Tell me more ×
Ask Ubuntu is a question and answer site for Ubuntu users and developers. It's 100% free, no registration required.

Recently, I've upgraded to 11.04 beta 2. All looking fine, until, after installing some usual distribution updates, unity's sidebar doesn't show any application icons, only a black panel. Hovering and left-clicking work normally. Is this a bug or just a temporary issue?

share|improve this question

closed as off topic by Marco Ceppi Feb 15 '12 at 4:05

Questions on Ask Ubuntu are expected to relate to Ubuntu within the scope defined in the FAQ. Consider editing the question or leaving comments for improvement if you believe the question can be reworded to fit within the scope. Read more about closed questions here.

3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

looks like this is a bug. check out bug report - 762478

try in terminal or alt+f2

unity --reset 

or try

unity --reset-icons

the reset icons one will reset the icons to default ones.

share|improve this answer
it didn't work... – iulian Apr 19 '11 at 17:44
sadly then you are going to have to wait for the above bug to be resolved or workaround provided. – Terry Apr 19 '11 at 17:48
I understood. I will gladly wait, thanks for help – iulian Apr 19 '11 at 17:54

I was able to get the sidebar back to normal after a fashion. I'm not quite sure what the lucky step was, but I'll tell what I did in case it might be useful for someone else:

  • Changed icon theme
  • Ran those aforementioned reset commands
  • Disabled unity plugin in Compiz Config Settings Manager and rebooted
  • went to preferences (in ccsm) and clicked reset to defaults
  • Updated all packages (had about 30 to update)
  • Rebooted again

Upon login I had the default Unity bar with normal icons showing, though I lost my compiz settings, but thats better than having to reinstall.

I was able to re-import my old ccsm profile without the bar going black as well.

share|improve this answer

perhaps some residual configs are conflicting. try this on a terminal:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

After installation is finished logout and log back in. Hope that helps

share|improve this answer
sorry, mate, that didn't resolve it, thanks anyway – iulian Apr 19 '11 at 14:25

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.