How to make ubuntu work faster on VmWare player?

Question

While using Ubuntu 14.04, Menus are shown in window title bar. However if emacs is opened, menus are in the menubar as in older versions of Ubuntu or windows. Can I menus in window title bar.

Solution

There is a known issue with running Ubuntu 12.10 inside a virtual machine such as Virtualbox or VmWare.

The Unity desktop is reliant on the Graphics processor which is not supported in many virtual machines -- see here.

This was not an issue in 12.04 as it had the Unity 2D desktop as an option for slower machines.

If you have a powerful enough machine you can try giving Ubuntu more than one core.

Alternatively you can use another desktop: To use the "Gnome Classic" desktop which is similar to the desktop as used in 10.04 open a terminal with CTRL+ALT+T and enter

sudo apt-get install gnome-panel

log out then back in selecting Gnome Classic as your desktop.

Comments

[Warren Hill]

There is a known issue with Ubuntu 12.10 using the Unity desktop on some virtual machines to do with GPU. Not sure if it applies to VmWare. On possible solution is to change the desktop to something else such as Gnome Classic. On my machine this made a massive difference in 64bit Win7 host and Virtualbox. To install sudo apt-get gnome-panel log out then back in selecting Gnome Classic as your desktop.

[Ryder]

It says E: Invalid Operation gnome-panel

[Warren Hill]

Sorry the command should have been sudo apt-get install gnome-panel

[Warren Hill]

As this worked for you I have added it as an answer. Please accept it so that other users who have the same problem can find it and be helped too.

[Anders]

Increasing the number of cores from 1 to 2 yielded a substantial performance improvement on the launcher animation for me. It's still not fast, but it's better.