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Can someone tell me how to disable the new behavior that just started in Ubuntu 15.10, the hiding of the scrollbars.

I can find many references and questions on this, but they are all related to removing the actual overlay scrollbars and replacing them with the normal scrollbars.

I have used those fixes for years. However, they don't resolve this new problem with having the scrollbars disappear unless you hover your mouse over the window.

This problem (after using all the disable overlay scrollbars fixes) is easily reproduced by bringing up Nautilus with a folder that has more items than will fit in one window. I have always used a quick glance at the window to know if I were seeing the full contents of the folder by seeing the presence of a scrollbar. Now I can't tell without constantly wiggling the mouse over the window. Since I often have 10's of windows opened spreaded across three monitors, I spend a lot of time wiggling the mouse to identify if I have the full content in view, or the portion of the content that is in view.

The problem is also easily produced by running Eclipses which I also have multiple windows running with various editors. I have to constantly wiggle the mouse on those windows also to check to see the portion of the text that is being displayed.

The closest question that I found that comes to this problem is How to disable overlay scrollbar hiding behavior. That resolution is one of the ones I have used for years to remove the overlay. This fix was introduced 4 years before this new behavior of bringing back the scrollbar, but hiding it unless the mouse is recently wiggled over the window.

Running these commands I get:

$ export GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=0
$ gdbus call --session --dest org.freedesktop.DBus --object-path /org/freedesktop/DBus --method org.freedesktop.DBus.UpdateActivationEnvironment '{"GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING": "0"}'

Output:

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With 15.10 Ubuntu switched to Gnome-scrollbars. Searching for this topic I found https://www.reddit.com/r/gnome/comments/37bp1r/how_do_i_disable_316s_overlay_scrollbars/ where it is suggested to use the following commands:

export GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=0
gdbus call --session --dest org.freedesktop.DBus --object-path /org/freedesktop/DBus --method org.freedesktop.DBus.UpdateActivationEnvironment '{"GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING": "0"}'

I just tested these commands on UbuntuGnome 17.04, the scrollbars stopped hiding and were visible all the time without hovering over them. If the commands work for you, you may add them to your ~/.profile-file.

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  • I'm not trying to disable the scrollbars. I'm trying to stop the hiding of the scrollbars and make the stay visible at all times. I use the scrollbars to identify the percentage of the content I'm viewing, or how far down I'll have to go to get to the end. Since 15.04 this view is hidden and is only revealed when you position the mouse where the scrollbars should show. As in the message, this is very cumbersome to have to wiggle the mouse to see what I consider important window information. May 9, 2017 at 19:27
  • @L.D.James Probably I used the wrong words, the scrollbars are there in the way you want, hiding is disabled.
    – mook765
    May 10, 2017 at 1:30
  • Maybe a reboot is required for it to take effect. It doesn't work on my productive machine, which I won't be able to reboot for some time. I'll try it on a test machine and let you know if it works on that. Thanks! May 10, 2017 at 1:33
  • Worked without a reboot for me...
    – mook765
    May 10, 2017 at 1:36
  • Thanks! It turns out I had to issue the nautilus -q to have it effective in my current Nautilus session. Adding it to my profile resolved this extra step. May 10, 2017 at 10:51

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