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I installed or uninstalled some packages. I do not even remember what I was doing. As a result, now I can't see most of the system settings in settings window. Any idea how to solve this problem.

enter image description here

When I hover mouse over the window title, it shows 'Unknown Application name' I must have removed something, not sure what :-)

Braiam
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Indigo
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  • Reinstalling ubuntu-desktop solved my sound problem which couldnt be helped by reinstalling alsa and pulseaudio. Thanks a lot –  Jun 18 '14 at 09:17
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    I encountered the same problem after addressing problems with sound (following a suggestion to remove and reinstall alasbase and pulseaudio - this fixed my sound problem). Reinstalling ubuntu-desktop worked for me (and sound still working) – AnGus Jun 05 '14 at 00:44
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    Unity seems to have a (unjustified?) dependency on evolution; running sudo apt-get purge evolution* triggers this. To get the System Settings back without much evolution cruft, I ran sudo apt-get install unity-control-center --no-install-recommends afterwards, some evolution-related components get installed and System Settings with all of its icons is back. – Nickolai Leschov Oct 11 '15 at 15:01
  • @NickolaiLeschov that's exactly the problem: I usually want to slim down my Ubuntu dev machine and remove useless packages which include evolution (that is linked with emails in my mind) ... and end up without core Ubuntu features. – Matthieu Oct 20 '20 at 07:58

4 Answers4

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You may have accidentally removed some packages (or some dependencies which caused the package to uninstall). In any case, you may try installing (or re installing) the package ubuntu-desktop. Correct any accidental package uninstallation by:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop
cshubhamrao
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  • Wow, magic, magic. Love it. Thanks worked like a charm.

    I still don't know what triggered this to happen. I didn't uninstall any package.

     – Indigo Apr 23 '14 at 08:10
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    same problem here Indigo and I was just playing with sound... thx cshubhamrao – Lukas Lukac Apr 29 '14 at 14:16
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    Also came a cross this problem wile experiencing sound problems and trying to fix them. Think it happened when I reinstalled alsa-base and pulsesound. – Thomas K Jul 10 '14 at 07:20
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    Excellent. It works..I faced this issue after uninstalling ibus. – Desingh Aug 09 '14 at 14:39
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    sudo apt-get install unity-control-center is probably all you need, not the entire ubuntu-desktop – David Underhill Aug 17 '14 at 00:36
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    @DavidUnderhill yes, but the OP may also have accidentally removed some more packages, installing the ubuntu-desktop is sure shot way to fix any more missing packages – cshubhamrao Aug 17 '14 at 15:42
  • same issue, also started with sound problems as @ThomasK, also reinstalled alsa-base and pulsesound. I just reinstalled ubuntu-desktop and going for a reboot now. Will update upon boot. [UPDATE] ok, this did resolve the Settings issue. My main sound problem still remains, but thats for another thread. – Manco1911 Oct 11 '14 at 22:38
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    I met this problem after I issues this command: apt-get remove --purge alsa-base pulseaudio – PhatHV May 27 '15 at 04:03
  • I believe the solution by @Thnzrmzwr should be the answer. Sure, reinstalling ubuntu-desktop should solve the case with missing system settings icons, but it doesn't help if one runs into the problem while uninstalling some packages from the ubuntu-desktop metapackage, like I did. – Nickolai Leschov Oct 11 '15 at 14:56
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    Thanks for the answer. You saved my day :) I would like to mention that we can install "ubuntu-desktop-minimal" as well to fix this issue. This minimal version downloads just ~60 KB data but ubuntu-desktop will download 500 MB of data. – Shekhar Jul 04 '20 at 14:45
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    Thanks! I had the issue after running sudo apt-get remove --purge mysql* and sudo apt-get autoremove – Crine Feb 24 '21 at 08:41
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    Got this after removing mysql* php* mariadb* apache2* – undefined Jun 26 '21 at 10:06
  • This fixed my problem after trying just to re-install unity-control-center failed. – Kris Stern Oct 12 '21 at 08:43
  • This worked for me. I was experimenting with Audacity 3 from PPA and SNAP yesterday (installing and uninstalling) when I noticed the SETTINGS from the top-right menu was gone and unable to adjust my sound settings. Thank you!! – Quantanglement Oct 09 '22 at 23:07
  • I keep coming back to this post because I dont remember the command, and because Ubuntu keeps removing my settings. I wish I knew what is going on here. I have not deselected it or removed it on purpose, but it keeps disappearing. Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS. – Terje Nesthus Feb 06 '24 at 09:10
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Uninstall and then reinstall System Settings (unity-control-center) from the Ubuntu Software Center application.

Or run this command in terminal

  1. sudo apt-get remove unity-control-center
  2. sudo apt-get install unity-control-center
Naz
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    +1 This completely fixes the issue for me without reinstalling all the other stuff that comes with ubuntu-desktop, and is the best answer here. – Jason C Jul 07 '14 at 19:45
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    Did the trick for me, though line #1 said unity-control-center wasn't installed, but second line did it. I've been messing with my 14.04 Ubuntu recently, installed Cinnamon, removed some stuff, and disabled some services, etc, so no clue what cased settings appear like that, but i am pretty sure installing cinnamon played into it some how. Good answer, though -minimalistic and practical – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Nov 13 '14 at 06:15
  • Awesome, worked for me without reboot. I think I also lost settings when trying to deal with sound issues. – Rmurphy Nov 15 '19 at 17:00
  • This solved the issue for me. – Alexandre V. Jan 22 '21 at 14:16
  • what's the difference between unity-control-center and gnome-control-center? – Felix Xu May 27 '21 at 03:04
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If reinstalling ubuntu-desktop still doesn't cut it for you, you may be accessing system settings in a wrong way. Try to open them directly from a terminal (rather than a bogus shortcut like I was):

gnome-control-center
Zanna
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pikiou
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  • Thank you for those using the gnome-desktop like me. Just couldn't remember the name for what needed to be removed and reinstalled. – Terrance May 26 '15 at 16:26
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Yep removing a few programs as suggested BY Ubuntu left settings LOST.

and I had noticed in rem, moving the package, that it also removed gnome-control-center.

Re-installing it solved the problem! find it in software or alternatively type this in a terminal ...

sudo apt install gnome-control-center

Always Trying to help, Mark

markackerman8-gmail.com
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  • neither one of these solutions solved the settings issue. Only devices tab is shown in settings. – Brad Thompson Apr 21 '20 at 18:22
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    This was the best answer for me in Ubuntu 20.04. ubuntu-desktop wanted to download and install the internet. This just fixed my problem. It matches this: https://rubelmiah.com/how-to-fix-missing-settings-in-ubuntu/ – GlenPeterson Oct 25 '20 at 00:44