How to change or replace the dock?

Question

Is it possible to change the appearance of the dock or to replace it with a different one like Docky? Thanks!

Answer 1

To change the appearnce

According to this Daniel Foré's answer Freya uses a Plank version that has some options patched out.

To get more changes one should use Rico's PPA and install from there (after uninstalling the default version).

Then, to change the appearance of the dock (Plank) one can use themes that can be found on the net, e.g. on deviantart.

Themes are located in ~/.local/share/plank/themes and /usr/share/plank/themes.

The settings can be accessed by right-clicking the dock (a bit tricky, you have to do that outside any icon) or by the command plank --preferences.

To find that in the application launcher for the future (using gedit text editor):

sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/plank_preferences.desktop

and paste this & save:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Plank Settings
Exec=plank --preferences
Icon=plank
Terminal=false
Categories=GNOME;GTK;System;
X-GNOME-Keywords=Center;Control;Panel;Preferences;System;
X-AppInstall-Keywords=Center;Control;Panel;Preferences;System;
X-GNOME-Gettext-Domain=switchboard
Actions=AboutDialog;

Also one can install elementary-tweaks.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mpstark/elementary-tweaks-daily
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install elementary-tweaks

To manually change settings, edit ~/.config/plank/dock1/settings which contains detailed description of the possible options. Mine looks like so:

#This file auto-generated by Plank.
#2016-05-02T07:00:48+0000

[PlankDockPreferences]
#Whether to show only windows of the current workspace.
CurrentWorkspaceOnly=false
#The size of dock icons (in pixels).
IconSize=30
#If 0, the dock won't hide.  If 1, the dock intelligently hides.  If 2, the dock auto-hides. If 3, the dock dodges active maximized windows. If 4, the dock dodges every window.
HideMode=0
#Time (in ms) to wait before unhiding the dock.
UnhideDelay=0
#Time (in ms) to wait before hiding the dock.
HideDelay=0
#The plug-name of the monitor for the dock to show on (e.g. DVI-I-1, HDMI1, LVDS1). Leave this empty to keep on the primary monitor.
Monitor=
#List of *.dockitem files on this dock. DO NOT MODIFY
DockItems=pantheon-files.dockitem;;seamonkey.dockitem;;firefox.dockitem;;deadbeef.dockitem;;clementine.dockitem;;SoundWire-Server.dockitem;;pavucontrol.dockitem;;Players.dockitem;;RADIOS.dockitem;;Enable.dockitem;;audacious_cd.dockitem
#The position for the dock on the monitor.  If 0, left.  If 1, right.  If 2, top.  If 3, bottom.
Position=3
#The dock's position offset from center (in percent).
Offset=0
#The name of the dock's theme to use.
Theme=Kit-Kat
#The alignment for the dock on the monitor's edge.  If 0, panel-mode.  If 1, left-aligned.  If 2, right-aligned.  If 3, centered.
Alignment=3
#The alignment of the items in this dock if panel-mode is used.  If 1, left-aligned.  If 2, right-aligned.  If 3, centered.
ItemsAlignment=3
#Whether to prevent drag'n'drop actions and lock items on the dock.
LockItems=false
#Whether to use pressure-based revealing of the dock if the support is available.
PressureReveal=true
#Whether to show only pinned applications. Useful for running more then one dock.
PinnedOnly=false
#Whether to automatically pin an application if it seems useful to do.
AutoPinning=true
#Whether to show the item for the dock itself.
ShowDockItem=false
#Whether the dock will zoom when hovered.
ZoomEnabled=true
#The dock's icon-zoom (in percent).
ZoomPercent=103

---

To replace the Dock

Nothing stops you. Plank can be uninstalled or just disabled as indicated in the other answer (also here) and a different dock can be installed.

(I see Plank as part of the whole concept of elementary OS. When such ideas come in my mind I think it's better to use a different system than start disassembling one that was conceived in the way elementary is.)

Answer 2

There is a settings menu for the plank, but it is very limited. You can find it by right clicking on the plank, but you need to make sure you aren't clicking on an icon. This can prove quite tricky.

To replace the plank:

1. First, disable plank, this can be done using any configuration tool editor. Install the editor if you don't already have one:

   sudo apt-get install dconf-tools 
   

2. Once installed, open the editor and select:

   • Under 0.4 loki:

     org -> pantheon -> desktop -> cerbere`
     

   • Under other versions:

     org -> pantheon -> cerbere
     

3. Under monitored processes you'll see something like [‘wingpanel’, ‘plank’, ‘slingshot-launcher –silent’], simply remove plank.

4. Reboot your device, the plank should now be gone.

5. Install Docky, or the dock of your choice. For Docky:

   sudo apt-get install docky
   

6. You can now remove plank if you wish (not necessary):

   sudo apt-get remove plank
   

7. Finally you need to set the new dock to run on startup, this is usually done in the docks settings panel. For Docky ensure that the 'Start When User Logs In' is checked.

If you wish to reinstall plank, make sure you remove the other dock first, and that you add 'plank' back to the config file.

Also, it should be noted that all installations can be done through the software center if you don't want to use the command line.

For your convenience here's a link to a tutorial explaining this in a bit more detail. Here is another example of how to replace plank on the stack exchange.