PDA

View Full Version : Customizing the desktop looks



amitkhanna
March 24th, 2011, 09:34 AM
Hi

I have just installed ubuntu 10.10 netbook edition on my HP netbook. Everything works fine, but i don't like that panel on left side of screen. Is there some way to auto hide it so that it appear automatically when I move mouse pointer to the left edge of the screen.

Also I don't want the menus to appear on the topmost toolbar when the application window is not maximised. I feel uncomfortable when there is a small window [like empathy's chat window] on right side of the screen and its menu appearing on the extreme top left.

Is it possible to customise these things? Please guide me.

Thanks
Amit Khanna

Copper Bezel
March 24th, 2011, 09:48 AM
Customizing the Unity interface in 10.10 is very limited - almost nonexistent. If you want to be able to customize the appearance and arrangement of the desktop, you're better off starting with the Classic desktop (log out and select "Desktop Edition" in the lower-right "Session" menu after selecting your username.)

kerry_s
March 24th, 2011, 10:07 AM
Hi

I have just installed ubuntu 10.10 netbook edition on my HP netbook. Everything works fine, but i don't like that panel on left side of screen. Is there some way to auto hide it so that it appear automatically when I move mouse pointer to the left edge of the screen.

Also I don't want the menus to appear on the topmost toolbar when the application window is not maximised. I feel uncomfortable when there is a small window [like empathy's chat window] on right side of the screen and its menu appearing on the extreme top left.

Is it possible to customise these things? Please guide me.

Thanks
Amit Khanna


Only ubuntu 11.04 has auto hide & other settings, better to use that if you want to get the most out of unity. Currently still work in progress, but most of the ui features are done & things are all ready being locked in.

amitkhanna
March 24th, 2011, 12:23 PM
Thanks for the reply.

weyland42
August 14th, 2011, 02:15 PM
Currently still work in progress, but most of the ui features are done & things are all ready being locked in.
I hope the apparently total lack of customisation in Unity is not locked in. Unless I'm missing something, I can't find anything, even just to reposition the launch bar.

Which makes it unusable for me, and I (a novice) don't know how to replace Unity with something else. Anyone?

drawkcab
August 15th, 2011, 04:24 AM
Why not upgrade to 11.04? If you don't have enough space on your drive you can do this now from the live cd/usb.

weyland42
August 15th, 2011, 07:32 AM
Why not upgrade to 11.04? If you don't have enough space on your drive you can do this now from the live cd/usb.
Thanks, but I'm already running 11.04. It's the only Ubuntu I've used. Are you saying that Unity is customisable on 11.04?

mcduck
August 15th, 2011, 09:19 AM
Thanks, but I'm already running 11.04. It's the only Ubuntu I've used. Are you saying that Unity is customisable on 11.04?

To some level, yes. Meaning that you can control it's size, autohiding, transparency and icon highlighting easily through CompizConfig Settings Manager.

Some other aspects can be modified through dconf-editor and by hand-editing the .desktop files of the launchers, although both these methods require a bit more knowledge of how things work.

Anyway, it's a lot more customizeable than the interface used on any previous netbook version of Ubuntu. (this thread was originally about the netbook interface) :)

Also if you use 11.04 and don't want to use Unity, just select the "Ubuntu Classic" as your session from the login screen.

weyland42
August 15th, 2011, 10:58 AM
To some level, yes. Meaning that you can control it's size, autohiding, transparency and icon highlighting easily through CompizConfig Settings Manager.

Some other aspects can be modified through dconf-editor and by hand-editing the .desktop files of the launchers, although both these methods require a bit more knowledge of how things work.

Anyway, it's a lot more customizeable than the interface used on any previous netbook version of Ubuntu. (this thread was originally about the netbook interface) :)

Also if you use 11.04 and don't want to use Unity, just select the "Ubuntu Classic" as your session from the login screen.
Thank you, McDuck. I've seen that stated before somewhere on this site, but there's no such option on my login.

mcduck
August 15th, 2011, 12:26 PM
Thank you, McDuck. I've seen that stated before somewhere on this site, but there's no such option on my login.

The option appears in a dropdown menu at the bottom of the screen (next to language and keyboard layout menus) after you have selected the user but before you type in your password.

weyland42
August 15th, 2011, 02:11 PM
The option appears in a dropdown menu at the bottom of the screen (next to language and keyboard layout menus) after you have selected the user but before you type in your password.
I was going to say that I don't see any menus at login, and that was true . . . until I created another user. Now I see the menus and I can select Classic. If only one user exists (I'm a new Ubuntu user) there is apparently no choice of anything.

Thank you very much.

mcduck
August 15th, 2011, 07:51 PM
I was going to say that I don't see any menus at login, and that was true . . . until I created another user. Now I see the menus and I can select Classic. If only one user exists (I'm a new Ubuntu user) there is apparently no choice of anything.

Thank you very much.

There should be, I only have one user on my laptop and I see the menu... :confused:

Of course you can't automatic login enabled or you won't see the whole login screen at all. (in that case you can still log out of your session to get into the login screen to choose the session& log back again) And enabling password-free login would also prevent you from selecting the session as you'd log in immediately when you select the user.

weyland42
August 19th, 2011, 07:02 PM
I've switched to Ubuntu Studio now, for the design packages, and it uses Gnome. So my troubles are over. :-\"