How to permanently enable in-dash calculator in 13.10

Question

In previous versions of Ubuntu, I used a calculator scope from some PPA. It was very nice, worked snappily and generally behaved like calc.

13.10 has it's own calculator, which can be used, but it stopped working after I disabled web results with unity tweak tool. Even when it was working, it was sluggish, as if it only used the calculator if it found nothing else anywhere.

I can still use the calculator by typing

calculator:1+1

or enabling it from the filter results -menu.

But those options defeat the purpose.

How do I enable the calculator scope to always be triggered by default?

Answer 1

When you perform a search on the home scope, there are a number of inputs that influence which scopes will be queried including:

1. Scopes selected through the filters (either through "Categories" of scopes, or directly as "Sources").
2. If the search term includes a keyword (e.g. your example of calculator:1+1).
3. Recommendations from the smart scope server based on the search query (e.g. if the search term looks like an equation it recommends asking the calculator scope).

It is probably the third one that is enabling the scope usually, and that recommendation doesn't come through if you've disabled online results.

I don't think there is an alternative way to force it to be used unfortunately.

Answer 2

This bugged me for ages, and I finally found a solution, buried here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity-scope-calculator/+bug/1440777

• Install dconf-editor sudo apt install dconf-editor
• Run it dconf-editor
• Open com.canonical.unity.lenses
• Add info-calculator.scope to the always-search list
• Profit!