How to fix useless scrollbars

Lukalator · 2023-04-17 19:14:15

Hello!

for some time now I am suffering from the scrollbars which have become really annoying, at least in Firefox. I don't know if other applicatios are affected or if it is a Firefox thing.

What I mean is this:

The scrollbar is way too narrow for convinient use, it would need at least twice or even triple the width.
Also it disappers when not moving the mouse for a second.
The horizontal scrollbars have the same issue.

Most windows on my system (Manjaro with XFCE) seem to be OK, though. They have the theme as I have it set somewhere. (So probably it's not related to XFCE?)
I don't even know which framework, component, theme-engine, manager or whatever is responsible here or at least where I would start looking for that issue and I don't want to break even more by just fooling around with the configuration files.

It would be nice if someone could help me with some information on this.

Thank you!

Last edited by Lukalator (2023-04-17 20:03:01)

ToZ · 2023-04-17 19:43:31

Also it disappers when not moving the mouse for a second.

These are called overlay scrollbars. They can be disabled. See: https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=14316

The scrollbar is way too narrow for convinient use, it would need at least twice or even triple the width.
Also it disappers when not moving the mouse for a second.

Its a function of the GTK (Appearance) theme you are using. They can be tweaked. See: https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=15256. Or you could find and use a theme that has wider scrollbars.

Lukalator · 2023-04-17 20:32:04

Thank you very much!

I added 'GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=0' to '/etc/environment' and I also added
'export GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=0' to '~/.bashrc'.

Then I rebooted, but this did not change Firefox's behaviour. (It changed the behaviour of XFCE's theme selection window, though, where the scrollbar now is persistent, which is a good thing!)
So Firefox seems to ignore the global setting. ( I searched Firefox' for 'widget.content.gtk-theme-override' but this key does not exist).

Searching for 'gtk overlay scrollbars' I found that Firefox had a setting in 'about:config' named
'widget.gtk.overlay-scrollbars.enabled'. Setting this to 'false' changed the scollbars. While I was there I also changed
'widget.non-native-theme.scrollbar.size.override' to 16, as I read on the site where I found the overlay setting.

This did the trick and made the scrollbars persistent and wider (which is a huge improvement of course ). They still look the same as before (that flat, rounded design).
Now I am wondering why the 'new' scrollbards still are looking different from my system scrollbars.

I have an oldschool Windows alike theme from Giithub, namend 'Chicago95', which makes most of my windows' scrollbars look like this:

As I saw in the Theme settings, that the Chicago95 theme claims to support Gtk3 - so shouldn't Firefox use this theme and look same as my other windows?
I guess I have something else set wrong ..
As far as I remember, the Chicago95 setup offered two ways of installing: either as a user's local theme or as a global theme and I chose to install it for the user.. could this be the reason for this issue?

Last edited by Lukalator (2023-04-17 20:41:47)

ToZ · 2023-04-18 01:59:23

Now I am wondering why the 'new' scrollbards still are looking different from my system scrollbars.

Firefox is probably handling the ui design differently from regular GTK3.

As I saw in the Theme settings, that the Chicago95 theme claims to support Gtk3 - so shouldn't Firefox use this theme and look same as my other windows?

You might need to follow up with the theme creators or firefox itself to find out why that aspect of the theme is not applying properly.

JmaCWQ · 2023-04-18 07:46:51

In Firefox's about:config search for layout.testing.overlay-scrollbars.always-visible, change to true, restart FF.
That shows them always, still thin, but thicker when moused over.
There's also layout.css.scrollbar-width-thin.disabled but changing it to true doesn't seem to change anything on mine, 102.10.0esr.
Perhaps it's the layout.css file thickness is controlled from in FF?

robson75 · 2023-04-18 10:09:26

To change the look of the pages displayed by Firefox you need to add an extension called stylus, and go to this page https://userstyles.org/styles/browse?se … rms=stylus to install some theme.

Lukalator · 2023-04-18 11:02:10

OK, thank you all!
I will try the suggestions now.
I guess if after this it still does not work, I will need to ask in a firefox specific forum.

robson75 · 2023-04-18 13:05:34

After reading your problem thoroughly, I think FF has a scroll bar size built into the code, and you can't just scroll down the page with the down arrow on your keyboard ?

Lukalator · 2023-04-18 20:53:50

The issue is less about using the scrollbars for scrolling, but more about them as indicators on how far on the site's scrolling range I am.
For example when using CTRL-F to search for a string on a website, I just hit return to jump to the next search result very fast. When the site is through the search wraps over and it starts from the top again - but this is not always easy and fast to see and it hinders my productivity to not being able to see when this happens as fast as it is possible with permnently visible scrollbars. Of course there also are other situations where one needs to see how far the site has been scrolld through - actully I always need to be aware of this, as it's an essentials part of my working procedures.

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#1 2023-04-17 19:14:15

How to fix useless scrollbars

#2 2023-04-17 19:43:31

Re: How to fix useless scrollbars

#3 2023-04-17 20:32:04

Re: How to fix useless scrollbars

#4 2023-04-18 01:59:23

Re: How to fix useless scrollbars

#5 2023-04-18 07:46:51

Re: How to fix useless scrollbars

#6 2023-04-18 10:09:26

Re: How to fix useless scrollbars

#7 2023-04-18 11:02:10

Re: How to fix useless scrollbars

#8 2023-04-18 13:05:34

Re: How to fix useless scrollbars

#9 2023-04-18 20:53:50

Re: How to fix useless scrollbars

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