1. General tweaks(for both Gnome and Unity)
Change themes, fonts and more with Gnome Tweak Tool
sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool
Once installed, GNOME Tweak Tool should show up as "Advanced Settings" in the menu.
Besides changing fonts or themes, GNOME Tweak Tool can also be used to enable/disable GNOME Shell extensions, tweak the desktop, various windows behavior or GNOME Shell.
Longer battery life
i don't know if the kernel power bug is real or not, but many users have reported that using Jupiter or a tweak
we've posted a while back, their laptop/netbook battery life increased. Install Jupiter using the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/jupiter sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install jupiter
Autostart items
Some applications/services that used to be in the Startup Applications dialog are no longer there. That's because they are hidden now but you can still find them under /etc/xdg/autostart . So if you want to remove the startup sound or other hidden applications from starting automatically, remove their .desktop files from /etc/xdg/autostart.
(you'll have to run Nautilus as root: "gksu nautilus"). But make sure you make a backup of the files you want to remove firstly!
2. Unity Tweak
Configure Unity(autohide, etc)
Unity 3D can be configured through CompizConfig Settings Manager, but CCSM isn't installed by default so let's install it:
sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
Using CCSM you can configure the Unity Launcher reavel mode and timeout, the Unity Launcher autohide (autohide, dodge windows, dodge active windows or
disable autohide), various keyboard shortcuts, the new ALT + TAB switcher behavior, blacklight mode, panel and launcher opacity, launcher icon size and more.
A few quick stuff I for one always tweak using CCSM (open CompizConfig Settings Manager and click the "Ubuntu Unity Plugin"):
To disable launcher autohide: on the "Behavior tab" under "Hide Launcher", select "Never".
To disable mounted devices from showing up on the Unity Launcher: on the "Experimental" tab, under "Show Devices" select "Never".
By default, applications that usually take 75% of the screen are maximized automatically on start. To change this automaximize value,
on the "Experimental" tab, look for "Automaximize value" - tweak this to whatever value you want.
3. Something went wrong ! How do i reset Unity or Comqiz?
You can easily reset Unity or Compiz using the following commands (be careful when using these commands and only use them
if you really have to!):
- to reset the Unity launcher icons:- to reset Unity:
unity --reset-icons
- to reset Unity:
unity --reset
- to reset Compiz:
gconftool-2 --recursive-unset /apps/compiz-1 unity --reset