Blog

How to move Ubuntu Lucid's 10.04 Gnome buttons to the right

Ubuntu 10.04 users were pleased to see Canonical's efforts to give Ubuntu's default Gnome theme an overhaul, but dismayed to see the Lucid Lynx buttons switch to the left hand side.

The forthcoming release of Ubuntu, codenamed Lucid Lynx, is not out yet, so this may well change in the final release. However, if you upgrade from Karmic to the development release you'll see the Gnome buttons have switched from the right to the left and the order of the maximise, minimise and close buttons have changed.

This is similar to Mac OS X, but when you've been using Linux for a decade you become used to the position of the buttons, and the change in their position was something I found rather annoying.

Hopefully, with the various polls on Ubuntu forums suggesting that this change is not a popular one, the final release will put the buttons back in the same order as previous versions of Ubuntu.

Thankfully, you can move them to the "correct" position using Gconf. Here's how it's done.

1. Start the Gconf editor

In a terminal enter sudo gconf-editor

2. Go to apps > metacity > general

The setting you need to change is in apps > metacity > general. Scroll down and look for the button layout option.

Click the text and change it so it reads: :minimize,maximize,close (not maximize,minimize,close: as it shows in the below screenshot - thanks connermcd).

This will put the buttons on the right (that's what the colon does) and order them minimize, maximize, close. Hit return and they should go to the right place!

Let's hope this is only a temporary thing. In my opinion, a little usability issue like this can be enough to put users off. Dare I mention the Spatial Nautilus mistake?!

Update: Now that Lucid is out, it's become apparent that these new default button positions are present in the two default themes, but not in others. If you want a quick fix and don't mind a different appearance, simply change the theme and the buttons will move.

Published: TechPad.co.uk Saturday 6 March 2010, 2:33 pm
Views: 20,645 times
Filed under: Linux Ubuntu Gnome Lucid Gconf 10.04 Lynx

(No votes yet)

Comments on this item

Reader comment

"Great tutorial, but it doesn't work with Ubuntu Lucid. The only way I could get it to work was by putting this in - menu:maximize,minimize,close

The long description at the bottom of the page after you select "button_layout" states:
"Arrangement of buttons on the titlebar. The value should be a string, such as "menu:minimize,maximize,spacer,close"; the colon separates the left corner of the window from the right corner, and the button names are comma-separated."

After getting frustrated at this not working, I went ahead and added the "menu:" before and it snapped over to the right as soon as I hit enter! ;)"

Posted by: freshrich
Date: Tuesday August 10th, 2010, 12:36 am

Reader comment

"Disregard my previous comment: The FIRST time I tried it, it definitely didn't work. After adding the "menu" initially and then changing the command to the way you have it in the tutorial, it DID work... weird. Sorry about that ;)"

Posted by: freshrich
Date: Tuesday August 10th, 2010, 12:42 am