Is there a way to configure Unity Panel to autohide?

Question

I'd like Unity Panel to be hidden and only appear when the mouse reaches the top of the screen.

Is there some configuration/plugin/patch/hack or something that would allow me to do such a thing?

Solution 1

I have found interesting solution here. Just quote it here:

I use the wmctrl command utility to toggle apps between fullscreen mode. In fullscreen mode, they hide the top menu bar and the unity bar. However, you can still access the unity sidebar by pressing the Super key.

wmctrl -r ":ACTIVE:" -b toggle,fullscreen

This command toggles the current focused app between fullscreen mode and not. I then have this binded to F1 and use that to switch apps.

You may want to automate binding. Its possible through Compiz.

Solution 2

There is no way to make it hide or auto-hide, as far as I know, but you could make it transparent and install the CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM):

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Unlike the launcher the top bar always stays visible and doesn't have an autohide option, but can be tweaked to at least be transparent.

If you want to at least make it transparent, once you install the CompizConfig Settings Manager search for it in the Dash and open it. Once opened, look for "Ubuntu Unity Plugin" (Under Desktop) and in there under General tab (the first tab that opens) look for Panel Opacity and lower down the setting to your liking.

The opacity settings go from 1.0000 (no transparency) to 0.000 (transparent) so there is a lot of room for fine tuning. I think that's the most you can do with it.

Btw, you can also find this tool in the Ubuntu Software Center.

Solution 3

You can make top panel more or less transparent in the Unity Tweak Tool. Go to Unity - Panel - Transparency Level. Works in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Comments

[opensas]

Thanks a lot for the idea, but I'm trying to hide it to have more screen space available, it's a real shame, but I guess that unity devs wont consider this a feature...

[ccpizza]

wmctrl is not pre-installed on ubuntu, need to be installed with sudo apt install wmctrl

[orschiro]

What is the difference to just pressing F11?

[RasAlhague]

@orschiro wmctrl will work on every app. F11 will work only in apps that support full screen mode directly (Google Chrome f.e.).

[opensas]

this is the closest I get so far...