Ubuntu – How to speed up the dash

13.10unityunity-dash

I have this issue with Ubuntu 13.10. The dash is simply too laggy when it comes to type something into it moreover it takes more than 3 secs to open so I can type something inside. It's FASTIDIOUS and quite disappointing. I've seen this issue in computers with much more power resources and that somewhat comply with the standard requirements. Come one I've seen this bug on pc's with 3gb of RAM and 2,6Ghz processors not to mention the advanced graphic cards. Can this bug be solved in the future or will it stick around with Ubuntu as long as it's installed on my pc? Please answer something.

Best Answer

It's a bug with your hardware and graphics drivers rather than Ubuntu and Unity. The dash is faster than it was with Ubuntu 13.04 or prior releases. If you're using open source drivers, you'll want to immediately add the oibaf PPA to get better open source drivers for your graphics card. However, since oibaf currently does not support Saucy, you'll need to edit oibaf to use raring repos instead.

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers; sudo sed -i 's/saucy/raring/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/oibaf*; sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get upgrade -y; sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y

Then reboot.

If you are using proprietary drivers you will need to uninstall them first. If you are using NVDIA you need to use the closed source drivers from NVIDIA instead with sudo apt-get install nvidia-current -y

For Ubuntu 11.10

The solution depends on whether you are using the standard or 2D version of Ubuntu, which depends on your graphics card. (See: Am I using Unity or Unity 2D? )

Resizing the Dash in the standard Ubuntu

When opening the Ubuntu Dash, you should see three "window buttons" in the upper-left. Click the maximize button (the square) to switch between fullscreen and windowed mode.

Resizing the Dash in Ubuntu 2D

Install and launch Dconf Editor . Once it's open, navigate to the desktop > unity section in the left pane. You will see a form-factor option, which if set to 'Netbook' will made the Dash fullscreen, and if set to 'Desktop' will make the Dash windowed.

picture of dconf

What about drag-resizing the Dash, like a Window?

There are many unconfigurable parts of Unity, and this is one of them. The Dash has two modes (fullscreen and windowed) and you can switch between them using the methods above. You can't drag-resize the Dash.

In defense of Unity's design, though, there's no reason you'd want to resize the Unity Dash to arbitrary dimensions on the fly. You don't "drag and drop icons [from the desktop to the Dash] in order to create shortcuts", as the question asker mentioned; that's what the launcher is for. The Dash is designed to be the sole focus on your desktop when you use it.

Ubuntu – How to speed up the Dash response

Ubuntu 12.10

I. Install Unsettings. Type in terminal

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:diesch/testing

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install unsettings

Open Unsettings. You can try 2 changes.

First, go to Dash > Blur and select No blur.

No blur

Second, go to Themes and change Graphics Mode to Force low graphics mode.

Low graphics mode

II. Install the Compiz Config Settings Manager. Type in terminal

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Open the compiz manager. Go to OpenGL and select Texture Filter > Fast

Texture filter

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