Ubuntu 20 Top Dock location

Question

Is there a way to move the dock to the top of the screen in GNOME? I wanted to test the new GNOME but not being able to set the dock to the top of the screen in previous GNOME versions was a deal-breaker so I have been running Mint for years.

Solution

In Ubuntu, you can move the dock to the top with a shell command (variation of the command provided here):

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock dock-position TOP

Although this fully answers your question, you may run into other issues: the option is not exposed in the settings dialog. Therefore, placing the dock to the top will cover your top bar. Following are some options:

Shrink the dock so it is centered

You could shrink the dock so that it only covers the center of your top bar:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock extend-height false

Still, that will cover your clock, so you could move it right using an extension (Frippery move clock).

Moving top bar to the bottom

With the dock above, you could move the top bar to the bottom with the extension BottomPanel.

Autohiding the top bar

Instead, you could hide the top bar using the extension Hide Top Bar.

Combining dash and top bar

You could merge top bar and dock. The extension defaults to placing the panel on the bottom, but it can be moved to the top.

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

Any gsettings command can be easily reverted by issuing the same command, but leving out the actual setting and changing set by reset, e.g.:

gsettings reset org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock autohide

Comments

[Lorenz Keel]

if you install the 'dconf' package and to go the key 'org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock dock-position' you should be able to move the dock to the TOP position.

[pomsky]

Does this answer your question? How do I move Ubuntu dock to bottom on Ubuntu 17.10 and later?, see this answer. Also if you want to merge the dock with the top bar, then follow this question: askubuntu.com/questions/1071677/…

[vanadium]

Second answer in link pomsky provided, but substitute TOP in the command. After this, your topbar will be hidden. You could move that to the bottom with an extension. Or you could make dock smaller so it covers only the middle of the top bar. Or you could go for the 2nd link provided by pomsky that combines Dash and topbar in a panel, that could be moved on top.