Unity 7.6 released for testing

Desktop Ubuntu Unity Development
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Unity 7.6 will be the first major release of Unity in 6 years (the last release was in May 2016). We have restarted the active development of Unity7 and will be releasing new versions with more features regularly. You can test it by running the following commands on Ubuntu Unity 22.04 (we’ll be rolling it out to existing users of Ubuntu Unity 22.04 too, if you don’t add the testing PPA):

sudo wget https://repo.unityx.org/unityx.key
sudo apt-key add unityx.key
echo 'deb https://repo.unityx.org/main testing main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/unity-x.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y unity

We have a new website for Unity too at https://unity.ubuntuunity.org.

Here are the changes I’ve made in Unity 7.6:

  • The dash (app launcher) and HUD have been redesigned for a modern and slick look.

  • Fixed broken app info and ratings in dash preview.

  • Fixed the ‘Empty Trash’ button in the dock (it now uses Nemo instead of Nautilus).

  • Migrated the complete Unity7 shell source code to GitLab and got it to compile on 22.04.

  • The design is much flatter but retains the system-wide blur.

  • The dock’s menus and tooltips have been given a more modern look.

  • The low graphics mode works much better now and the dash is faster than ever.

  • The RAM usage in Unity7 is slightly lower now, while the RAM usage has been reduced substantially to about 700-800 MBs in Ubuntu Unity 22.04.

  • Fixed the standalone testing Unity7 launcher (this will help Unity7 contributors).

  • The buggy tests have been disabled and the build time is much shorter (this will help Unity7 contributors).

Here are the commands you need to run if you want to compile Unity7 on Ubuntu Unity 22.04 and generate the DEB files:

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential git cmake
git clone https://gitlab.com/ubuntu-unity/unity/unity
cd unity && sudo apt build-dep .
debuild -b --no-sign
nemo .. & disown

Here are some screenshots of Unity 7.6:

redesigned_dash

neofetch

new_app_preview

updated_app_menu
updated_app_menu1195×1280 92.2 KB

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Has UnityX been renamed back to Unity7? Or is this a parallel effort?

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The development of Unity7 is a parallel effort (the development of 7.6 is completely different from the development of UnityX).

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Thank you for the clarification.

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I’ve installed the PPA on my testing system and tried the “Empty Trash” fix. Although it SEEMED to work at first, it crashed. Apport took a dump and sent it in automatically. Thought I’d give you a “Head’s Up.” Looking forward to seeing how this develops!

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Thanks for letting me know, I’ll take a look :slight_smile:

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Very cool. I am going to test drive this right away.

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Thank you, looks beautiful!

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How to fix this bug?

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11009×1009 54.9 KB

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Looks like you’re using Ubuntu and not Ubuntu Unity (this issue is fixed in Ubuntu Unity). You could try adding this PPA: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-unity-devs/+archive/ubuntu/stable and then updating the gtk3-nocsd package.

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Thanks a lot. Is it possible to match window bar color with top bar color with changing to dark theme i.e., black bar (top+window) or black shell color in white theme.

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Firefox keeps disappearing from my launcher.

I suspect it’s because it was refreshed.

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@rs2009 @jaime-cruz

Initial testing feedback on unity 7.6:

The only problem I have been seeing so far is traps from compiz when
emptying the trash from the launcher. Happens with both Nautilus and
Nemo and does not happen when emptying the trash from either app:

Trap when emptying trash using Nautilus:
[ 3760.702261] traps: compiz[9092] general protection fault ip:7fd4e13dc4c0 sp:7fd4abffeb38 error:0 in libc.so.6[7fd4e136f000+195000]

Trap when emptying trash using Nemo:
[ 7506.753044] traps: compiz[10362] general protection fault ip:7f4a4b99d77d sp:7f4a25220b38 error:0 in libc.so.6[7f4a4b930000+195000]

Note that trap since in compiz resets the whole desktop when it occurs(e.g. desktop goes blank
then recovers).

I can upload a full dmesg output or syslog if needed.

So looking good so far other than this issue… Good Work !!

Brett “WolfMan” Bogert

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hi @bbogert24

I’m aware of this issue and have fixed it in the latest commit in GitLab. Will release the fix in the stable release of 7.6.

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So if I want to use Unity on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, should I add the ppa? Right now Unity-session is just crashing as soon as I login.

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Looks like you’re using vanilla Ubuntu, not Ubuntu Unity 22.04. Try installing the dbus-x11 package on vanilla Ubuntu (both Unity 7.5 and Unity 7.6 should work then).

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I installed this PPA and updated a vanilla Ubuntu Kinetic install with it. My only issue is that Unity is using grayscale-antialiased fonts instead of RGBA antialiasing (which is already set with the GNOME Tweaks program).

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if in system installed Gnome and Unity then in browser used portal app for open/save dialog from gnome. This is app not work correctly, Save button not active, when change file name then work search and other bugs.
How to enforce using portal-gtk ( xdg-desktop-portal-gtk ) and keep installed gnome, because now recommended remove all apps from gnome. Now xdg-desktop-portal-gnome not installed in my system.
I am on Ubuntu Unity 22.04, not test 7.6 yet, waiting for official update.

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Great work @rs2009 I would love to see some work on the aging Unity settings: the theme selection is always broken for me and if you happen to select the wrong theme there’s no way back. Please fix this Rudra :slight_smile:

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Greetings! After installing ubuntu unity 22.04 i got a huge black border around HUD and search panel, is there any solution to make them gone?

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