[HOWTO] Disable Unity Interface and restore original (classic) interface in Ubuntu Natty Narwhal

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November 28th, 2010 Permalink

Unity interface is the default interface in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. It consists of the dock and launchers. However, if you don’t like the dock, animations and the interface as a whole, you can just disable it and login to Ubuntu Classic Desktop. Logout and type in(or select) your username and in the bottom panel, [...]

Unity interface is the default interface in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. It consists of the dock and launchers. However, if you don’t like the dock, animations and the interface as a whole, you can just disable it and login to Ubuntu Classic Desktop.

Logout and type in(or select) your username and in the bottom panel, select “Ubuntu Classic Desktop” instead of “Ubuntu Desktop Edition”. When you login next time, the same will be selected by default.

To re-enable Unity interface, just select “Ubuntu Desktop Edition” during login.

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  • http://www.techhamlet.com/ Pubudu @ TechHamlet

    :D Thanks a lot for your post mate! It will surely come in handy when they release Natty Narwhal cause i don’t like the unity :P

  • Asdf

    How do you re-enable it after disabling it?

  • Alonsovr4

    Same thing in trying to figure out cause i liked it but i was messing with compiz and disabled it when i enabled cube. so now i just got background and no tabs or anything, i can still use ubuntu classic but i rather have unity. So my advise to you guys that got the beta” DO NOT DISABLE UNITY BECAUSE YOU WILL MESS UP EVERYTHING”

    • Harryault

      You can fix unity by setting a shortcut to compiz on your desktop while on ubuntu classic, then switch to default desktop and enable unity via the compiz shortcut

  • Alonsovr4

    Same thing in trying to figure out cause i liked it but i was messing with compiz and disabled it when i enabled cube. so now i just got background and no tabs or anything, i can still use ubuntu classic but i rather have unity. So my advise to you guys that got the beta” DO NOT DISABLE UNITY BECAUSE YOU WILL MESS UP EVERYTHING”

  • Yehonatan

    Thanks you helped a lot :)

  • Seru

    Thanx a lot… Unity? Omg, gratest shit i ever seen..

  • http://twitter.com/WritersEar Michael McGinnis

    Your method only works if your login screen gives you options to log in with a different mode…. But you can also change back to Ubuntu Classic in the Ubuntu System Settings (or change it back to Unity later).

    1) Click on the power button in the upper right corner (mine looks like a light switch) and choose the last option, System Settings.
    2) Search for Login Screen
    3) Double-click to display
    4) Choose Unlock and enter your password
    5) Select Ubuntu Classic as default session.

    • Ben

      Thanks for the tip. It is nice, but it is not ready for primetime IMO. I was running two apps with Thunderbird full screen in front. However, at the top the menu was for the application (Time Tracker) that was behind Tbird.

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  • Yourmom

    oh my ffing god what a bunch of tards who came up with this unity thingy, i almost hit my head agains the lcd-screen out of anger and frustration.

    • Gurkan

      i absolutely agree. especially since there’s no official documentation to remove the software, for those who don’t want it.

  • http://profiles.google.com/david.breimann David Breimann

    Thanks!

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  • Jestia2007

    I logged out, and I dont see anything at the bottom of the screen, just plain white bar and nothing on it.

    • http://www.khattam.info _khAttAm_

      Select your username first. ;)

  • http://hdanielb.myopenid.com/ Daniel

    with this setting, the classic bars appear, but unity stuff still there, and they coexist in some kind of poutpurri. There must be another way

  • Gowtham Saran Duraisamy

    just use the command to uninsall unity. “sudo apt-get remove unity”. thats it

  • iceberg

    This is not disabling it!  This is simply selecting an alternative. Get a clue.

  • Tony

    I am not offered the choice of “Ubuntu Classic Desktop”.

  • Tony

    I am not offered the choice of “Ubuntu Classic Desktop”.

  • RJL

    Yeah, but when I hit the gdm (login screen) Unity disables my nvidia driver which in turn prevents XWindows from properly detecting the monitor, which in turn gives me a nice 720×4?? display, which in turn, hides the bar at the bottom with the option to turn Unity off. Is this Windows? Are we now making changes and moving stuff around for the sake of making it look different? They need to put Unity back on the shelf where it belongs so I can get back to getting work done.

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  • Jordan Munroe

    “Ubuntu Desktop Edition” Looks an awful lot like a tablet interface…