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matteo
Asked: 2016-01-19 14:33:45 +0800 CST

Is it possible to restore traditional full-width scrollbars (15.10)

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Ever since the hateful and buggy "overlay scrollbars" appeared, I disabled them and used "normal" scrollbars, so I am glad the overlay ones are finally gone in 15.10.

However, I don't like the new 15.10 scrollbars either. They are super thin when they are "idle", and even when you roll over them and they become thicker, they are still annoyingly thin. I can appreciate the advantage of that on devices with a small screen, but on regular computer screens with plenty of space it's just annoying (annoying that they hide, and annoying that it takes so much precision to click and drag them).

Is there a setting somewhere to have the traditional, full-width, never-hiding scrollbars?

unity

2 Answers

  1. I can still remember the happiness I felt, when I read that those horrible "overlay scrollbars" were to be abolished with Ubuntu 15.10.

    However, like you, I too hate the new "half-width scrollbars" with just the same passion.

    The solution came to me, as I stumbled over the following askubuntu.com posting:
    Is it possible to make the scrollbars wider in 15.10?

    ... to disable the new scrollbars, I then did the following:

    • sudo editor /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-3.0/gtk-widgets.css
    • modified the following entries inside the .scrollbar{} selector
      1. the has-xxx-stepper settings determine if the scrollbar arrows are shown:
        -GtkScrollbar-has-backward-stepper: 1;
        -GtkScrollbar-has-forward-stepper: 1;
      2. mouse hover color effects can be disabled by adding a default background-color: background-color: @scrollbar_track_color;
      3. the width of the scrollbar thumb can be adjusted by modifying the -GtkRange setting:
        -GtkRange-slider-width: 13;
    • hovering effects for vertical scrollbars can be disabled by changing the margin-left and margin-right settings for .scrollbar.vertical and .scrollbar.slider.vertical to 0px;
    • hovering effects for horizontal scrollbars can be disabled by changing the margin-top setting for .scrollbar.horizontal:hover and .scrollbar.slider.horizontal:... to 0px;

    With this I can now enjoy constant-width scrollbars once again: enter image description here

    Edit: Just to make everything clear, here is a diff of all the changes I made:

    diff /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-3.0/gtk-widgets.css /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-3.0/gtk-widgets.ori.css 
1139,1140c1139,1140
<     -GtkScrollbar-has-backward-stepper: 1;
<     -GtkScrollbar-has-forward-stepper: 1;
---
>     -GtkScrollbar-has-backward-stepper: 0;
>     -GtkScrollbar-has-forward-stepper: 0;
1143c1143
<     -GtkRange-slider-width: 13;
---
>     -GtkRange-slider-width: 10;
1147d1146
<     background-color: @scrollbar_track_color;
1167c1166
<     margin-left: 0px;
---
>     margin-left: 2px;
1172c1171
<     margin-right: 0px;
---
>     margin-right: 2px;
1179c1178
<     margin-top: 0px;
---
>     margin-top: 2px;
1197c1196
<     margin-left: 0px;
---
>     margin-left: 7px;
1201c1200
<     margin-right: 0px;
---
>     margin-right: 7px;
1205c1204
<     margin-top: 0px;
---
>     margin-top: 7px;
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  2. Note that you don't have to edit the system file you can also just put the relevant settings in $HOME/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css

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