How do I disable overlay scrollbars?

Solution 1:

In 12.04 LTS there's a slightly cleaner way to do it. Just run

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface ubuntu-overlay-scrollbars false

in a terminal. Apps opened afterwards will have the non-ayatana scrollbar.

To get the default behavior back, run

gsettings reset org.gnome.desktop.interface ubuntu-overlay-scrollbars

If you are using 12.10 or later, run

gsettings set com.canonical.desktop.interface scrollbar-mode normal

And to return to the default, run

gsettings reset com.canonical.desktop.interface scrollbar-mode

Solution 2:

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?

Solution 3:

You can remove the scrollbars completely by typing

sudo apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar liboverlay-scrollbar

Solution 4:

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.

Solution 5:

Simply use utility dconf-editor or gconf-editor. If it is not already present you can install this from Ubuntu Software Center.

This utility is like Windows registry-editor where you can tweak system settings. From entry org > gnome > Desktop > Applications.you find an item named ubuntu-overlay-scrollbars. Toggle the item off, logout/login and you're ready.