Wanna Change the Location of Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal's Dock/Launcher?

Note: Guys... I think I made a mistake :). This won't work because... what this option enables is, the corner that you have to bring your mouse pointer (left or right) to make the launcher "show" not the app launcher location. So, sorry about all this. :) (pretty embarrassing).

Previously I posted something very similar but forgot (it didn't hit me at that time :D) to mention a very important step. Again don't get your hopes up so high because... I still can't confirm if this works. Reason for that is my buggy ATI GPU, so thanks to Compiz... even without doing any tweaks, most of the time I can't get a fully working unity-shell.

So I'm not sure if this works, but if you're really angry at Canonical because they wouldn't give you the ability to change the location of that launcher (most call it "dock") other than the "left", then why not give this a try.

First things first...

Guys and gals, with all the due respect, please don't blame me if this method breaks your OS (it may not but who knows, shi* happens).

Anyhow, before moving any further, let's take few precautions which should keep your primary data secure (again there are no guarantees)

First, make sure that after booting you're prompted at the log-in screen rather than automatic login. To make sure the "automatic login is disabled" (it is disabled by default).

1. Open your Terminal and issue the below command.

gdmsetup

Now, this should bring a window similar to the below one, once opened, unlock the screen by clicking on the "unlock" button and when asked give your administer password.

After that, make sure you've "checked/chosen" the below two main options.

"show list of users"

"show the screen for choosing who will login"

If the "login as" is enabled, disable it by click on the "show the screen for choosing who will login" option.

Now close the window.

Let's create a new temporary user account for this "experiment", if anything bad happens, we can simply delete it later. For that...

2. Again open your Terminal and enter the below command.

users-admin

From the left side, click on the "add" button and give a user name (let's call him "gates" and a password when prompted.


3. Now log off your current desktop and login using the newly created user account, "gates" ;-). Once your unity desktop loads again open your Terminal and enter the below command.

gconf-editor

Now you should get a similar window as shown below.

From that window, from your left side go to:

"apps" -> "compizconfig-1" -> "profiles" -> "default" -> "plugins" -> "unityshell" -> "screen0" -> "options". 

Once you're inside of "options" you'll see a screen similar to the below one.

To your right side, you'll see an entry (highlighted in the screenshot) called "launcher_reveal_edge" and its default value is "Left" aha! ;-).

Now just click on that "Left" value or right click on it and choose "edit key" and change the value to "Right" and click "OK". Now close the window and again open the "gconf-editor" and make sure the value is set as "Right".

Now all you gotta do is log off from the temporary user account and when at login window again choose the same user name ("gates" :P) and, this is important:

After entering the password and before you hit the enter key, from the session type (right below your "password/user name field") chose "User defined session".

Now just click login and if this works ... then you should be greeted with the usual Unity desktop but the launcher to your right rather than left!.

As I said before, I'm having some real troubles while logging into the unity-shell interface and after doing this my panel and launcher got disappeared (this is normal even with the "default" settings) and the screenshots are from the Gnome desktop rather than Unity-Shell.

However, when I moved my mouse around right corner after logging in with these changes, and once I got my mouse closer to the right side of the screen, something did come to the front ... but couldn't say what it was (again I'm really struggling with the unity-shell).

But if you have a working unity-desktop (good for you ;-) ) then who knows this might help you to change the location of launcher/dock in your Ubuntu Natty Narwhal!.

If anything goes wrong and this doesn't work, simply log out of your desktop. If your desktop does not show anything and seems like stuck, then you'll have to reset your PC using the "reset button" or you can try this method first.

After rebooting and once you're prompted at the log-in screen, choose your usual user account and once logged in, simply delete the temprorary user account that we created.

Note - Please use this at your Own risk...