Ubuntu – Mouse snagging on autohidden vertical dock between monitors

18.04dockgnome-shellgnome-shell-extensionubuntu-dock

So I was always a big fan of Ubuntu GNOME, and so was very stoked to see GNOME become the default interface manager for Ubuntu.

One of the things that has bugged me, and I seem to be unable to find the answer to, is that in prior versions of Ubuntu GNOME (before 18) the dock was always hidden by default, and one had to explicitly push the super key to show the hidden dock and access it's functionality.

Since Ubuntu 18 the dock is visible by default. Okay, so I activated the auto-hide setting. Although, the problem being that the functionality is different to before.

To be specific, when you have a multiple monitor setup, and the dock is on the middle or right monitor, with a monitor to the left, when you transition the mouse between the monitors, then the dock attempts to catch your mouse while it becomes visible.

This can be incredibly annoying because it grabs and removes mouse control (briefly) every time you cross over from the boundary of one monitor to another (with the dock in between).

There is an inability to control the settings specifically.

Some sort of setting to hide the dock, and do nothing on mouse over. Only show when the super key is pressed.

Best Answer

Since Ubuntu's dock is a fork of "Dash to Dock", it has the same configuration options. Editing them is just slightly more convoluted:

Open a terminal

Run this to disable require-pressure-to-show:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock require-pressure-to-show false

Run this to enable intellihide:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock intellihide true

Enjoy finally having a usable multi-monitor setup!

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to add “Show desktop” to the GNOME dash or Ubuntu Dock

I found a way to do that:

Open a terminal and install wmctrl:
```
sudo apt-get install wmctrl
```

Create a shell script named show-desktop.sh (I put it in my home folder)

gedit ~/show-desktop.sh

place this code in there:

#!/bin/bash
status="$(wmctrl -m | grep "showing the desktop" | sed -r 's/(.*)(ON|OFF)/\2/g')"

if [ $status == "ON" ]; then
    wmctrl -k off
else
    wmctrl -k on
fi

and make it executable:

chmod +x ~/show-desktop.sh

Create a file show-desktop.desktop in ~/.local/share/applications/ folder:

gedit ~/.local/share/applications/show-desktop.desktop

Add this text and save (don't forget change the value on <your user>):

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Show Desktop
Icon=user-desktop
Exec=/home/<your user>/show-desktop.sh

Open the dash, search for show desktop and add it to the favorites.

Ubuntu – 18.04 problem moving mouse cursor between monitors

After some recent updates, the problem is now minimal. There is a slight bump shifting the mouse cursor between screens, but it's minimal and no longer a process of moving the mouse an extreme amount just to cross the threshold. That bump now feels like a usability feature rather than a bug! I'm assuming there was something that got affected in an update and fixed in a later update!

Although I cannot determine what it was that caused the error or what was done to fix it, the age old advice remains true with any problem: have you tried updating first?

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to add “Show desktop” to the GNOME dash or Ubuntu Dock

Ubuntu – 18.04 problem moving mouse cursor between monitors

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