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Tips and Tricks | Trucs et Astuces

Subjects Author Language Messages Last message
[Locked] How to replace Unity with Cairo-Dock.
ppmt English 13 fabounet [Read]
27 July 2011 à 15:49

ppmt, Saturday 25 June 2011 à 03:04


Subscription date : 29 November 2007
Messages : 3520
Hello all,

I am starting this thread to explain my attempt at completely replacing Unity with Cairo-Dock.

I must say I quite like Unity but CD is better in term of features and flexibility...

So you have upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04 (or more) and you have the Unity environment.

1/ Open (install if needed) ccsm to allow you to edit Compiz setting.
2/ Search for the Unity plugin and deactivate it.

We now start playing with Cairo-Dock

To make is simpler to follow I will start from the Default theme so load it if you prefer. I am
also in the simple configuration mode of CD. It is not needed but I like it

1/ Right click on CD and select Cairo-Dock / Configure
  • Select Simple Mode at the bottom of the panel to be able to follow me
  • Select Left for the position of the dock
  • Select the way you want the dock to appear (I like "keep the dock hidden")
  • Select the way you want the dock to disappear (again I like Fade)
  • Apply and close the configuration panel

This should give you something nice already but we are missing the top panel.

2/ Right click on CD and select Add / Main Dock
  • The dock will be created at the top by default.
3/ Set your mouse at the op middle of the screen and right click on that new dock
  • Select configure this dock
  • Select the option to "reserve space for the dock" in the visibility section of the first tab and apply
  • Select Panel view in the appearance tab and apply
We now have an empty panel at the top and it is time to populate it.

4/ Still in the configuration panel click on the Left dock menu to expand its content
  • Select the Application menu and change the dock it belongs to "top dock"
  • Do the same thing for the Following Applications: Shortcuts, Recent-Events, Log-out
  • Close the config panel
5/ You can now reorder the icons in both dock by dragging them in the position you desire.

At this stage we are nearly there but not quite. We need to split that top panel in 2

6/ Right click on the top panel and select Add / Separator.
  • Now some of the icons should have moved to the right side of the screen
  • You may have to drag some of them on the side you want.
7/ To finish I have added the following applet to the top panel
  • Calendar, Clock, Me Menu, Notification Area, Notification Area Old (more on that later), Sound Control and Trash

8/ To add the "MeMenu" and "Messaging Menu" to top panel you need to activate and then for some reason they will
appear in their own dock (on the left). Just right on each of them and select "move to another dock" and choose "Top Dock"

9/ At this point it is time to reorder each icons. You can that in both docks by dragging them to their correct position

10/ You can of course also add or removed other program/applet/separator from the left dock to suit you need.

That is it! You have replaced unity with Cairo-Dock

To be able to refine the configuration you will need to switch back to the advanced mode !

Now may be it is time for other to try it and we can share our ideas/issues/solution/improvement....

ppmt, Sunday 26 June 2011 à 03:12


Subscription date : 29 November 2007
Messages : 3520
a bit more on my tutorial

As you have noticed I put both the old notification and the new one. The main reason is that not all items show up in the new notification
so you need the old one.

But the problem is that these area can not be inside a panel without being in a subdock which is not cool

I wonder how difficult it would be to change that..

I also found out that when the old systray is in the panel then it crashes CD

So the way I have it is the old tray is detached and position in the top middle of the screen (just below the panel) and set to always above

The new is in the panel in compact mode. This is fine for the moment because so far I only have 2 notification (the network and dropbox)

matttbe, Sunday 26 June 2011 à 08:37


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
Ipropose to put this old systray in the bottom right of the screen in the widget of compiz. Can you have a look to Gnome Shell screenshots?

ppmt, Sunday 26 June 2011 à 15:23


Subscription date : 29 November 2007
Messages : 3520
not sure I understand what you mean Matttbe

ppmt, Tuesday 05 July 2011 à 20:25


Subscription date : 29 November 2007
Messages : 3520
Right I have found (by reading this forum) how to fix a problem that you will have once you deactivate Unity.

Unity is taking care of launching a menu (ALT<F1>) and launching a command (ALT<F2>).

Cairo-Dock to some extend (depending on the menu app you use) can take care of it.

But what happens if you quit CD...you are stuck because you no longer have access to ALT<F1> or ALT<F2>. So unless you had a terminal
open you can't relaunch CD.

I have found a workaround. Install gmrun and associate a binding for it in the compiz configuration panel. You then have access to a minimal app launcher

Note: as discussed below this option is only needed if you are going to constantly restart CD (like I do). If you installed it from the repository or
don't run the devellopment version then it should not be a problem for you.

matttbe, Friday 08 July 2011 à 15:50


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
But what happens if you quit CD...you are stuck because you no longer have access to ALT<F1> or ALT<F2>. So unless you had a terminal
open you can't relaunch CD.
But it's not really a problem because you have the same problem if you quit Unity or the Gnome-panel.

ppmt, Friday 08 July 2011 à 17:08


Subscription date : 29 November 2007
Messages : 3520
except that it's a lot harder to quit Unity or Gnome-panel and you don't normally need to restart them either as they are not upgraded that often

fabounet, Monday 11 July 2011 à 16:16


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
well they are, it's just that you don't run their development version
so I'd say that for a normal user, there is practically no need to stop the dock (even for gaming, it can quietly stay behind).
it's just a detail, but makes the thing a bit easier.

about 8, it's probably because they existed before in a second dock, and their config remained.
from the default theme, it shouldn't occur.
I'll try to find a way to prevent that though

ppmt, Monday 11 July 2011 à 20:13


Subscription date : 29 November 2007
Messages : 3520
OK Fair enough the 2 big boys are against me so I edited my message regarding my workaround

matttbe, Tuesday 19 July 2011 à 13:39


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
@ppmt: did you copy/paste this tutorial to a new wiki page?

ppmt, Tuesday 19 July 2011 à 19:35


Subscription date : 29 November 2007
Messages : 3520
nope not yet. I will look into it but I didn't see much enthousiast about it either

matttbe, Tuesday 19 July 2011 à 19:47


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
I didn't see much enthousiast about it either
But a lot of people visit our wiki everyday! Much than our forum.

ppmt, Tuesday 19 July 2011 à 21:45


Subscription date : 29 November 2007
Messages : 3520
Ok I have added it to wiki...I will need to add pictures now I guess

fabounet, Wednesday 27 July 2011 à 15:49


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
nice, thanks !
I should also post mine there.

Tips and Tricks | Trucs et Astuces

Subjects Author Language Messages Last message
[Locked] How to replace Unity with Cairo-Dock.
ppmt English 13 fabounet [Read]
27 July 2011 à 15:49


Glx-Dock / Cairo-Dock List of forums Tips and Tricks | Trucs et Astuces How to replace Unity with Cairo-Dock. Top

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