Can't see the dock bar when starting desktop environment with startx

Question

I'm using Ubuntu version 19.04. I would like to log into gnome desktop environment from TTY terminal. I used startx to initialize the desktop environment. I can see the top bar and run gui applications. But there's no dock bar, unless I press the Activities button. How do I make the dock bar show up?

Answer 1

When you do startx its configurations are different from normal login.

you need to enable the extension ubuntu-dock

one of the way is to run gnome-shell-extension-prefs and enable the extension.

Other way is to use the below command. If you have more extensions.. you can add them too

gsettings set org.gnome.shell enabled-extensions "['ubuntu-dock@ubuntu.com']"

Example:

pratap@PRATAP:~$ gsettings set org.gnome.shell enabled-extensions "['ubuntu-dock@ubuntu.com']"
pratap@PRATAP:~$

---

For a Qucik migration of some settings from normal login to startx

First get the gsettings values for the below keys when you are on normal login.

Example:

pratap@PRATAP:~$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-theme
'DMZ-White'
pratap@PRATAP:~$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme
'ubuntu-mono-dark'
pratap@PRATAP:~$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme
'Ambiance'
pratap@PRATAP:~$ gsettings list-recursively | grep enabled-extensions
org.gnome.shell enabled-extensions ['ubuntu-dock@ubuntu.com', 'user-theme@gnome-shell-extensions.gcampax.github.com']
pratap@PRATAP:~$ gsettings list-recursively | grep favorite-apps
org.gnome.shell favorite-apps ['ubiquity.desktop', 'firefox.desktop', 'thunderbird.desktop', 'org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop', 'rhythmbox.desktop', 'libreoffice-writer.desktop', 'org.gnome.Software.desktop', 'yelp.desktop', 'ubuntu-amazon-default.desktop']
pratap@PRATAP:~$ 

Then Create a script with below content

#!/bin/bash

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-theme 'DMZ-White'
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme 'ubuntu-mono-dark'
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme 'Ambiance'
gsettings set org.gnome.shell enabled-extensions "['ubuntu-dock@ubuntu.com', 'user-theme@gnome-shell-extensions.gcampax.github.com']"
gsettings set org.gnome.shell favorite-apps "['ubiquity.desktop', 'firefox.desktop', 'thunderbird.desktop', 'org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop', 'rhythmbox.desktop', 'libreoffice-writer.desktop', 'org.gnome.Software.desktop', 'yelp.desktop', 'ubuntu-amazon-default.desktop']"
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout ':minimize,maximize,close'

Once you entered startx run the script.

For example if you have saved the script named startx in /home/<user>/ then run the command /bin/bash /home/<user>/startx

with more workouts you can make changes to your script for your exact requirement.