Autohide the top panel in unity?

[Denieru]

Is this possible? If so where, I can't find any place to do it... Why have you disabled this?

I also wonder why weather is no longer available under the calendar.

[Copper Bezel]

Who's "you"? = ) But no, it's not an available option. The top panel contains elements of the active window, like the menu and, for maximized windows, the window controls, so it wouldn't make much sense to hide it.

[imigueldiaz]

Is this possible? If so where, I can't find any place to do it... Why have you disabled this?

I also wonder why weather is no longer available under the calendar.

As far as I know, you can`t hide it, only make it transparent using ccsm package (compiz configuration) on unity->experimental plugin.

The weather indicator has been removed, but I remember to have read something about a weather-indicator package, or similar (sorry, I'm on XP now).

[madjr]

unity is still in development, so if you want to see something, ask for it. Maybe you could suggest for that option to be implemented in the future.

Like: "option to autohide panel when no window is maximized."

or something like that. for maximized windows would not make sense to hide it, since the new integration.

but for now at least you can make it transparent, which is nice.

as for weather, you might want to check here:
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/?s=weather

[KegHead]

Hi!

Have you tried;

Right clicking on the panel?

KegHead

[madjr]

Hi!

Have you tried;

Right clicking on the panel?

KegHead

thats only for classic gnome, not for unity

[Aenima99x]

Hi!

Have you tried;

Right clicking on the panel?

KegHead

:-s Uhh have YOU tried right-clicking on the Unity panel.........

[Denieru]

Who's "you"? = ) But no, it's not an available option. The top panel contains elements of the active window, like the menu and, for maximized windows, the window controls, so it wouldn't make much sense to hide it.
I think it does, if I want to close, minimize or access the menu of a program I'd just bring the panel up, otherwise I'd have it hidden.

[ethos_dacapo]

I think it does, if I want to close, minimize or access the menu of a program I'd just bring the panel up, otherwise I'd have it hidden.

I agree. Ubuntu is getting further and further away from choice. Choice was one of the things that drew me to ubuntu and linux in general. If i wanted a fixed desktop i could use windows, ya know what i'm saying?

There is nothing wrong with adding new features and making changes, but the choice should always remain. We lose choice when it comes to the entire top panel because somebody thought it was a good idea to merge it with the title bar? Thats a regression in usability for more of us in reality. Whats so special about this feature? Without being able to autohide all it does is take up space which could be better used on a small netbook. Before, i could use that top panel for shortcuts, applets, whatever i wanted, and set it to autohide so when not needed it was safely tucked away until next time it was.

I was very close to ditching ubuntu this time around after upgrading. The wireless on my netbook is broken AGAIN. The fix is committed but for now i'm tethered. I have seen some improvement in this release but honestly, with the direction ubuntu is taking it may be time to move on to another distro. In a few months time we may have no need for these modern day teraphim anyway.

[honecker]

Guys - the solution is extremely simple: Logut and login again, but choose "Ubuntu Classic" as the login option. You'll get the Gnome2 environment you're used to from Ubuntu 10.

I was willing to give the new default in 11.04 a try, since I always try to use the defaults, so that I see what most people see (I explicitly do NOT want to be different), but unfortunately it is unusable, and I DID give it a thorough try and was willing to change my ways. The subject discussed here nailed it for me, of my mere 800 lines on the laptop monitor I don't want to loose any to something so useless. The guy who said "it does not make sense" really does not make sense himself, sorry to say - when the cursor moves there it is there.

Oh and because of a really §%$(&/%$§"§$ forum administration and/or implementation I just had to go through many unsuccessful login attempts (even though I had just registered with yet another account and I KNEW what password I used there, and no typo either), and in the end had to create a THIRD account here.

[tomski]

guy's you know the ultimate solution
move away from ubuntu to a dirivative coz ubuntu just want to attract NETBOOK USERS

unity is EXPERIMENTAL
unity is a work in progress
unity wont work with dual monitors

yea ok we can loginto classic but how long will this be maintained
how long until classic is unsable due to major conflicts & erros because everything is designed to work with unity/netbooks

[ethos_dacapo]

Guys - the solution is extremely simple: Logut and login again, but choose "Ubuntu Classic" as the login option. You'll get the Gnome2 environment you're used to from Ubuntu 10.

I was willing to give the new default in 11.04 a try, since I always try to use the defaults, so that I see what most people see (I explicitly do NOT want to be different), but unfortunately it is unusable, and I DID give it a thorough try and was willing to change my ways. The subject discussed here nailed it for me, of my mere 800 lines on the laptop monitor I don't want to loose any to something so useless. The guy who said "it does not make sense" really does not make sense himself, sorry to say - when the cursor moves there it is there.

Oh and because of a really §%$(&/%$§"§$ forum administration and/or implementation I just had to go through many unsuccessful login attempts (even though I had just registered with yet another account and I KNEW what password I used there, and no typo either), and in the end had to create a THIRD account here.

The classic ubuntu from the drop down menu is only going to be there temporarily from everything i've read. 11.10 will not have this option so you better get in line with unity or find another distro in the meantime.

[joshw]

Oh wow, that's going to drive me nuts if I can't kill that panel. Monitors these days are 10 miles wide and 2 inches tall, so having a strip of essentially wasted horizontal space is a crime against humanity.

[teklife]

there should ALWAYS be an option to autohide any panel/dock.

canonical should have instead used this approach, global menu + window applets http://www.webupd8.org/2010/12/window-applets-0210-released.html which i use on my pinguy os and is abso****inglutely lovely.

there are options aplenty already included in window applets, and hey, it's open source; canonical is free to use and redistribute it... isn't that just wonderful??

[madjr]

there should ALWAYS be an option to autohide any panel/dock.

canonical should have instead used this approach, global menu + window applets http://www.webupd8.org/2010/12/window-applets-0210-released.html which i use on my pinguy os and is abso****inglutely lovely.

there are options aplenty already included in window applets, and hey, it's open source; canonical is free to use and redistribute it... isn't that just wonderful??

gnome2 is dead (because of gnome3), why cant people just let it go already?

[salsaman]

I find this extremely annoying, even counterproductive. I still have the top panel because it has various useful things, like clock, calendar, network icon, shut down icon, etc. which don’t appear to be available in the unity side bar.

However it is quite often the case that a window will get "stuck" underneath the top panel. Meaning it is impossible to access the menu of that app, or resize it or move it around (OK, yes you can use keyboard shortcuts for some things, but that is not the point). Not all apps add their menus to the top panel, some keep their own menus and these apps can become unusable.

In a related issue, it used to be possible to right click on the top panel to configure it - add or remove applets from it. That functionality also seems to be missing now. So in fact there is no way to configure the panel any longer. Even if I wanted to remove it, I cannot. That combined with apparent lack of configuration options for the Unity bar, leaves us with the worst of both worlds.

Some have suggested using Ubuntu classic - why should I do that - apart from this one issue I love unity mode ! The side panel is great, and I am looking forward to more improvements. If it had the same applets as the top panel - clock, calendar, print icon, etc. then I would no longer need the top panel at all. I use vmware a lot for work, and the ability to mix host and vm windows is wonderful.


For those of you stating that Unity is still experimental, you are kind of missing the point. The easiest time to make changes is early on in the development process. As development continues it becomes progressively more costly to make changes.

[Stray Wolf]

Guys - the solution is extremely simple: Logut and login again, but choose "Ubuntu Classic" as the login option. You'll get the Gnome2 environment you're used to from Ubuntu 10.

I was willing to give the new default in 11.04 a try, since I always try to use the defaults, so that I see what most people see (I explicitly do NOT want to be different), but unfortunately it is unusable, and I DID give it a thorough try and was willing to change my ways. The subject discussed here nailed it for me, of my mere 800 lines on the laptop monitor I don't want to loose any to something so useless. The guy who said "it does not make sense" really does not make sense himself, sorry to say - when the cursor moves there it is there.

Oh and because of a really §%$(&/%$§"§$ forum administration and/or implementation I just had to go through many unsuccessful login attempts (even though I had just registered with yet another account and I KNEW what password I used there, and no typo either), and in the end had to create a THIRD account here.

I've found a lot of solutions that are duplicates of this. Why do so many people across the web think the answer to "How to hide the top panel in Unity?" is to not use Unity? I know how to make your house energy efficient - buy a different house! Genius!

[jabrown65]

I need to hide the top panel on my media frontend. The lack of a facility to do this is very annoying. Yet another example of Ubuntu become less and less flexible and restricted in what you can use it for. I wonder when they are going to make it so you can't do workprocessing either!

[edfromballarat]

I can't see why the panel is required when we now have the HUD. I guess this is a bridging distro, and later there will be an option to disable the panel. Personally, I have no need for the panel or the side bar, I open commonly used programs with shortcut keys and use the launcher for the rest. It seems a shame to waste screen real estate on launchers that i don't use, but again, I think this is all due to the transitional nature of this distro.

[hugo_koopmans]

I do log on to other machines with remote desktop NX... anybody thought about that?

This is not good , frustrating, I need access to my server FULL SCREEN...

:confused:

hugo

[wilee-nilee]

I do log on to other machines with remote desktop NX... anybody thought about that?

This is not good , frustrating, I need access to my server FULL SCREEN...

:confused:

hugo

You are going to want to start a actual thread if you want help, with an appropriate header. :)

[johnickle]

My first experience with unity made me recoil - but I always return to these things after I've calmed down a bit. I am beginning to see the logic of it all and I don't see the point of returning to classic. Lets not be luddites and instead give the constructive feedback that moves it along. As for the menu bar issue - yes it needs an option to auto hide, I do find it useful but when I have a modular application running and maximising any one window will block out the others, then my desk space is compromised, I can see many people having issue with this. It's surely one of the ten commandments of GUI design that the interface should never get in the way of productivity or compromise your hardware - this lack of function does both.

[rai4shu2]

If you want classic panel behavior, the solution is simple: use Xubuntu.

[baizon]

There is a ppa which "Disable Global Menu Autohide Behaviour In Ubuntu 12.04"
More here: http://www.webupd8.org/2012/07/disable-global-menu-autohide-behaviour.html

Do you guys think this will be included in the official repos?

[ThatPoshGirl]

I liked unity, but I had to switch to gnome. Not being able to hide the top panel was a big deal for me. I use a plasma tv as a second monitor and I was worried about burn in.