Is Mutter supposed to be my window manager on plain Ubuntu?

Question

I ran into some problems after installing Gnome on my Ubuntu 14.04 desktop. I have managed to address most appearance-related issues.

However, if I run sudo update-alternatives --config x-window-manager I get:

There is only one alternative in link group x-window-manager (providing /usr/bin/x-window-manager): /usr/bin/mutter
Nothing to configure.

As far as I know, Mutter is the window manager for Gnome, not Unity. What is the window manager for Unity and how can I install/restore it? (Alternatively, does Unity 7 / 14.04 in fact use Mutter?)

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 25 '14 at 14:27

1

No, it must be lightdm. Restore it by using:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

or

sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm

answered Apr 25 '14 at 14:27

aastefanov

1,391
12
16

am I correct that lightdm is the default? – lofidevops Apr 25 '14 at 14:28
Yes, you are correct. – aastefanov Apr 25 '14 at 14:29
I did that, selected lightdm and restarted, there is no visible difference and the update-alternatives command returns the same result - any suggestions? based on what I've read, is it possible lightdm is only for the login screen and not a window manager? should compiz be the window manager, or is that only for older versions? – lofidevops Apr 25 '14 at 14:40
It can be Compiz or Metacity. – aastefanov Apr 25 '14 at 14:42

Is Mutter supposed to be my window manager on plain Ubuntu?

1 Answers1