Right after Ubuntu 17.10, Canonical decided a major thing – throwing away Unity and adopting the GNOME Shell. It was a logical choice as Unity was never a popular desktop environment to choose. The Linux community was excited as well having GNOME – a popular desktop environment as the default. However, it turns out that many people still prefer Unity despite its lower popularity.
I also enjoyed the Unity desktop. That’s why today, we’ll get back Unity desktop in our system once again. Note that although Unity isn’t the official desktop environment anymore, I didn’t face any problem switching to it in the latest version.
Installing Unity on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
Before we install Unity, we have to make sure that the system is up-to-date and nothing is corrupted. Run the following commands for updating all your system software and components.
sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade -y
Now, run this command for installing Unity.
sudo apt install ubuntu-unity-desktop
Voila! Unity is in your system!
However, there’s no LightDM with the installation. It was no longer the default login manager app of Unity for a long time. But there’s no problem working with GDM and Unity, but if you wish to have LightDM back, that’s also possible.
Follow the screenshots for installing LightDM. After installation is complete, Ubuntu will switch to LightDM by default.
Switching to Unity
Now, it’s time to start the new desktop. If you wish to keep GDM, simply “Log out” of GNOME Shell, click to return to the GDM menu. From the “gear” icon, select “Unity”.
If you want to use LightDM, reboot your system. Your system will use LightDM by default. Don’t forget to select “Unity” from the option.
Uninstalling Unity
If you’re no longer interested in Unity, you can simply uninstall Unity. Run the command:
sudo apt remove ubuntu-unity-desktop sudo apt autoremove
If you configured to use LightDM, you can revert back to GDM by running the following command:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3 # Run this command after restarting your system sudo apt uninstall lightdm --purge
Now, you’re back on your default system!
