Ubuntu :: Name Workspaces In 11.04 (Natty) Running Gnome Without Unity
May 3, 2011
I've just installed Ubuntu 11.04 on my netbook. Having had a bit of a play with Unity I found it not to my taste, so I've switched to "Ubuntu Classic" - Gnome without Unity - on the login screen. For a while now I've organised my work using the Workspace Switcher Gnome applet. I use five workspaces, each named to identify the type of stuff that goes on in it.
11.04 comes with Workspace Switcher version 2.32.1 - right clicking it and clicking on Preferences gives a stripped down preferences dialogue, no longer including fields allowing the user to define workspace names. Ubuntu 10.04, for example, uses Workspace Switcher 2.30.2 which did allow for workspace names to be defined via the Workspace Switcher Preferences dialogue. I'd really like to be able to define workspace names and have them show in the Workspace Switcher in the panel.
I've played around with both Unity and Gnome 3 and I love them both. I've decided for now I'm using Unity on my laptop but I was thinking I'll use Gnome 3 on my desktop for particular reasons (I may switch to Unity if I find I'd like it better). My question is, if I install Gnome 3 via the ppa, wouldn't compiz no longer be supported with Gnome 3? Matter of fact I probably wouldn't use anything from compiz even if it could. Hence would it be safe to remove unity and all of compiz or do things in Ubuntu still depend on them? I also wouldn't want them still running in the background or anything. Perhaps now that Ubuntu decided to go the Unity way, that they should support a Gnome-shell build? Like Kubuntu/Xubuntu, even though regular Ubuntu still uses Gnome.
I like 11.04 with Unity however I would like to find a method of managing workspaces with mouse (not keyboard) which gives constant visual feedback and is faster than using the launcher bar, which although not 'slow', takes time to appear and it then takes time to locate the (non movable) desktop switcher item.I happily adopt most of what 11.04 (Unity) offers, however, I really still miss the good visual feedback and the single click action that the lower panel (classic) desktop switcher used. Is there a way of me using some item in unity which is closely similar?
I have read about it, looked at screen shots of it but I don't think Unity runs on a virtual machine yet so I have not laid hands on it. Still it looks to me like a remake of the old Windows 3.x "program groups" concept (at least it was called something like that back before the fall of the Roman empire). Looks like a waste of space to me to have all the program and file icons in a box instead of tucked out of the way along a panel.
am unable to add new workspaces to the panel and by default it is four only. When installed fedora for the first time I could add up to 36 orkspaces (fedora 10). I have tried deleting adding back the panels but no use
today i upgraded to natty and it went well (except for mistake of not removing ati driver before upgrading what caused 2 hours of me fixing..).. now i have weird problem - there no unity. my desktop looks the same as before - docky and 1 gnome panel, no matter what session i choose (unity or classic).. this is good news for unity haters, but i did upgrade because i wanted unity.i guess i have to run something to set defaults on system...
I've just installed Natty Narwhal onto my laptop, but I cannot find Unity 3D, only 2D. I've installed the propriety NVIDIA drivers, but there still is no 3D option.I've also seen no one who likes Unity, but I do.
After upgrading to Natty, I noticed that the Wallpaper plugin from Compiz was gone (I've been using KDE for about 1 1/2 years, so I may just be out of the GNOME loop). Is there any way to get multiple wallpapers in Compiz anymore? I'm running Compiz 0.9.4
After rebooting, the first message i've been shown was: "Your hardware doesn't support Unity". First strange thing: Unity was working perfectly on all the Beta live versions I've tried before the upgrade.
Well, not a big problem, I didn't really like Unity. Let's stay with Gnome + Compiz, I said.. but Compiz effects don't work anymore. When I try to do System --> Preferences --> Appearance, the "effects" tab doesn't show anymore. The file named "screenshot1.png" will show you this problem, even if it's in Italian: there are only the Theme (tema), Background (sfondo) and Fonts (Tipo di carattere) tabs. Also look to the strange, fuzzy right corner of the themes previews. This didn't happen on 10.10. 3d rendering should be working, since I get
Code: glxinfo | grep rendering direct rendering: Yes But nothing works.
System->Administration->Hardware is empty, but it has always been empty, even on 10.10 (but Compiz effects were working). When I try to set Compiz as windows manager in Compiz Fusion Icon, sometimes the title of the windows disappear, along with the minimize, maximize and close buttons. Do you think there's something I can do to fix all these things?
I just upgraded to Natty Narwhal. When I first logged in a pop-up dialogue appeared saying that my computer did not fulfil the hardware requirements to run Unity. That cannot be possible this is the output of the lscpu command:
Code: Architecture: i686 CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit CPU(s): 2 Thread(s) per core: 2 Core(s) per socket: 1 CPU socket(s): 1 Vendor ID: GenuineIntel CPU family: 15 Model: 3 Stepping: 4 CPU MHz: 2999.900 L1d cache: 16K L2 cache: 1024K
This is is the output of the free command: Code: total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 1251612 916332 335280 0 74220 383576 -/+ buffers/cache: 458536 793076 Swap: 860156 0 860156
Summarized that is: Pentium 4 3GHz core running two threads 1.2GB of ram
I just upgraded to Natty on my Dell 10mini. It runs great but I was wondering what the command-line input for locking the screen. I'm trying to bind a command to a key that will lock my screen and suspend my session all at once, but all I can find is the command for suspend. gnome-screensaver-command --lock doesnt seem to work on unity (obviously). Is there a variation of it that I can use?
I'm trying to put in an extra command on my skype.desktop launcher to make my webcam work properly, however whenever I add the ff. to the Exec line:
Quote: Exec=export LIBV4LCONTROL_FLAGS=3 && LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib32/libv4l/v4l1compat.so skype the skype launcher doesnt work. However, it works fine when I try to run the same command on the terminal.
X is working, I get a desktop, all updates are current, just no Unity menus/window/widgets/whatever, blank desktop with single mapped network folder and no working keyboard shortcuts after initial login. I upgraded on Alpha 2 and it ate my desktop, never has given it back for 3 months. I assumed eventually the upgrades would fix it. Looked into ditching Unity and doing GDM, but thought I'd wait it out, ran dpkg-reconfigure unity and it did nothing, can't find any relevant errors in the logs, where should I be looking and/or what should I be doing? Running lots of servers on this box and have dual-boot, otherwise I'd probably torch it and start over.
If I just upgrade my 10.10 to 11.04, will it replace gnome with unity? I tried unity before and it is not satifying because it is not customizable, I feel I have less options and less power over what my interface looks like and how it behaves. Same case with gnome3.I'm wondering if when I upgrade to Naughty will I have to go through a lot of messing around with packages and configuration files to get back to gnome2 ? Do we have an option when we upgrade to choose between Unity, Gnome2 and Gnome3?
I was running Ubuntu 10.4 netbook version (with Gnome) on my Dell Inspiron 910 and yesterday it told me there was an upgrade available, to Natty. I followed the links, did the download, and left it to install overnight. When I got up today, it said it had a problem, because an application was using a file it needed. I thought I had closed everything before I started the process. I acknowledged the message, and proceeded to restart.
I ended up with the standard 10.4 Ubuntu screen, but with no tool bars, status bars, or anything. Just the wallpaper. Keyring login came up and I signed in, wireless said it was connected. So it looks like things are working, just no UI as such. Poked all the screen edges with the mouse, but nothing popped out.
Ctrl><Alt><Del> brought up the logout screen, and if I clicked on Help, I could ultimately get Firefox to run. (Note: the Help screen talks about Gnome, but it had the new popout scroll bars).
If I hold down <Shift> on startup, I get the GRUB menu. I am running linux generic 2.6.38-8 , but I am not sure where to go from there. Running dpkg didn't help.
I've just upgraded my Ubuntu version a week ago and got a problem that the Unity UI won't running after upgrade. My laptop is Dell Inspiron 14R which is i think is more than capable for running Unity 3D. When I rebooted after upgrade there was just a blank wallpaper screen, without Unity interface at all.
after a lot of testing and tweaking done in natty 64 bit while running as live usb, i decided to install it clean on my laptop. everything is working fine (courtesy the time i spent to get things work in live usb) i installed gnome shell too and now have an option of unity / gnome shell and classic.
today being the 2nd day, i got the following problems.
a) the global menu that was being displayed in unity is not working. its funny to note that firefox global menu is working but not for nautilus or any other apps.
b) conky is displayed in unity and classic desktop but not in gnome-shell. i also followed this link to get it working in start up = > [URL]
still not working. when i issue the top command, i can see that conky is listed in the processes but not displayed..
I recently upgraded my clean install Ubuntu Studio 10.10 64bit to Natty 11.04 and whilst everything is working well (except for having no plymouth boot splash - but I'm looking into this) I have noticed that when I log in to the "Ubuntu" desktop (with the Unity launcher and Menu bar in the top panel) I can't seem to change how the time and date is displayed. It seems to be stuck showing 24 hour time only with no date no matter which setting I select in the 'Clock' tab of 'Time & Date Settings' menu.
The clock applet works perfectly when I log into the 'Ubuntu Classic' desktop and I am able to display the date and weather ok.
I have a laptop which I upgraded from Ubuntu 10.10 64bit to 11.04 as well and it doesn't have the same issue.
I thought it might have been a rouge Gconf setting so I dumped my entire gconf using
then restarted into recovery and removed my ~/.gconf folder entirely, rebooted again and logged back on. Apart from losing some settings like Evolution and Networking, which I reloaded, and my theme going back to the default theme, the problem still exists.
I've just noticed this morning that the number shortcuts that normally appear when holding the super key to show the Unity launcher are not there. The s, a and f shortcuts remain however. Also, just pushing the numbers that should be there doesn't do anything.
I've just upgraded from Maverick to Natty and things were mostly working fine until this. I'm not sure what changes have happened between now and then and I don't remember any major changes in that period.
I just tried to take a screenshot and opened GIMP to save it and I checked again and they have reappeared. So, I guess the new question is why did this happen? How can I solve this problem if it happens in the future? Should I mark this as solved? I don't really understand what happened either way.
Please excuse my ignorance, but I need to get it straight. I've been reading and trying to find out more about these three new desktop environments, but still am rather confused. I have had Unity on my netbook for a couple of months now and know it inside out (more or less by now). The problem is: what is the main difference between Gnome 3 and Gnome Shell?
To my understanding Gnome 3 will be a continuation of the panelled Gnome we are so used to? But then I read the panels will be gone forever, so I'm confused again Gnome Shell is somewhat similar-looking to Unity, but I haven't had a chance to try it properly yet.
