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When I log into Ubuntu I have two options in the gear window:

  • Gnome on Xorg
  • Ubuntu

It looks like the "Ubuntu" option is the "Unity Desktop Environment"

How can I uninstall it and remove this option from my drop down?

I followed the directions here but it is still listed as an option in the drop down.

In my terminal sudo apt-get remove unity returns Package 'unity' is not installed, so not removed

and sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-desktop returns Package 'ubuntu-desktop' is not installed, so not removed

However, Unity is still an option at login and it still loads the Unity desktop.

Very frustrating!

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5
  • Did you upgrade your system from an older release? Ubuntu means the default DEsktop, which for 18.04 is GNOME with some 'flavoring' (tweaks etc). Unity was the last Ubuntu-Desktop for 17.04 and before, being replaced by GNOME for 17.10 & 18.04
    – guiverc
    Jul 16, 2018 at 1:01
  • @guiverc Yes, I upgraded from 17.10. However, now I want Unity off of my computer. Logging into "Ubuntu" now loads the Unity Desktop (I think - or at least something that looks identical to Unity)
    – Startec
    Jul 16, 2018 at 1:03
  • If you installed 17.10 and upgraded from there, you are using GNOME only; you're talking about the Ubuntu flavor of GNOME. If you dpkg -l *unity* you'll see a list of packages which include the name unity in them, I suspect most unity packages will have 'un' (uninstalled) and not 'ii" (installed), though my box has a few GtkMenuShell things that are common in gnome & unity). I suspect you want vanilla GNOME & not Ubuntu GNOME. Have a look at askubuntu.com/questions/964598/…
    – guiverc
    Jul 16, 2018 at 1:13
  • The only things showing as ii with dpkg -l *unity* are 3 things that look like: ii libunity-protocol-private0. The link you shared does not tell me how to get rid of the Ubuntu option in the greeter. Do you know how to do this?
    – Startec
    Jul 16, 2018 at 1:16
  • No I don't, as the only things I can think of would impact GNOME. If you had other non-gnome options it would be a Yes (but would remove both your current gnome options)
    – guiverc
    Jul 16, 2018 at 1:22

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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As I explained here, for many display managers (including GDM) the desktop environment choices are stored as .desktop files in /usr/share/xsessions (X.org) and /usr/share/wayland-sessions (Wayland). Remove the corresponding .desktop file and the desktop environment won't show up in the greeter.

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8
  • But does this actually delete the desktop environment? I want to make sure the package is removed, not just hidden.
    – Startec
    Jul 16, 2018 at 7:20
  • @Startec the prompts you showed in the question state that unity is not installed already
    – Patrick Trentin
    Jul 16, 2018 at 7:22
  • @Startec No, but your question was "How to remove Unity from the available desktop managers". You can have a look at the .desktop files which desktop environment they actually execute. As guiverc said in the comments, 17.10 shipped with gnome by default. If you didn't install unity yourself, it is probably not installed.
    – danzel
    Jul 16, 2018 at 7:25
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    @Startec when uninstalling software some configuration files may be left behind.. This is one of such cases. Did you even try to load the other desktop environment?
    – Patrick Trentin
    Jul 16, 2018 at 7:39
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    @Startec are you sure it's unity? It should be gnome with extensions that make it look like the old unity. The packet manager says you don't have unity installed, so it can't be it.
    – Patrick Trentin
    Jul 16, 2018 at 8:01

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