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Icedrake
Asked: 2011-12-13 15:02:26 +0800 CST

Can I uninstall Compiz if only using Gnome-Shell?

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I already know that I can uninstall Unity if I'm using Gnome-Shell exclusively, but I'm also wondering if it's safe to uninstall Compiz when I'm only using Gnome-Shell, since as far as I know, Gnome-Shell doesn't use Compiz.

11.10

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Removing compiz also removes the packages unity & ubuntu-desktop.

    Thus you will lose the ability to log into the unity or unity-2d desktops.

    ubuntu-desktop is a meta package - normally you would need this to allow a successful upgrade to ubuntu+1. Therefore - just reinstall this package before you next upgrade to 12.04.

    On my quick test, removing compiz did not stop me logging out and logging back into gnome-shell. You are correct - gnome-shell does not use compiz as its compositing manager, it uses mutter.

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  2. It depends on how much you want to remove and change.

    Yes, you can remove compiz, it will take a little work to remove unity and potentially unnecessary packages.

    See the linked question on how to remove Unity.

    Use the following to remove all compiz related packages:

    sudo apt-get purge compiz compiz-plugins-main-default libcompizconfig0

    If you do not want to do all this, you can re-install and try the gnome 3 remix

    See the UGR (Ubuntu Gnome Remix)

    https://launchpad.net/ubuntugnome

    https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UGR

    UGR Home page (check the LP and wiki page if you think this link is spam) http://ugr.teampr0xy.net/

    Linked Question:

    1. How can you remove Unity?
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