How do I disable overlay scrollbars?

Question

It looks like Ubuntu 11.04 will come with overlay scrollbars by default. I do like them, but I don't like the current mix of scrollbar types as many applications don't yet use those overlay scrollbars.

Is there a way to disable overlay scrollbars (without removing the overlay-scrollbar package)?

Answer 1

You can disable the scrollbars either

• For your user:

  Add the line

  export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0
  

  to the file ~/.xprofile (create one, if it doesn't exist).

• Or globally:

  Create a file /etc/X11/Xsession.d/99disable-overlay-scrollbars and add above line (requires root permissions, see this answer about how to create a file as root).

• Or per application:

  • Is there a way to blacklist an individual application from using overlay-scrollbars?

Answer 2

You can remove the scrollbars completely by typing

sudo apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar liboverlay-scrollbar

Answer 3

Just disabling or removing the overlay-scrollbars as described by the other answers will get you back the scroll bars, but they will be missing the stepper buttons at the end of the bars because they have been disabled in the Ambiance theme. To re-enable them, put the following in the ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file:

style "default" {
  engine "murrine" {
    stepperstyle = 0
  }
}

and the following into the file ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css:

.scrollbar {
  -GtkScrollbar-has-backward-stepper: 1;
  -GtkScrollbar-has-forward-stepper: 1;
}

Usually, restarting the applications is enough for the changes to apply.

Answer 4

May be you're talking about ayatana scrollbar!

in the case that you want to have the old scrollbar style you only need to use the next comand:

sudo apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar liboverlay-scrollbar liboverlay-scrollbar3

See the imagen to notice the ayatana srollbar.

Answer 5

Try the following:
echo "export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0" > /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80overlayscrollbars

You'll probably need to log off once.

More information/ideas can be found here

Answer 6

When you try to uninstall liboverlay-scrollbar doesn't find it! To get rid of the transparent bars was easily fixed. I use leafpad.

Open a terminal :

1. gksudo leafpad /etc/X11/Xsession.d/99disable-overlay-scrollbars
2. Put your password in.
3. Type export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0
4. Save, Exit and reboot.

No more overlay slidebars or transparent slidebars.

Answer 7

i too find the overlay scrollbar very difficult to handle. You can go for this link http://hashprompt.blogspot.com

Answer 8

Open Synaptic Package manager and search for scroll overlay package. Than remove it.

Answer 9

to remove the ubuntu scrollbars type this in terminal: apt-get purge overlay-scrollbar liboverlay-scrollbar3-0.2-0