Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

How To Disable The Overlay Scrollbars In Ubuntu [Quick Tip]

| Date: April 10, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: linux, scrollbars, tips n tricks, ubuntu

regular scrollbar Ubuntu 11.04

About a month ago we wrote about getting all applications to use the new overlay scrollbars in Ubuntu 11.04 but now that the overlay scrollbars are default, we got an email about removing them.

So, for everyone searching for this, here's how to disable the overlay scrollbars in Ubuntu. Simply open a terminal and copy/paste the following commands:
sudo su
echo "export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0" > /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80overlayscrollbars

Then restart your computer. This disables the overlay scrollbars but doesn't remove them from your system.

If somehow the above solution doesn't work, you can also try removing the overlay scrollbars packages, but this may cause issues with the Ubuntu meta package (which will be removed):

-for Ubuntu 11.04 and 11.10:
sudo apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar liboverlay-scrollbar-0.1-0

- for Ubuntu 12.04:
sudo apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar liboverlay-scrollbar-0.2-0 liboverlay-scrollbar3-0.2-0

Set All Applications To Use Overlay Scrollbars In Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal

| Date: March 11, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, linux, scrollbars, ubuntu

Ubuntu 11.04 overlay scrollbars

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal will get overlay scrollbars but for now the packages that provide this are available in a PPA and further more, you must use "export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=1" when launching an application to get overlay scrollbars.

But there's a way to launch all applications (apps which support it - not all applications will work!) with overlay scrollbars by default.

Unity To Get Overlay Scrollbars!

| Date: March 03, 2011 | View Comments | Tags: 11.04, linux, Natty Narwhal, scrollbars, ubuntu

Unity overlay scrollbars

Christian Giordano has announced on the Canonical Design blog that Unity will get overlay scrollbars. This means the scrollbars will not be visible until you move your mouse over the side where the scrollbar used to be.


Touch and scrollwheels are making that chrome, if not obsolete, then certainly less important. We want to embrace new thinking from the mobile world, while still retaining some of the key semantics and experiences of the desktop world in recognition of the differences between the environments.

Here is a video provided by Christian in which you can see the new overlay scrollbars in action:

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