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When I installed Ubuntu 11.10 Beta 2, during live-CD install, I tried out the new application switcher and it worked beautifully. After the installation is complete, the new application switcher is gone. In its place is a ugly grey Windows XP-ish thing.

I am not sure if this is a graphics driver issue, because I enabled nvidia proprietary driver. But other 3D related things looks fine. So how can I get the new application switcher back?

enter image description here

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4
  • Do you know if this is an error or is it just "supposed" to be this way?
    – Alvar
    Oct 8, 2011 at 18:02
  • 3
    @hansioux Can you provide a screenshot?
    – Knowledge Cube
    Oct 8, 2011 at 18:23
  • screen cap added
    – hansioux
    Oct 9, 2011 at 4:36
  • You are using Unity 2D. It looks pretty good here. I didn't install any video card drivers either.
    – Blue Pony Inc.
    Oct 9, 2011 at 6:55

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
2

It looks like if you are using Ubuntu 2D. When logging in, select "Ubuntu", instead of "Ubuntu 2D".

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  • i am already logging onto Ubuntu, instead of Ubuntu 2D. I am thinking it might be some kind of driver issue, because instead of the nVidia card, phoronix says i am using Intel 2nd Generation Core Family IGP. But i have tried drivers provided by Ubuntu and by nVidia, and i still can't get it to work.
    – hansioux
    Oct 10, 2011 at 17:34
  • Go into "System Settings" and under "System", click on "System Info" then it should give you the type of graphics card you are using under "Graphics".
    – Evan
    Oct 16, 2011 at 6:21
  • You say "the Intel IGP rather than the nVidia card"? Is this an Optimus laptop? Installing the nvidia drivers will break any other 3D driver, so if you're using the Intel chip this will have broken Unity.
    – RAOF
    Oct 17, 2011 at 6:23
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Hansioux,

This is very likely a driver issue. I had a somewhat similar problem when I installed the NVIDIA drivers from the NVIDIA website in 11.04. Replacing those with the drivers in the nvidia-current package fixed it.

In my case, I dropped to the console (CTRL + ALT + F1), stopped gdm and then re-ran the NVIDIA install script as root, but with the "--uninstall" parameter. After it finished removing that version of the driver, I installed nvidia-current and then rebooted. The eye candy is back (switcher, aero-ish snap, etc.). FYI: I use Gnome 2.3, but I don't think the problem was at that level.

So, in my case:

(from console)
$ sudo su -
# stop gdm
# sh /home/tim/Downloads/NVIDIA-Linux-x86-285.05.09.run --uninstall
# apt-get install nvidia-current
# reboot
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  • awesome, thank you. i forgot about optimus... i'd try bumblebee, but i don't have too much time to play with it.
    – hansioux
    Oct 21, 2011 at 17:44
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Same thing here, updating from 11.04 to 11.10 in an Optimus laptop (Asus N53). Was working fine, but lost Unity effects (snap, switcher, etc) on the way :(

After some time, got solution here: Getting gnome-shell working on nvidia optimus notebook or within here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Asus_U36JC

So if: - Optimus laptop - No Unity effects (snapping windows, plain-ugly application/workspace switcher, no Unity handles, etc) - (even when upgrading from 11.04 where Unity3D was working fine)

then remove nvidia drivers to revert to intel onboard card with 3d support (see links above)

Thanks (again) AskUbuntu!!!

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-1

You can test your hardware for unity compliance, see:

http://www.installubuntulinux.com/2011/05/how-to-test-unity-support-in-your.html

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1
  • bad link -- it's a parked domain
    – mpenkov
    Jan 30, 2013 at 2:31

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