System Settings icons missing in 14.04

Question

I did a fresh install of trusty 14.04, but a lot of icons are missing. I installed from DVD which was painfully slow and I hope to avoid repeating the process, especially since I started customizing stuff.

Here's my settings window:

System Settings

I've tried:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall gnome-control-center
sudo apt-get install --reinstall gnome-settings-daemon-schemas

None of which changed anything.

Any idea? I wanna edit preferences and none of them are in System Settings, neither in Unity Dash.

got same problem removing evolution-data-server. Lesson: don't do it ;) — Earendil, Aug 23 '14 at 13:19
possible duplicate of Missing System Settings after removing some packages — Waldir Leoncio, Apr 05 '15 at 11:46

score 50 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 17 '20 at 12:32

50

I had exactly the same problem - same icons missing as well. I had stupidly uninstalled gnome-bluetooth, and nothing was fixing it. So I did what user282306 (r00t) suggested -

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-desktop

And I've got them all back again.

Kudos @user282306 (previously r00t) for the suggestion.

edited Apr 17 '20 at 12:32

kinokijuf

111

answered May 17 '14 at 13:15

Tim

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I don't understand why in the hell there are not this settings apps by default... – logoff Apr 17 '15 at 10:24
@logoff there are. This would happen after a bad install or removing a package that you shouldn't - basically anything that starts with gnome-, for example gnome-bluetooth. – Tim Apr 17 '15 at 10:27
@Tim so strange, I did a fresh install on a VM adding a few new packages, not removing. – logoff Apr 17 '15 at 11:06
Was one of those gdm or part of a GNOME shell? – Tim Apr 17 '15 at 11:14
Thanx a lot.... – Rajesh Paul Oct 03 '15 at 04:45
1

That's overkill for what is needed. unity-control-center is all that is needed. – Ken Sharp Feb 09 '16 at 09:43
@K I obviously can't test that, but why not post as an answer? – Tim Feb 16 '16 at 11:33

score 13 · Answer 2 · answered May 10 '15 at 12:52

13

This issue was resolved for me by (re-)installing unity-control-center

apt-get install unity-control-center.

I didn't want to re-install the whole ubuntu-desktop because it was going to install a bunch of packages I didn't want/need and use another 100MB of space.

Compared to just 4MB with unity-control-center

answered May 10 '15 at 12:52

m__

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Very effective solution. Had the same problem and the above solved it for me. Thanks – darbehdar Feb 11 '16 at 10:41

score 8 · Answer 3 · answered May 20 '14 at 20:49

8

Most likely (probably due to some dependency issue) below packages were removed:

unity-control-center-signon
gnome-control-center-unity

This command should resolve this issue:

sudo apt-get install unity-control-center-signon gnome-control-center-unity

answered May 20 '14 at 20:49

bear7

236

This has to be the most annoying problem out there. Thanks. This fixed it for me. – Sonny Nov 23 '14 at 01:17

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 14 '17 at 05:58

1

If you use Awesome WM, to start the settings panel, use either of:

(17.04+)

XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity7 unity-control-center

(16.10-)

XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=Unity unity-control-center

See unity-control-center icons missing when using xsession desktop with awesome window manager

answered Nov 14 '17 at 05:58

loxaxs

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Yep, this fixed it for me on Ubuntu 18.04 with Unity 7.5. – starbeamrainbowlabs Nov 04 '19 at 17:26
Still works on Ubuntu 20.04. – starbeamrainbowlabs Mar 05 '21 at 15:14

System Settings icons missing in 14.04

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