Fix (remove) overlay scrollbars

No applications are lacking scrollbars. They are just narrow (and disappearing ;)). This only really causes problems in Thunderbird though.

I looked through the settings in Thunderbird, and managed to get the scrollbar wider. But the up/down buttons, allowing you to move up/down one message at a time, are missing. And the option to click above/below the slider to move one "page" is also missing.

I now have this:

But something closer to this would be much appreciated:
2022-02-19-16-08-28-9a35a6

Are the any Thunderbird (or Gnome?) hacks, that can bring back functioning scrollbars?

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

To remove (disable) the Overlay Scrolling:

sudo nano /etc/environment

Add the following line:
GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=0
Hit ctrl+x to exit, hit the Y key to say yes to save, then hit the Enter key to save under current configuration.

To get steppers back, you must use a Gtk Theme that offers them.
If you just really love the Zorin Themes, I can probably create a theme hack for you.

In the meantime, let's give you the ability to widen the ones you have, in case you would like to.
Hit ctrl+h in your home folder to reveal hidden files and folders. Navigate to .config then into gtk-3.0. Right click an open area in the desktop and Create New Document.
Name it gtk.css
Open the file and paste in

 scrollbar {
     -GtkScrollbar-has-backward-stepper: true;
     -GtkScrollbar-has-forward-stepper: true;
}
 scrollbar slider {
     min-width: 16px;
}
 scrollbar.horizontal slider {
     min-height: 16px;
}

Adjust the size in px as desired.

sudo apt install nemo

Should get that going. If you like it, you can set it as Default File manager:

To remove (disable) the Overlay Scrolling:
Add the following line:
GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=0

Thanks, worked fine :slight_smile:

To get steppers back, you must use a Gtk Theme that offers them.
If you just really love the Zorin Themes, I can probably create a theme hack for you.

I do like the Zorin themes, but it seems they do support the steppers already

This bit brought them back:

scrollbar {
     -GtkScrollbar-has-backward-stepper: true;
     -GtkScrollbar-has-forward-stepper: true;
}

I now have steppers in terminal, file manager, LibreOffice etc.

But not in Thunderbird - the place they're most desperately needed...

Does Thunderbird actually use the Gnome theme for this?

Some googling brought my attention to these two files:
~/.var/app/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/.thunderbird/profile/chrome/userChrome.css
~/.var/app/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/.thunderbird/profile/chrome/userContent.css

I found settings to add weird colours to the scrollbars - but not something for the steppers...

I am really not sure on chrome.css. You might try Webkit Scrollbars...
The following is what I use in Vivaldi:

::-webkit-scrollbar {
    width: 16px;
}
::-webkit-scrollbar-button:horizontal:decrement {
    border-radius: 10px 0px 0px 10px;
    background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #353535, #555555, #212121, #17171A, #353535);
}
::-webkit-scrollbar-button:horizontal:decrement:hover {
    border-radius: 10px 0px 0px 10px;
    background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #00bdfc, #00759c, #004157, #004157, #00bdfc);
    background-color: #00bdfc;
}
::-webkit-scrollbar-button:horizontal:increment {
    border-radius: 0px 10px 10px 0px;
    background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #353535, #555555, #212121, #17171A, #353535);
}
::-webkit-scrollbar-button:horizontal:increment:hover {
    border-radius: 0px 10px 10px 0px;
    background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #00bdfc, #00759c, #004157, #004157, #00bdfc);
    background-color: #00bdfc;
}

::-webkit-scrollbar-button:vertical:decrement {
    border-radius: 10px 10px 0px 0px;
    background-image: linear-gradient(to right, #353535, #555555, #212121, #17171A, #353535);
}
::-webkit-scrollbar-button:vertical:decrement:hover {
    border-radius: 10px 10px 0px 0px;
    background-image: linear-gradient(to right, #00bdfc, #00759c, #004157, #004157, #00bdfc);
    background-color: #00bdfc;
}
::-webkit-scrollbar-button:vertical:increment {
    border-radius: 0px 0px 10px 10px;
    background-image: linear-gradient(to right, #353535, #555555, #212121, #17171A, #353535);
}
::-webkit-scrollbar-button:vertical:increment:hover {
    border-radius: 0px 0px 10px 10px;
    background-image: linear-gradient(to right, #00bdfc, #00759c, #004157, #004157, #00bdfc);
    background-color: #00bdfc;
}

Modify as needed and hope it does something...

I did some more googling...

I'm not really sure if this is a bug or a feature (in Thunderbird). Firefox and Thunderbird has this setting: widget.non-native-theme.gtk.scrollbar.allow-buttons

Setting this option to true, enables the buttons in Firefox, when you have the "fixed" scrollbar settings in gtk.css. But they don't appear in Thunderbird...

Neither. It is a trend that many applications wish to protect their Brand Image of Appearance. This is often being encouraged by active developers, as it means less work for them.
You will notice that this same trend is present on Windows OS, too.

Chromium based browsers already remove a lot of Appearance settings. Some Browser devs put them back in. For example Brave adds a few, Vivaldi adds a TON.
Firefox is notorious for doing what it wants to do and not listening to user feedback. Slowly and incrementally, Mozilla has removed a great deal of user settings.
It's not a bug or a feature - it is the ever-present battle between users maintaining control and developers taking it away.
We are fighting a losing battle because most people just Don't Care.

I got the scrollbars working in Thunderbird finally.

The version I had installed was 91.7.0 Flatpak. I installed the 91.5.0 release from the Zorin repository instead, changed the widget.non-native-theme.gtk.scrollbar.allow-buttons setting to true, re-started Thunderbird, and the scrollbars buttons were finally there!

Is the Flatpak version of Thunderbird generally a bad idea? I also had printing problems, and when saving attachments, the file save dialogue would always start in a strange directory...

Flatpaks and Snaps end up double snadboxed, isolating them from the system that you are using.
With Flatpak, you can punch holes in the barriers, using Flatseal, for some of these isolating barriers, but not all.
For me, personally, I save myself the headache by avoiding Flatpak and Never Using Snap.

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