How do I reset my Unity configuration?

Question

I've been messing around with Unity and broke something, how do I "start over"?

Answer 1

The simplest way to do this is to hit open a Terminal or hit Alt-F2 and run the command:

unity --reset

Answer 2

As Kees said, running unity --reset will reset all of the launcher options, but it won't remove your custom favorites. To also remove any launchers you've added to the launcher, run

unity --reset-icons

Or manually by:

gsettings reset com.canonical.Unity.Launcher favorites

I would recommend running the gsettings command before unity --reset, so that you won't have to restart unity for the gsettings key reset to take effect.

Answer 3

Try to do this:

1. Login into Ubuntu
2. Open a terminal by hitting CTRL + ALT + T

3. Insert and run this commands:

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

   unity --reset

4. Restart, this should work.

Answer 4

Install ubuntu tweak. The beauty of ubuntu tweak is that you can save desktop and application settings and restore after you messed something up. It also has a function to go back to original settings.

Answer 5

If you've messed with the indicators and need to reset those see this question:

• How do I set the panel whitelist back to the default?

Answer 6

Sometimes people accidentally turn off the Unity plugin or setting an unsupported option in CCSM can cause it to break.

You can turn it back on by following these directions:

• Unity doesn't load, no Launcher, no Dash appears

Answer 7

For 11.10 and later

From http://wiki.ubuntuusers.de/Unity/FAQ

cd ~; rm -rf .gnome .gnome2 .gconf .gconfd .metacity .compiz-1 .config/compiz-1 .config/dconf