The standard Ubuntu desktop environment (GNOME) is easily identifiable by its large, persistent dock that sits on the left-hand side of the screen. This dock (officially named the Ubuntu Dock, which is a customised fork of the Dash to Dock extension) houses your pinned applications and displays small dots next to currently running programs.
While many users appreciate the quick access it provides, others prefer a completely minimal desktop environment, relying entirely on keyboard shortcuts (like pressing the Super key) to search for and launch applications. If you want to maximize your screen real estate and remove the dock entirely, the standard system settings only allow you to “Auto-hide” it, which means it will still slide out annoyingly if your mouse touches the edge of the screen. To disable the dock completely and permanently, you must use a terminal command.
Disabling the Dock Extension via Terminal
Because the Ubuntu Dock is essentially just a pre-installed GNOME Shell extension, you can instruct the system to permanently disable that specific extension without having to uninstall the underlying packages.
- Press Ctrl + Alt + T on your keyboard to open the terminal.
- To disable the extension for your specific user account, carefully type or paste the following command and press Enter:
gnome-extensions disable [email protected] - In many cases, this command takes effect immediately. The dock on the left side of your screen will vanish entirely.
If the dock does not disappear immediately after running the command, you need to restart the GNOME Shell interface.
- If you are using X11: Press Alt + F2, type the letter r into the small popup box, and press Enter. The screen will blink for a moment as the interface restarts, and the dock will be gone.
- If you are using Wayland (the default in newer Ubuntu versions): You cannot simply restart the shell. You must log completely out of your user account (click the top right menu, select Log Out) and log back in.
Re-enabling the Dock
If you decide that a purely minimalist desktop is too difficult to navigate and you want the launcher back, reversing the process is just as easy.
- Open your terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T).
- Run the exact same command, but change the word “disable” to “enable”:
gnome-extensions enable [email protected] - Again, if the change is not immediate, either restart the shell (Alt+F2, r) or log out and log back into your user session. The dock will reappear exactly as you left it, complete with all your previously pinned applications.