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Reason: The dedicated repository is dead, the linked GitLab has been inactive since 2022-11-23. (Discuss in Talk:Unity)

Unity is a desktop shell for the GNOME desktop environment formerly developed by Canonical Ltd for Ubuntu. It is now maintained by the Ubuntu Unity Team. Unity is implemented as a plugin of the Compiz window manager.

Not to be confused with Unity3D.

Installation

Warning: Installing Unity means that many official packages will be replaced with patched Ubuntu versions. Be careful to check the resulting package conflicts.
Note: PKGBUILDs for the Unity desktop are available on GitLab.

Install unity-meta from the arch-unity repository and enable LightDM.

Tips and tricks

Customize LightDM wallpaper and appearance

See LightDM#Changing background images/colors.

Autostart programs on login

See GNOME#Autostart.

Troubleshooting

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Reason: This part is outdated. (Discuss in Talk:Unity)

Cannot right click on desktop

Other issues that this fix addresses:

  • Title bar at the top doesn't display Arch Linux Desktop
  • Shortcut keys, such as Super and Alt do not work when there are no active windows

Execute the following: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons true

Unity stops working after update

Run compiz.reset and then log out and log back into the Unity session.

If Unity still is not working, report an issue on github or discuss it in this forum thread on the Arch Linux Forums.

Some GTK themes look ugly since GNOME 3.6

This affects the unity default theme and light themes. Use:

~/.config/gtk3.0/gtk.css
GtkLabel {
  background-color: @transparent;
}

Workspace switcher widget disappeared

In ccsm (the Compiz Configuration Settings Manager), ensure that the following option is checked: Settings > Appearance > Behaviour > Enable workspaces.

No skype or other applications appear in indicator tray

Using Skype as an example; Append Skype to the systray-whitelist list in com.canonical.Unity.Panel using dconf-editor or the gsettings command. Reboot or logout afterwards.

Alternatively, replace the contents of systray-whitelist with all.

Known issues

See Gitlab Issues for known problems.

See also