Unable to remove launcher plugin from org.compiz.core:/org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/core/ active-plugins since last release (7.4.0+16.04.20160801.2-0ubuntu1)

[Olivier Louvignes]

Found out today that the previous gsettings configuration tweak used to completely hide the unity launcher is not working anymore, the setting seems to be overriden at every boot.

We have a lot of point of sales systems running 16.04 that are being impacted by this breaking change.

We used to hide the launcher (worked from 14.04 to last month) with this command:

```
DISPLAY=:0 dbus-launch gsettings set org.compiz.core:/org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/core/ active-plugins "['core', 'composite', 'opengl', 'wall', 'imgpng', 'expo', 'scale', 'mousepoll', 'compiztoolbox', 'move', 'copytex', 'regex', 'workarounds', 'vpswitch', 'resize', 'session', 'unitymtgrabhandles', 'commands', 'ezoom']"
```

it used to persist after reboot (no 'unityshell'), now it seems to be reset.

breaking update seems to be:
```
unity/xenial-updates 7.4.0+16.04.20160801.2-0ubuntu1 amd64 [upgradable from: 7.4.0+16.04.20160715-0ubuntu1]
unity-schemas/xenial-updates,xenial-updates 7.4.0+16.04.20160801.2-0ubuntu1 all [upgradable from: 7.4.0+16.04.20160715-0ubuntu1]
unity-services/xenial-updates 7.4.0+16.04.20160801.2-0ubuntu1 amd64 [upgradable from: 7.4.0+16.04.20160715-0ubuntu1]
```

```
lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS
Release: 16.04
```

This issue is pretty serious for us, thank you for your help!

[Olivier Louvignes (olouvignes)]

Looking at the changelog it looks like the culprit has landed in:

```
 -- Marco Trevisan (Treviño) <[e-mail]> Sat, 06 Aug 2016 16:25:58 +0000

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
```

[Olivier Louvignes (olouvignes)]

Solved it by editing /usr/share/upstart/sessions/unity7.conf to comment out the check. Sounds good enough for us. You can close this if you don't have any further comment.

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)]

Yeah, that's the same I wanted to suggest...

You can also define a local one in ~/.config/upstart/unity7.conf and that will override the system one, so you don't have to worry about updates.

Of course, this is not a bug for us. Also, I think you could also just run compiz with the default profile, which doesn't start unity in any case.

[Olivier Louvignes (olouvignes)]

@Marco Trevisan, Thank you for the feedback, indeed the ~/.config would be a safer option we will use that for now.

Regarding running compiz with the default profile, I'm not sure how I would do that, do you have any hint on how we could achieve that?

Thanks!

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)]

just unset the COMPIZ_CONFIG_PROFILE variable, and compiz should pick the default profile.