38

I want to completely hide the dock in 17.10. Not just when overlapped but always. I have tried many extensions but nothing works and the most promising looking extension didn't even exist. https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1290/disable-ubuntu-dock/

Note: My UI is only application windows and wallpaper. Nothing else shall be allowed to consume my precious pixels

8
  • Which is the most promising extension which did not even exist?
    – Videonauth
    Nov 24, 2017 at 7:32
  • 1
    You have tweaks installed? If yes check for ubuntu-dock extension it should be switched to on IRRC, try to turn that off.
    – Videonauth
    Nov 24, 2017 at 7:35
  • Already shut that machine off. I'll check in the morning.
    – pcnate
    Nov 24, 2017 at 7:46
  • Ping me when you checked it with the results.
    – Videonauth
    Nov 24, 2017 at 7:53

8 Answers 8

29

You can use the following extension to completely hide the Dock: https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/307/dash-to-dock/

With this extension, you will be able to hide the dock but keep the dock-specific shortcuts available. To do that, enable the extension, go into its settings and do the following:

  • Enable the Intelligent autohide option under the Position and size tab.
  • Click on the "Gear" (⚙) icon next to the On/Off switch of the Intelligent autohide option for more settings.
  • In the new dialog window, disable both options, Autohide and Dodge Windows.
    Disabled Dock
    • Disabling autohide will keep the dock hidden even if you try to move your mouse to where the dock is.
    • Disabling Dodge windows will keep the dock hidden even when it is not obstructed by any window.

As mentioned previously, this will not uninstall or disable the dock. But it will completely hide it. So it will not show on screen again unless at least one of the two previous options is enabled again.

1
  • The behaviour stays after disabling the extension. I bugged the dock appearance by changing background opacity (additional big semitransparent rectangle appeared), so I disabled the extension to try if any settings would be reset. After restarting without enabling it appeared that the default dash is autohiding as OP (and me) wanted.
    – Ctrl-C
    Dec 4, 2018 at 12:34
18

In Ubuntu 17.10, 18.04, 18.10, 19.04 and 20.04 you can uninstall gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock using:

sudo apt remove gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock

This will remove the Ubuntu dock.

You will need to restart your GNOME session, you can do this by logging out and back in.

3
  • 1
    This is actually the cleanest approach imho. Jul 27, 2018 at 6:14
  • 4
    Instead of logging out and back in, you can also press ALT+F2, type 'r', then press enter. (this reloads gnome-shell but keeps windows open!) Jul 23, 2019 at 15:42
  • @antoineMoPa, the "press ALT+F2" approach works on an X11 session, but not in a Wayland session (and it probably never will).
    – psiphi75
    Aug 8, 2019 at 22:54
17

You also could do it with dconf Editor which is pretty useful tool if you like tweaking your desktop.

So, in dconf Editor go to /org/gnome/shell/extensions/dash-to-dock and turn off simultaneously these three props:

  • autohide
  • dock-fixed
  • intellihide

And you have you dock visible only in overlay mode (the same as with extension recommended by @Dan).

5
  • 1
    I'll have to try this. Do you know if I can retain superkey shortcuts even with the dock hidden?
    – pcnate
    Mar 9, 2018 at 14:37
  • 1
    @pcnate, Don't really know but AFAIK shortcuts usually linked to commands, not to UI elements, so most likely it should work. Mar 16, 2018 at 10:22
  • I can confirm that superkey shortcuts still works. May 16, 2018 at 7:24
  • 4
    It's probably better to use the gsettings tool for this: gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock autohide false && gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock dock-fixed false && gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock intellihide false (note: condensed on one line because it doesn't seem possible to do multi-line code blocks in comments)
    – Desty
    May 18, 2018 at 20:57
  • @Roman Your answer leads to the same behaviour as Ubuntu Gnome which I came to like. This is really nit-picking, but I really love the Linux-universe of distributions because it is so very diverse and customizable; totally orthogonal to the one-size-fits-all approach I consider MS is following (but maybe that's a misconception of mine). No matter what your preferences are in UI design and behaviour, you will find a Linux distribution to fit you.
    – Dohn Joe
    Aug 30, 2018 at 8:12
13

The best method to do this in Ubuntu 18.04 is by using gsettings. Why install extensions when there is a clean way of doing this?

Use the following command in terminal to auto-hide dock:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock dock-fixed false

Set these as well to hide it completely (except in Activities or Applications view):

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock dock-fixed false
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock intellihide false

Note: Most of the tweaks that you want to do with your UI can be done using gsettings.
Use man gsettings and explore more.

3
  • It's been quite some time since I looked at this but I will check it out.
    – pcnate
    Feb 25, 2019 at 16:30
  • 2
    This is the simplest & fastest way and should've been the accepted answer. Feb 8, 2020 at 4:00
  • 2
    Still works in Ubuntu 21.10.
    – Jarno
    Mar 14, 2022 at 15:23
0

In Ubuntu 20.04 sudo apt remove gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock does not work very well. Dash to Dock can hide it very well unless it shows on overview screen with instructions up above. Additionally if you want to fully hide it you can use Dash to Dock extension again and in Launchers tab you can close all the applications.

Hide Dock with Dash to Dock

And that's it.

0

I think I finally found an answer to this question that might make me not hate gnome shell: The dash to panel extension embeds the functionality of the dock in a gnome panel. So it works a lot like gnome 2 / cinnamon / mate.
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/1160/dash-to-panel/

0

You can use the extension hide the Dock to hide the dock:

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/307/dash-to-dock/

Enable the dash to dock extension and open the settings of dash to dock.

For parital hide:

  • Enable the intelligent autohide and click on the settings.
  • Disable the autohide. It will keep the dock hidden when the mouse is hovered over the dock.

To Hide it completely:

In the above step dock will be hidden but it will be visible on activites overview. If want to see the dock at all follow the below steps.

  • Go to the Launchers tab of the dash to dock setting.
  • Turn off everying you could find there because the list varies with versions.
  • Now dock have no icons to show so it will stay hidden.
0

I had a slightly different need. I wanted the dock keyboard bindings but felt that the dock took up too much space. And the “hide” feature still showed the dock when I was using hotkeys to switch between them.

Removing the dock with sudo apt remove gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock also removed the dock keybinds, it seemed.

What was an okay solution for my setup was to move the dock to the secondary monitor.

Dock settings

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .