How can I remove the Unity Launcher?

Solution 1:

12.04 and later

From the Gear, choose System Settings

Double click the Appearance icon

Click the behaviour tab and then toggle the autohide option...

You can re-reveal the menu by pushing onto the left-hand side of the window or the top corner depending upon which option is shown as per the picture.

Solution 2:

It should be possible to remove unity and use netbook-launcher-efl & ubuntu-netbook-efl-default-settings instead. This is the 2D version of the old launcher, which allows applications to open over it.

Solution 3:

You can do what I did and install a third party dock (I used DockBarX, but that isn't the easiest thing to install by itself), have that replace the Unity launcher bar and then comment out the script for the Launcher and change the shell to have a width of zero.

The end result is DockBarX with the Unity menu when you press the super key, and all of the other unity things. DockBarX can be replaced with any other dock such as tint or docky or etc etc.

To do this (note: I am running Ubuntu 12.04 so the steps may vary slightly), simply input

gksudo gedit /usr/share/unity-2d/shell/Shell.qml

and edit line 45 as "width: 0"

and

gksudo gedit /usr/share/unity-2d/shell/launcher/Launcher.qml

and add a " /* " at the start of line 28 (possibly earlier) and a " */ " at the end of line 223.

Solution 4:

You can effectively remove the launcher through the CompizConfig Settings Manager. You may need to install it with:

apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Open CCSM > Ubuntu Unity Plugin.

If you want to simply autohide the toolbar, select "Autohide" in the Hide Launcher select box.

Additionally, if you wish to prevent it from appearing at all when approaching the edge of the screen, click the Reveal Mode button and deselect any sides it is configured to appear on. The laucher should be removed completely unless you press the super key.

This is tested to work in Ubuntu 11.10.