Unityshell sometimes is removed from active-plugins unity list

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño)]

[Impact]

Sometimes gsettings org.compiz.core:/org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/core/ active-plugins is not including unityshell, we need to ensure it's always there when loading unity session.

[Test case]

There's no easy way to reproduce the issue without some manual intervention.
So one way is, set the unity active plugin list without unityshell and restart
  your session:
  gsettings set org.compiz.core:/org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/core/ \
    active-plugins "['core', 'composite', 'opengl', 'compiztoolbox', 'vpswitch', \
    'snap', 'mousepoll', 'resize', 'place', 'move', 'wall', 'grid', 'regex', \
    'imgpng', 'session', 'gnomecompat', 'animation', 'fade', \
    'unitymtgrabhandles', 'workarounds', 'scale', 'expo', 'ezoom']" && \
  killall gnome-session-binary

Instead of killing the session, you can also just restart unity by launching:
  restart unity7

On session restart unity should be correctly reloaded and listed in
  gsettings get org.compiz.core:/org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/core/

[Regression Potential]

Compiz load time might be increased, custom plugin list could be reverted to the default ones.

[David Britton (dpb)]

FYI -- anyone else coming in here. I actually had a number of things removed from my list:

animation
copytex
expo
ezoom
fade
grid
opengl
scale
unitymtgrabhandles
unityshell
wall

And the final command I ran:

gsettings set org.compiz.core:/org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/core/ active-plugins "['core', 'composite', 'opengl', 'snap', 'compiztoolbox', 'vpswitch', 'place', 'resize', 'grid', 'session', 'copytex', 'wall', 'regex', 'imgpng', 'unitymtgrabhandles', 'mousepoll', 'move', 'animation', 'fade', 'workarounds', 'scale', 'expo', 'ezoom', 'unityshell']"

[Andrea Azzarone (azzar1)]

Added to Trello: https://trello.com/c/x6RcoGN9/26-bug-1506023-unityshell-sometimes-is-removed-from-active-plugins-unity-list

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package unity - 7.5.0+16.10.20160727-0ubuntu1

---------------
unity (7.5.0+16.10.20160727-0ubuntu1) yakkety; urgency=medium

  [ Andrea Azzarone ]
  * [LockSceen] Remove numlock warning. (LP: #1526322)
  * Make sure initiate and terminate callbacks are not empty before
    calling them. (LP: #1605012)
  * Properly destroy close_button_ to properly disconnect lambda. (LP:
    #1605010)
  * Use the standard notification-device-eject in the "device eject"
    notification. This allows us to scale it properly on high-dpi
    setups. (LP: #1605231)
  * Add tools to enforce unityshell plugin for the current profile and
    add "move" and "resize" plugins as requirements. (LP: #1506023,
    #1605007)
  * When locked discard damages from windows below lockscreen. (LP:
    #1605180)

  [ Eleni Maria Stea ]
  * DecoratedWindow: Added shadows for shaped windows

  [ Marco Trevisan (Treviño) ]
  * LockScreenAcceleratorController: ensure callbacks are valid before
    calling them (LP: #1605012)
  * DecoratedWindow: Cleanup shadows for shaped windows, reduce
    recomputation

 -- Marco Trevisan (Treviño) <[e-mail]> Wed, 27 Jul 2016 10:25:54 +0000

[Chris J Arges (arges)]

Hello Marco, or anyone else affected,

Accepted unity into xenial-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity/7.4.0+16.04.20160801.2-0ubuntu1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package unity - 7.4.0+16.04.20160801.2-0ubuntu1

---------------
unity (7.4.0+16.04.20160801.2-0ubuntu1) xenial; urgency=medium

  [ Andrea Azzarone ]
  * FileManagerLauncherIcon: Don't trust the Quirk::VISIBLE in the ctor.
    (LP: #1599133)
  * [TrashLauncherIcon] Create GFileMonitor in an idle to avoid blocking
    calls. (LP: #1602720)
  * [LockSceen] Remove numlock warning. (LP: #1526322)
  * Make sure initiate and terminate callbacks are not empty before
    calling them. (LP: #1605012)
  * Properly destroy close_button_ to properly disconnect lambda. (LP:
    #1605010)
  * Use the standard notification-device-eject in the "device eject"
    notification. This allows us to scale it properly on high-dpi
    setups. (LP: #1605231)
  * Add tools to enforce unityshell plugin for the current profile and
    add "move" and "resize" plugins as requirements. (LP: #1506023, LP:
    #1605007, LP: #1604657)

  [ Marco Trevisan (Treviño) ]
  * Unity script: use result from unity_support_test to check the right
    COMPIZ_CONFIG_PROFILE to use (LP: #1602377)
  * LockScreenAcceleratorController: ensure callbacks are valid before
    calling them (LP: #1605012)

  [ Eleni Maria Stea ]
  * DecoratedWindow: Added shadows for shaped windows (LP: 1608418)

  [ Marco Trevisan (Treviño) ]
  * DecoratedWindow: Cleanup shadows for shaped windows, reduce
    recomputation (LP: #1608418)
  * UnityWindowView: don't try to deference close_button_ if its' null

 -- Marco Trevisan (Treviño) <[e-mail]> Mon, 01 Aug 2016 13:10:28 +0000

[Chris J Arges (arges)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for unity has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

[Olivier Louvignes (olouvignes)]

This is affecting our systems (see #1620728) as we relied on being able to edit/drop unityshell from the active plugins to lock our point of sale systems. Is there another way to achieve this now (disable unityshell)?