Arch Linux

gil76mg

Member

Registered: 2013-09-09

Posts: 28

Gnome Files / Themes

Hello,

I would like to custom the sidebar of gnome files.

When i choose a theme on gnome tweaks, icons colours change but not the colours of the sidebar on gnome files.

How can i change this ?

Thank you.

Last edited by gil76mg (2025-01-03 11:02:13)

loteque

Member

Registered: 2025-01-13

Posts: 2

Re: Gnome Files / Themes

I also noticed this issue. I'm looking into it currently. Have you been able to discover anything new about the problem?

loteque

Member

Registered: 2025-01-13

Posts: 2

Re: Gnome Files / Themes

Here is what I was able to figure out.
But first:
- 1 Custom Themes are UNSUPPORTED in any version of Gnome. The UI libs GTKx.x and Awidata just were never built to support it, officially. (If you are using the most recent gnome, Awidata is the UI lib in use.)
- 2 This is a Gnome issue and not an Arch issue. For instance you could install KDE on top of Arch and have much better support for custom themes.
- 3 If you follow this advice you do so at your own risk. Here be dragons.

That said, as far as I can tell the current API for Awidata is missing some features. It is in it's first release so this is to be expected.
We can still get the sidebar themed but it requires a bit of a css hacking.
You should have a gtk.css file in `~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css`
Add this snippet of css at the end of that file:

/* Hack to fix sidebars in Awidata */
.undershoot-top {
  background: @window_bg_color;
  color: @window_fg_color;
}

you can then set the colors using:

@define-color window_bg_color <your-color>;
@define-color window_fg_color <your-color>;

Last edited by loteque (2025-01-14 01:43:53)