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:

For 12.04 and older:

unity --reset

Answer 2

For 12.10 and above

I, along with jokerdino and amithkk have created a python script that cleanly resets Unity for Quantal and above.

It is hosted on github at https://github.com/phanimahesh/unity-revamp

From Git

To install

git clone https://github.com/phanimahesh/unity-revamp.git
cd unity-revamp
chmod +x unity-reset.py
ln -s ./unity-reset.py /usr/bin/unity-reset

To run

unity-reset

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From Amith's PPA

To install:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:amith/ubuntutools
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-reset

To use:

unity-reset

Efforts are being made to get this integrated into Unity.

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What happens behind the scenes?

Simple. We chase each individual setting that Unity uses, and reset them to their default values, and then reload unity to apply changes. Ah yes, we also kill Unity and compiz before we start, since it is known to get tricky if we change settings under compiz's nose.

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Why is this better compared to using dconf-editor or dconf reset ?

• Didier Roche (didrocks), the author of unity python wrapper says dconf reset does not work in all cases.
• The configuration settings were managed by gconf earlier.
• Due to faster load time, dconf is now preferred over gconf.
• Gnome provides Gsettings as a replacement for gconf.
• Gsettings is a high level api that manipulates the settings stored in a backend.
• Unity stores its settings in the backend dconf.
• The consenus among Unity developers is that the settings be modified using Gsettings instead of dconf directly.

Answer 3

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 4

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 5

For Ubuntu 12.10 (Revised, again)

OK, here it is. You can use 'dconf reset' as previously outlined and will do exactly what 'unity --reset' used to do.

dconf reset -f /org/compiz/

Then restart:

compiz --replace & disown

Apparently it would actually be better to stop compiz before using the 'dconf reset'. Which I'm currently working on.

You can also look at the settings you have:

dconf dump /org/compiz/

To reset the unity icons you can still use

unity --reset-icons

This information is from a variety of sources, after much googling.

Answer 6

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 7

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 8

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 9

For 12.10

I use this workaround to reset the unity configuration. But with Unity, it resets all configurations such as the custom wallpaper, themes, icon themes etc.

1. Delete the user specific dconf database file:

    rm ~/.config/dconf/user
   

2. Then Logout and Login again.

Answer 10

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