guarantee that this command will fix everything..., so change Compiz at your own risk or try to remember the changes (which is not that easy anyway).

Don't try to change settings like the "refresh rate" values in those options, for instance, if you don't know what you're doing, because it can easily "burn" your monitor!.

And if you change Compiz settings related to Unity only via: "apps" -> "compizconfig-1" -> "profiles" -> "unity",

Then use the below command to reset all the values to default ones.

unity --reset

Good luck.  

Reference - mygeekopinions.blogspot.com

Comments  

 

+1 #6 Praxal 2011-06-28 10:50

Thank you so much...it helpd me and avoided one more formate of my system...

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+1 #5 Deep 2011-06-18 00:48

Thanks a lot !!

Cheers !!

Thanks a lot for the help....


You rock...


Exactly what i was looking for

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+1 #4 jimmy 2011-06-01 15:32

thank you............................................Respect

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0 #3 john 2011-05-29 16:46

Ok so this is what i did. I installed compiz manager and started tweaking and suddenly unity broke down. I wasnt able to see the windows so i logged out and back in with classic ubuntu. Then i removed compiz ( i didnt know unity relied on it) hoping it would fix the problem. So now how can i reinstall compiz and get the unity desktop back.

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0 #2 Michelle 2011-05-29 09:56

Thank you nailed my problem. Also now I know something about Gnome Configuration.

Thanks again.

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0 #1 Conor 2011-05-28 22:59

You're a lifesaver. Thank you very much for this.

I was so far gone that I couldn't get a terminal open. No Alt-F2, no Ctrl-Alt-T. In the end, I created a launcher with the command gnome-terminal. Then I plugged in your commands. I got some error messages, but everything is back to normal so I'm just going to ignore.

Conor

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