A new keyboard applet arrived with Ubuntu 13.10 and is enabled by default whether you need it or not.
The applet has a noble aim: to make switching between keyboard layouts for various languages and keyboard types easier than it has been in previous releases.
But since I don’t swap keyboard (or my language) I don’t need it. And though it may not take up much room on the system panel I’d rather not have to mouse through it to get to the indicators that I do use.
Thankfully it’s easy to remove the keyboard indicator from Ubuntu’s top panel:
- Open System Settings
- Click on the ‘Region and Language’ tile
- Uncheck the box next to ‘Show Current Input Source in Menu Bar’
And that’s it. The switcher is now hidden.
To re-enable simply follow the steps above, but ticking the box in the final step.