Remove anchor icon from docky

By , Published April 22, 2010

Did you know that very recently Docky added the option to remove the Anchor icon from the dock? Oh yes!

OMG! reader kiwisoup e-mailed me over some instructions that I thought i'd paste here: -

  • Press ALT + F2
  • Type command €œgconf-editor” and hit enter/return
  • Navigate to “apps/docky-2/docky/items/DockyItem” in the gconf-editor
  • Uncheck “ShowDockyItem“
  • Restart Docky
Et voilà! Anchor free Docky!

Terminal way

If you’re lazy and want to do this via the terminal you can do so using the following commands. (Thanks to commenter dRewsus)

This command will turn the icon off:
gconftool-2 --type Boolean --set /apps/docky-2/Docky/Items/DockyItem/ShowDockyItem False

this will turn it back on:
gconftool-2 --type Boolean --set /apps/docky-2/Docky/Items/DockyItem/ShowDockyItem True

Remember that you will need to restart Docky to see the changes take effect.

Related posts:

  1. Enable 3-D Mode In Docky [Updated]
  2. Official Docky Development PPA
  3. The Future Of Docky – Docky Creator Jason Smith Tells Us Why Docky Is Going To Get Even More Awesome
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  • rico

    how do you change the prefs of Docky without it’s icon then?

    • zekopeko

      Magic!

    • dRewsus

      If you can manage to right-click on the very edge of the docky background the same options dialogue comes up.

      • Anonymous

        If you are super skilled there’s like 1px in between launchers that can invoke it as well :p

        • dRewsus

          haha just don’t flinch!

    • http://twitter.com/DylanPortner Dylan Portner

      right click on the separator between the launchers and the docklets. perfect spot and much easier than clicking on the edge :P

  • Martyn

    Not quite correct. It’s app/docky-2/docky/items/DockyItem

    Great tip though. Thanks

    • Martyn

      or even apps/docky-2/docky/items/DockyItem … Doh!

      • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

        Corrected :)

  • Anonymous

    bit of a typeo, its actually apps/docky-2/Docky/Items/DockyItem

  • http://www.alexsleat.com Alex

    at last! now they just need to add a lock so I don’t keep removing and moving stuff and it’s pretty much perfect.. thanks for the awesome tip :)

  • Anonymous

    Good tip

  • http://twitter.com/calvein Calou

    @rico : Try not to right-click on icons (the separator is great for that).

    By the way, it is “Et voilà” :P

    • http://kshegzyaj.deviantart.com Harno Ranaivo

      Guess he’ll have to copy and paste, as far as I know, there’s no “à”, “é” (or whatever “special” french caracter on qwerty keyboards.

  • zekopeko

    You know d0od it would be really nice if you linked to the actually wiki which is there for a reason. Most/all of this “super secret stuff” is covered there.

    /self-promotion hat off

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      I didn’t know it was there or i would’ve! I linked to the bug report. (And I’m not promoting this as some ‘super secret stuff’ either :S )

      • zekopeko

        I meant that by linking to the wiki you would help stop people from coming into #docky/lp-docky-answers with the same questions over and over and over.

        Most people don’t even know that we have a wiki that rocks.

        • Anonymous

          Hence why wikis are bad :)

          • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

            Most users do not think to head to an app specific wiki when they have a problem, but they can be incredibly useful when well written and structured but most of the time (I’m looking at a lot of Ubuntu wiki pages) they are textually dense, bordering on the incomprehensible, and badly laid out.

            I often get the sense that wiki’s are where ‘developers/power users’ go, Google is where ‘average users’ go.

          • zekopeko

            Feedback on any Docky-wiki issues are welcome.

          • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

            I wasn’t pointing fingers at the Docky wiki – it’s actually a prime example of a wiki done well. Short, sharp, to the point, “plain English”, pretty pictures.

            As you yourself said the wiki “rocks”! So much so i shall highlight it :D

          • zekopeko

            If you think we (and by we I mean mostly me) could improve the wiki please tell me.
            The whole point is to help users with it. So please point fingers at the crappy parts :) .

            I’ll talk to the guys tonight to see if we can add a more prominent Help in the Docky menu.

          • Anonymous

            All this talk about a wiki, and no one actually linked to it!

            http://wiki.go-docky.org

          • zekopeko

            And then you post the wrong link :)

            http://wiki.go-docky.com/

          • Anonymous

            That one too…

        • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

          I didn’t know there was a #docky/lp-docky-answers ! 0_o How out of touch am i?!

          • Anonymous

            i just found it via google on accident a few days ago.

  • dRewsus

    this command will turn the icon off:
    gconftool-2 –type Boolean –set /apps/docky-2/Docky/Items/DockyItem/ShowDockyItem False

    this will turn it back on:
    gconftool-2 –type Boolean –set /apps/docky-2/Docky/Items/DockyItem/ShowDockyItem True

    Both require you to restart docky to see the changes

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Mind if add that in?

      • dRewsus

        Of course not :)

  • Anonymous

    With this command you can create half transparent docky that stays on forderground:
    gconftool-2 -t string -s /apps/docky-2/Docky/Interface/DockPreferences/Dock1/Autohide “Intellihide”
    gconftool-2 -t bool -s /apps/docky-2/Docky/Interface/DockPreferences/Dock1/FadeOnHide true
    gconftool-2 -t float -s /apps/docky-2/Docky/Interface/DockPreferences/Dock1/FadeOpacity 0.4
    gconftool-2 -t int -s /apps/docky-2/Docky/Interface/DockPreferences/Dock1/IconSize 24
    gconftool-2 -t bool -s /apps/docky-2/Docky/Interface/DockPreferences/Dock1/IndicateMultipleWindows true

    • Zap

      Hey I missed this one!! :D
      Nice, but would be nicer if it was click-trough like notify-osd..

  • Jimbo

    “very recently Docky added the option to remove the Anchor icon from the dock? Oh yes!”

    Urm. I wouldnt call having to mess about with the gconf settings ‘adding the option’. ‘Adding the option’ is when there is a GUI for it as part of Docky itself.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Haha – Every option has to start somewhere ;)

    • http://twitter.com/kinesthesia kinesthesia

      In this case adding the option is used as it would normally be used, not to reference an options menu. The option is there.

      You can also change the icon by navigating to /usr/share/icons/hicolor/*dimensions*/apps and replacing the docky.svg in there with one of your own choosing. You’ll have to replace ever dimension or turn off the ‘zoom’ option completely.

    • Anonymous

      This will NEVER be in the GUI options. Much like there are plenty of other gconf keys for Docky that will NEVER be in the GUI options. We want to keep the preferences Dialog as clean and simple as possible. Docky is supposed to be simple, it’s not Cairo Dock ;)

    • Anonymous

      gconf is very much a place for some options, especially when its one that would definitely cause problems for normal users.

  • Anonymous

    This was the one thing keeping me with AWN. Now it is fixed (or at least revealed).

  • Dafero

    Thanks! great trick!

  • Anonymous

    Now can we PLEASE assign icons to launchers???

    Seriously, it’s just absurd that you can’t set a custom icon for a launcher. So half of my dock items look like serious crap.

    • Anonymous
    • augias

      Why don’t you just change the icon in the theme folder. Thats what I always do anyways. It works a lot more efficiently than changing some source code of the whole app or complaining online.

    • Anonymous

      How will changing an icon in a theme folder change the icon for say….Firefox?

      Besides, who wants to have to edit each icon theme they have for this. Wouldn’t it be easier to be able to right click on a launcher and click “Change Icon”?

      I have no earthly clue how to edit an application’s .desktop file….and I suspect 95% of users don’t either. Where would one even find this .desktop file?

      • augias

        It does, if the icon’s name matches the .desktop file: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/208391/Screenshots/icons.png

        As to who would want to edit every icon theme, you don’t have to if you set the .desktop’s icon value to a fixed path (check cszikszoy’s link). Otherwise, what’s the point of getting a different icon theme if not having different icons.

        You can find all of your installed applications’ desktop files in /usr/share/applications/ That is standard for every linux distribution. You can edit them with superuser privileges so I reccomend doing this in terminal: $ cd /usr/share/applications -> gksu gedit applicationyouwannachange.desktop

        You’re gonna want to log out and back in for the changes to work fully.

        Please be open to trying new things and learning a lot, you know. We’re on this OS and this is how things work inside of it. I think the feature request you’re asking for would be pretty nice, but its probably not high on their priority list. They’re workin for free for us so please help yourself until the kind developers volunteering their time and effort pull off a nice hat trick. :) peace

      • Anonymous

        The same way it changes every other icon, lol. You’ve never seen a theme with a different Firefox icon?

        Actually, it’s much easier to just use a different icon theme.

        I would suspect 95% of users don’t have to desire to individually change each icon for each launcher ;)

  • Paul

    Doesn’t work for me. Maybe because I use lucid…

    • Paul

      Sorry updated and now it works!

      • Anonymous

        I’m too on lucid, but even after an update it doesn’t work. tried the gui without finding “ShowDockyItem” and the cmd line doesn’t seems to have any effect… I’m also looking at adding the “show desktop” icon…

  • Anonymous

    Nice! Although the Docky icon is beautiful, it clutters the Dock.

  • Blaine

    It’s about @#$%! time!

  • http://mastropino.deviantart.com/ MastroPino

    Sweet! :)

  • Anonymous

    Hey, I’m just nitpicking because I’m a weirdo and like Icons, but Docky ships with a 128px icon you could use to go on the front page instead of that super blurry one >.<

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      =( I’m sorry

      • Anonymous

        lol, its all good. Like I said, just being nitpicky :p

  • Anonymous

    thanks for the tip. Have been waiting for this feature.

  • NIck

    not working for me on lucid

  • Jason Seaux

    Apparently this is no longer functioning under 2.0.4 Too bad.

    • Anonymous

      Works here on Maverick on Docky 2.1.0

  • Anonymous

    ty! they really should make that easier. reminds me of my navy days and i don’t want to go back.

  • Laurel Chavez

    Docky 2.0.11
    bzr docky r1434 pre-release
    does not work…

  • http://profiles.google.com/davpaez David Paez

    Great tip! Thanks a lot. I had to upgrade my Docky version, and the it worked fine. :)

 
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