Ubuntu: How do I reset my Unity configuration?
Channel: Roel Van de Paar
Date: 2019-06-10

Ubuntu: How do I reset my Unity configuration?


Question: I've been messing around with Unity and broke something, how do I "start over"?

Solutions Sample (Please watch the whole video to see all solutions, in order of how many people found them helpful):

== This solution helped 112 people ==
****** For 12.10 - 13.04 ******
I, along with jokerdino and amithkk have created a python script that cleanly
resets Unity for Quantal and above.
It is hosted on github at https://github.com/phanimahesh/unity-revamp
The script is now bundled with https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/unity-
tweak-tool/. You can install it using
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:freyja-dev/unity-tweak-tool-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool
****** For 13.10 & 14.04 ******
sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool
To reset Unity, do
unity-tweak-tool --reset-unity
Note - if this does not resolve your Unity issues then the following Q&A may
apply to you:
    * https://askubuntu.com/questions/56313/how-do-i-reset-gnome-to-the-
      defaults
----
**** What happens behind the scenes? ****
Simple. We chase each individual setting that Unity uses, and reset them to
their default values, and then reload unity to apply changes. Ah yes, we also
kill Unity and compiz before we start, since it is known to get tricky if we
change settings under compiz's nose. ----
**** Why is this better compared to using dconf-editor or dconf reset ? ****
    * Didier Roche (didrocks), the author of unity python wrapper says dconf
      reset does not work in all cases.
    * The consensus among Unity developers is that the settings be modified
      using Gsettings instead of dconf directly.
----
**** What exactly is dconf ? ****
A little history
    * The configuration settings were managed by gconf earlier.
    * Gnome provides Gsettings as a replacement for gconf.
    * Gsettings is a high level api that manipulates the settings stored in a
      backend.
    * Unity stores its settings in the backend dconf since it can be loaded
      much faster than gconf.

== This solution helped 114 people ==
The following command does not work on newer distributions (as the reply is
ERROR: the reset option is now deprecated).
***** For 12.04 and older *****
The simplest way is to hit "open a Terminal" or hit Alt-F2 and run the command:
unity --reset

== This solution helped 14 people ==
***** For Ubuntu 12.10 (Revised, again) *****
OK, here it is. You can use 'dconf reset' as previously outlined and will do
exactly what 'unity --reset' used to do.
dconf reset -f /org/compiz/
Then restart:
compiz --replace & disown
Apparently it would actually be better to stop compiz before using the 'dconf
reset'. Which I'm currently working on.
You can also look at the settings you have:
dconf dump /org/compiz/
To reset the unity icons you can still use
unity --reset-icons
This information is from a variety of sources, after much googling.

== This solution helped 20 people ==
Try to do this:
   1. Login into Ubuntu
   2. Open a terminal by hitting Ctrl + Alt + T
   3. Insert and run this commands:
      gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/compiz-1
      unity --reset
   4. Restart, this should work.

With thanks & praise to God! With thanks to all the many who have made this project possible! | Content (except music & images) licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 | Music & music license: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music | Images & images license: https://stocksnap.io/license and others | With thanks to user strpeter (https://askubuntu.com/users/217269), user Mahesh (https://askubuntu.com/users/45659), user Kees Cook (https://askubuntu.com/users/721), user Jorge Castro (https://askubuntu.com/users/235), user hg8 (https://askubuntu.com/users/338915), user fabricator4 (https://askubuntu.com/users/65646), user Evgeniy Trifonov (https://askubuntu.com/users/189143), user eNry (https://askubuntu.com/users/29386), user dago (https://askubuntu.com/users/17610), user Braiam (https://askubuntu.com/users/169736), user Anwar (https://askubuntu.com/users/61218), user Alex Launi (https://askubuntu.com/users/5104), and the Stack Exchange Network (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17610). Trademarks are property of their respective owners. Disclaimer: All information is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind. You are responsible for your own actions. Please contact me if anything should be amiss at Roel D.OT VandePaar A.T gmail.com.