XFCE Not Loading GTK3 or XFWM4 Themes

Zulfe · 2015-01-25 02:08:08

I've finished the Beginner's Guide and am now trying to configure the look and feel of my system with some new themes. I elected XFCE4 as my DE, and would now like to change the themes on it. When I go to my Appearance settings, I can see an array of themes, most of them XFCE4-based themes. When I check my /usr/share/themes folder, there are far more themes that what are displayed. Confused, I investigated further and noticed that it's only showing themes that have a GTK-2.0 stylesheet. I've tried installing, reinstalling, and completely wiping and reinstalling GTK3 to allow XFCE to use the GTK3 themes, but it was not successful. I even tried reinstalling the gtk3-xfce-engine-3.0.1-2 package, still no go.

Does anyone have any ideas or solutions?

Also, I'd really like a guide for making GTK3 themes, if any of you have one.

Last edited by Zulfe (2015-01-25 02:09:51)

headkase · 2015-01-25 02:35:54

I actually go out of my way to install a GTK2 application over a GTK3 equivalent. I think you should too. So, instead of evince, epdfview, instead of Brasero, xfburn and etc. Why? Because every single damn release the GNOME developers see fit to break your GTK3 themes. You are continually tracking down, assuming they even exist, new versions of your themes every time that damn GTK3 package is updated.

The GTK theme shows up in the Appearance app, and the Xfwm4 window theme is in Window Tweaks if I recall correctly.

Sorry I don't address your question specifically, just a bit of a vent.

Last edited by headkase (2015-01-25 02:36:35)

Zulfe · 2015-01-25 02:40:17

Thanks for your reply, headkase. I guess I'll continue using GTK2 themes. I have no idea how to modify them, though. I'd really like to have one of my own!

headkase · 2015-01-25 02:50:41

You're welcome. You can get themes from these sites:

http://gnome-look.org/

http://xfce-look.org/

You can also install "compiz-manjaro" and "emerald0.9" from the AUR, in the WIndow Decoration section of the CCSM (in Settings) replace "gtk-window-decorator" with "emerald --replace" and you're good to go.

You can put the themes in your /usr/share/themes folders or in your home folder just for yourself. Read up a bit on that here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GTK%2B

Emerald window decorator themes can be found on the above sites too, look for "beryl/compiz themes." You'll recognize them because the file ends in ".emerald" Just import them once you have that file from the Emerald app in Settings.

Edit: More on themes from the Xfce wiki:

http://wiki.xfce.org/howto/install_new_themes

Last edited by headkase (2015-01-25 02:56:34)

nullified · 2015-01-25 02:51:49

I can't recall if I've used it for XFCE, but I've used lxappearance for a variety of other DEs and WMs. There is a GTK3 version in the AUR.

As far as learning to create your own theme, choose a simple one that you like and read through the theme. Make some changes and learn from there. When I did the same I found a theme that had the look and shape I wanted and I just changed the colors, of the windows themselves in the source and of some of the image files in Gimp. I think I added a border as well.

Edit: here's a link for the gtk3 lxappearance: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/lxappearance-gtk3/. Now that I'm thinking about it, the regular lxappearance in the official repos might let you switch gtk3 themes. The gtk3 lxappearance is just the version that uses gtk3 itself, I think.

Last edited by nullified (2015-01-25 02:55:13)

headkase · 2015-01-25 03:05:15

Also, another point, if you must have GTK3 themes then you can always install "gnome-themes-standard" to get the Adwaita theme. Adwaita is the standard GNOME theme and is updated in step with new GTK3 versions so it doesn't break. But, then, you just have that one theme. If you install "compiz-manjaro" and "emerald0.9" you can still have the Adwaita theme for the widget set and use Emerald to give you a custom window frame and that works too.

Zulfe · 2015-01-25 04:02:24

Thank you both for responding!

Nullified, I've taken your advice and attempted to create a theme by editing a preexisting one. I've copied the 'Industrial' theme to a new folder in the /usr/share/themes directory. I've placed it in a subfolder named 'gtk-2.0', similar to the location in which the 'gtkrc' file in 'Industrial' existed in. In the copied file, I changed:

gtk-color-scheme = "bg_color: #f6f6f6\nfg_color: #000\nbase_color: #fff\ntext_color: #000\nselected_bg_color: #6484a4\nselected_fg_color: #fff\ntooltip_bg_color: #e5e5e5\ntooltip_fg_color: #000000"

to:

gtk-color-scheme = "bg_color: #ffd7e7
                                 fg_color: #000
                                 base_color: #fff
                                 text_color: #da2820
                                 selected_bg_color: #4c4c4c
                                 selected_fg_color: #fff
                                 tooltip_bg_color: #e5e5e5
                                 tooltip_fg_color: #000000"

I'm not seeing any differences, at all. Throughout the rest of the theme, it's making references to these declarations for setting the colors, yet they remain the same as they did in the original theme. I even changed the text to a vibrant pink to test it, but still it loads the same colors that the default 'Industrial' theme does.

nullified · 2015-01-25 04:25:54

You didn't say this explicitly, but I'll assume you changed the theme in the settings to your new custom one (just checking).

So, changes you make in gtk2 themes aren't taking, and you don't see any gtk3 themes listed in the settings. Maybe the settings are pulling the themes from somewhere else? Check ~/.themes.

Zulfe · 2015-01-25 04:33:24

nullified wrote:

You didn't say this explicitly, but I'll assume you changed the theme in the settings to your new custom one (just checking).
So, changes you make in gtk2 themes aren't taking, and you don't see any gtk3 themes listed in the settings. Maybe the settings are pulling the themes from somewhere else? Check ~/.themes.

My problem was that I was using 'nano'. I'm not at all good with 'vi', so I've always been editing my configuration files with 'nano'. I'm not exactly sure why 'nano' wasn't saving the file, even when I was using sudo and saving it on exit. I opened it in Mousepad, edited it, and saved it. It worked fine. I guess I'll have to either stick to Mousepad or learn 'vi' to edit the file.

nullified · 2015-01-25 04:41:08

I take it the changes took?

As to the original question, according to the xfce appearance settings page,

To install new themes, download a package from your distribution or from theme sites like xfce-look.org. When you download a theme tarball from a website, you can install it by dropping the file from the file manager in the list of styles.

Have you tried this to see if it works? If it does, you can locate the successful theme directory and see if there are any noticeable differences between it and other gtk3 themes.

jedijimi · 2015-01-25 11:32:57

The xfce-theme-manager does a pretty nice job of sorting it out. It's in aur.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-01-25 02:08:08

XFCE Not Loading GTK3 or XFWM4 Themes

#2 2015-01-25 02:35:54

Re: XFCE Not Loading GTK3 or XFWM4 Themes

#3 2015-01-25 02:40:17

Re: XFCE Not Loading GTK3 or XFWM4 Themes

#4 2015-01-25 02:50:41

Re: XFCE Not Loading GTK3 or XFWM4 Themes

#5 2015-01-25 02:51:49

Re: XFCE Not Loading GTK3 or XFWM4 Themes

#6 2015-01-25 03:05:15

Re: XFCE Not Loading GTK3 or XFWM4 Themes

#7 2015-01-25 04:02:24

Re: XFCE Not Loading GTK3 or XFWM4 Themes

#8 2015-01-25 04:25:54

Re: XFCE Not Loading GTK3 or XFWM4 Themes

#9 2015-01-25 04:33:24

Re: XFCE Not Loading GTK3 or XFWM4 Themes

#10 2015-01-25 04:41:08

Re: XFCE Not Loading GTK3 or XFWM4 Themes

#11 2015-01-25 11:32:57

Re: XFCE Not Loading GTK3 or XFWM4 Themes

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