Ive seen plenty of guides on how to prevent the launcher/sidebar from ever auto-hiding, but how would I prevent it from ever showing except when I press the left cmd/win key?
Ubuntu – Only show Unity launcher when left cmd/win key is pressed
11.1064-bitunity-2d
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Sorry, afaik that is not possible. There are some (very limited) options about the hiding mode of the launcher in the dconf-editor (->com->canonical->unity-2D->launcher).
never hide; the launcher is always visible. [...]
auto hide; the launcher will disappear after a short time if the user is not interacting with it
intellihide; the launcher will disappear if a window is placed on top of it and if the user is not interacting with it
Ubuntu – How to make the unity sidebar visible permanently (as in, in all circumstances) in unity 2D
There are a couple of dconf settings you can use to control the launcher auto-hide capabilities.
12.04 & 11.10
To make the launcher always visible:
dcom write /com/canonical/unity-2d/launcher/use-strut true
dcom write /com/canonical/unity-2d/launcher/hide-mode 1
12.04
In 12.04 you can control this behaviour in a GUI.
As the picture shows - firefox overlaps the launcher but the launcher doesnt hide because the default is not to autohide.
Linked Question:
Best Answer
For Unity
You can try CCSM
to autohide the launcher.
To do that, install CCSM by clicking the link. After installing it, open CCSM and go to 'Ubuntu Unity Plugin' under Desktop.
Choose 'Autohide' option in the dropdown list next to 'Hide Launcher'. Now, the launcher will show if you move your cursor to the left side or you press the Meta key.
So, in order to prevent the launcher from appearing when you move your cursor to the left side, go to 'Reveal mode' in the same option page and unselect all the selected corners. If your dialog box looks like the picture below, your launcher won't appear even if you move your mouse to the left side.
For Unity-2d
You can try using dconf-tools
.
Enter these commands in a terminal:
Alternatively, you can use the GUI of dconf-tools.
Go to com -> canonical -> unity-2d -> launcher and change
hide-modeto 1 and untick the option inuse-strut.Note: For Unity-2d, editing the reveal mode for launcher is currently not available and hence, you can't prevent it from showing when you move your cursor to the left side.