Change Ubuntu 11 scrollbars back to the old style

This site mentions a way to do this:

sudo apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar
sudo su
echo "export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0" > /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80overlayscrollbars

A system restart required


It's also possible to run:

sudo -i
apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar
echo "export LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR=0" > /etc/X11/Xsession.d/80overlayscrollbars

Scrollbars instantly appeared! "sudo -i" puts the whole terminal window into an interactive root environment, so you only have to enter your password once. "sudo su" appears to do the same thing.


The easy way is to open Synaptic Package manager, scroll down to Liboverlay_scrollbar then mark it for complete removal and then Apply. Once Synaptic finishes, close it out and the old Gnome scrollbar will b be restored.

Edit: Command-line version:

sudo apt-get autoremove --purge 'liboverlay-scrollbar-*'
#single quotes avoid shell glob-expansion